Bridal Cave

It's about time for me to say "Bridal" again. It does good things for my traffic. Seriously, though, we did go to Bridal Cave a couple months ago to check it out because we had every intention of getting married there. Turns out it's a pretty small cave compared to some of my favorites, so we'll probably opt to get married closer to home.



Bridal Cave is located in Camdenton, MO on Lake of the Ozarks. The cave is right on the Lake, with beautiful views from the gift shops and mining area. (It's not a show cave in Missouri if they don't have "panning for gold".) I have an upcoming blog about Ha Ha Tonka State Park, which has some of the most amazing views I've ever seen in my life. I <3 a="" href="http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v199/nastyboots/bridal%20cave/?action=view&current=DSC_1384.jpg" missouri="" target="_blank">

Right at the entrance we saw a little brown bat! I think it is adorable but it was one of the reasons I had to rule out Bridal Cave for a family ceremony. I don't think my sister would have survived, even for my wedding.



This curtain formation Chapel of Bridal Cave. Nearly 2,300 weddings have taken place in Bridal Cave! Your wedding package comes with a lifetime pass to the cave. On Valentines Day they do weddings and vow renewals all day long. It's pretty awesome.



Standing in front of the Chapel curtain foundation is our tour guide - I think his name was Adam but would't swear to it. If any Bridal Cave people read this and recognize him, he was the best cave tour guide we have ever had. That guy is passionate about caves and really seems to love his job. He's up there with Dennis, our Bonne Terre Mine guide.



Another huge curtain formation.



This cave is made of bacon.









Check it out, there's an underground lake! They have to climb down there and take a boat to change lightbulbs in the back of the cave.



Admission to Bridal Cave is $16 for adults and $8 for kids. Check out their website for information on their wedding packages!

Scares That Care

We interrupt your regularly scheduled program for a little PSA. As a bonus, you get to see some of our pictures from Contamination 2011, which is our local Horror/Sci-Fi convention. This year at Contamination, I talked to Mike Aloisi, who wrote Kane Hodder's biography, Unmasked: The True Life Story of the World's Most Prolific, Cinematic Killer, along with The Killer & I, which is a journal detailing the time they spent together working on the book. I ended up buying both books after Mike and I chatted about ghost hunting. Thanks, Author Mike, for forcing me to make time for reading! I plowed through both in less than two weeks because I couldn't put either one down.


Francis and I with Seka in 2011. We'll send you a wedding invitation!

For those who do not know who Kane Hodder is, you're most likely to know him as Jason VII-X of the Friday the 13th movies. That's all I knew when I started these books. Last year at Contamination, Kane was one of the celebrity guests, and we went to the celebrity dinner. I am more of an early horror buff, like Vincent Price and William Castle and Roger Corman, and I never watched any of the movies like Friday the 13th and Halloween. I was a wussy kid, I didn't like gore. I bought us tickets for the the celebrity dinner because I don't pass up anything that makes a great story, and my friend Amy is a HUGE horror buff who was so excited about meeting all of these people. So, Seka and Bill Johnson (Leatherface #2) were at our table and ended up taking Amy around to meet everyone, while Francis and I kind of trailed behind saying polite "hi, nice to meet you"s.


Amy with Tony Todd

I don't know where Kane was; Amy has picture with nearly everyone BUT him at the dinner. He may have been there and we just didn't get a chance to talk to him. So, after dinner, we're walking from the part of the hotel with the banquet hall back towards our cars when Tony Todd and Kane Hodder stop us to ask how to get to the lobby, because they have some tickets to pick up. Amy, I think, said that we would show them the way if she could get a picture with Kane. "I think" because I was so intimidated by this huge, scary looking guy that I only knew as "Jason" that I do not remember this happening, even though I had to have taken this picture myself. It wasn't until I was going through the pictures from the event that I realized this picture is in the courtyard, while my memory says that we just led them THROUGH the courtyard while giggling nervously about Jason and Candyman following us. I learned from the books that Kane is quite the prankster, so I am pretty glad he seemed to be in a hurry.


Amy with KANE HODDER.

Even though Kane seems really scary, he always takes time for his fans, and he also spends a lot of time working with charities, especially for kids who have suffered traumatic burns. In Unmasked, he tells the story of his own burn injury for the first time. Mike Aloisi did such a phenomenal job of writing about this that I can't shut up about how great this book is, despite only having a vague awareness of Kane Hodder when I picked up the books at Contamination. I've been particularly noticing stories about burn victims since reading it, and when I read about Angel Faces today, it reminded me to look up Scares that Care (that's an old link with the original book title). I'd noticed their booth near Mike's at Contamination, and I learned from the books they have partnered up with Kane.


Amy with Brad Loree. I know I said two pictures, Amy, but how could I leave this out? Everyone, tell Amy how cool she is.

I learned so much from these two books that I wanted to pay it forward, and I hope you will share this with all your horror fan friends! Scares That Care is having a Friday the 13th $5 Donation Day next Friday, where every $5 donated is like a raffle ticket for a whole bunch of awesome memorabilia. Since their website is in the process of being updated, check out their Facebook page for updates! and I'll be sure to remind you on the CC&G Facebook page. As if you will need a reminder that Friday the 13th = Kane Hodder = Scares That Care = Awesome Raffle. Right?

St Louis Fun Tours

Want a fun way to introduce visitors to St Louis, or to learn some new things yourself? Check out St Louis Fun Tours! (Warning: autoplay video ahead if you click that link.) We did the Haunted Walking Tour a couple weeks ago and had a great time walking around the Landing and Arch grounds hearing ghosts stories and history from our tour guide, David. I appreciate a good tour guide in my line of work, and the effort he has put into this tour really shows. He is a gifted storyteller and I highly recommend taking a walk with him!



Now you know my rule: I won't pick the pocket of a tour guide by telling all their stories. You will learn about the beginnings of St Louis and the Landing, the Great Fire of 1849, the cholera epidemics, the Lemp family, and the case that inspired The Exorcist, just to name a few. Tours are every Tuesday and Thursday at sunset, departing from Lumiere Casino, and are only $20 per person. We had a Groupon, but it is worth every penny of the full price. St Louis Fun Tours also does a trolley tour of downtown, which I will try to work into my schedule sometime soon.

I suck at taking pictures at dusk, so if you want to see some pictures of Laaclede's Landing, check out another spooky post I did a couple years ago: The Anita Blake Tour of "The District".