Alex and I drove down in the Alfa Romeo with the top down and stumbled across a number of interesting points of interest. We took many photographs along the way, so this post is going to contain a lot of visuals to document the trip. We took Lake St. Louis Blvd. to Highway N, Highway N to Hopewell Road, Hopewell Road to Highway D, Highway D to Highway T, Highway T to Highway TT, Highway TT to Highway 47, Highway 47 to Highway 21 which takes you right to Elephant Rock State Park. Wooohhh. Now that's a little trip, about 110 miles from my door.
At 73 miles along the way I saw something remarkable from the road. I was just passing through the town of Cadet, population 10, when I saw a drive-in movie theatre with two giant movie screens! At first thought I figured it was some old abandoned theatre but there was a sign advertising several new releases!! I whipped the Alfa around and drove up the entrance only to see a large trailer with a sign that said "Starlite Drive-In and Flea Market" (!?!?). I marvelled at the movie screens, which are simply massive.
There were some kids playing up by the trailer so I parked my car. Around back I found the groundskeeper, a nice fellow named Joe who I had a pleasant time chatting with. The Starlite Drive-In is an independently owned theatre that shows new movie releases in a double-feature format and has been in business for 52 years. Five dollars for an adult allows you to watch two new release features as soon as it gets dark. You listen to the films on your car stereo tuning into an FM radio transmitter. I was so captivated by this amazing scene that not only did I take a number of pictures I became determined to make it part of my vacation activities. Alex and I decided to return Wednesday night to watch the premiere showing of Terminator 3.
You have to realize just how amazing this theatre is. It sits in the middle of absolutely nowhere, roughly 80 miles south of St. Louis in a forest. A drive-in theatre with two screens supported by a town with the population of 10! It sits literally in the middle of a forest and the screens tower over the tree line. It's truly a magical place. Joe informed me that on any Friday or Saturday night it is simply packed with people who drive down from St. Louis to have the drive-in experience. It is one of only two operating drive-ins in the state of Missouri.
Starlite drive-in theatre screen from the side.
Screen number one from the front. It really needs to be painted.
Screen number two in the back. These photographs just fail to communicate scale, but note how the screen towers over the forest in the background.
Joe the groundskeeper who told me a little about the place.
A photograph of Joe's kids, note his older daughter hiding from me beneath the picnic table in the back.
The projection booth, slash arcade, slash grille, slash flea market.
A great shot of screen #1 from the road.
The trip continues... after discovering Starlite theatre we continued on down Highway 21. When we got to Potosi about 7 miles later we saw something amazing from the highway. Several huge domed buildings out in the middle of nowhere. We pulled off the road to find out what it was. It turned out to be a public school! Apparently they had built two huge domed buildings for classrooms and loosely joined them together with a foyer. In fact, this must have worked out so well they were constructing a third one. Alex and I went to see if we could go inside the building, but it was closed up. However, the one under construction we could explore. We asked permission and they said sure, knock yourself out. These photographs in no way demonstrate the scale of this building. It could easily have been subdivided into 4 complete floors if they wanted to. I envision a spiral staircase in the center going from floor to floor, each one smaller than the first.
The thing about dome buildings is they look really awful from the outside, but from the inside they are amazing. In the one we walked into, under construction, the dome was complete but none of the interior had been started. It was an absolutely perfect acoustical environment and every sound we made would echo infinitely. Alex and I just started shouting and making all kinds of crazy sounds just to hear them reverberate in staggering echos.
These appeared to be Monolith buildings. Monolith buildings are a new form of construction based on the invention of blown concrete. All it takes to construct one is to put up a lightweight framework that is covered by canvas like a tent. Then the concrete is blown in and when it solidifies you have a near indestructable building that is extremely energy efficient. Here is a link to the Monolith website that discusses the technology.
Here is a photograph of the dome under construction. Alex is standing in this giant doorway to give you a sense of scale.
Here is a shot of the two domes that had been completed. The fact that these two connected domes with giant nipple skylights look like breasts did not escape my attention.
After this we continued on our trip. By this time we were getting kind of hungry and we were looking for a country diner to stop at. However, when we found a small town with a likely candidate it was apparently closed on Mondays. Nevertheless, once again, we saw something interesting. A Delorean was sitting next to the cafe with a for sale sign in the window. Of all places to find a Delorean this was the most surreal.
I title this one "Back to the Past".
Finally we made it to Elephant Rocks State Park and began our rock climbing expedition. I strongly recommend the trip to anyone. The rocks are great fun to climb on and the footing is, as they say, solid as a rock. Or, in this case, solid as granite. After we finished rock climbing we decided to go to Johnson Shut-Ins but we got caught in a thunderstorm and gave that up. We had a nice lunch at a bar and drove back home. All in all quite a successful day of adventure.
A shot of Elephant Rocks.
A shot of the ass end of one of the Elephant Rocks.
Alex posing on an Elephant Rock.
A nice shot of Elephant Rocks showing the dense surrounding forest and skyline.
Here Alex is sitting in one of the granite depressions containing a shallow pool of water. I took a series of photographs of Alex descending into the pool as if he were entering another world like in Narnia.
One of those rare photographs you will find here that is actually of me.
A shot of Elephant Rocks.
Here is the final photograph from this busy day. On our way back I stopped on Highway N and snapped this photograph of a Monolith home just a few miles away from where we live. I spoke to the guy who owns this house one time and he built it himself just two years ago. What is really unusual about this home is the fact that the windows in it are designed to look like giant eyeballs. As I said, very ugly from the outside but beautiful from the inside.
The Monolith home near where we live.
