Spook Lights & Monkey Island
The Hornet Spook Light is a ghostly phenomenon that has been witnessed around the Missouri-Oklahoma border for over 100 years. Read more about the Spook Light at these sites: http://users1.ee.net/pmason/spook_light.html and http://www.conservation.state.mo.us/conmag/1997/01/2.html. The Spook Light presented itself as the perfect destination for a roadtrip in the Mystery Machine. To top it off, we planned to spend the night on Monkey Island. Monkey Island is a resort area on the Grand lake O' The Cherokee in northwest Oklahoma. Unfortunately, Monkey Island does not live up to the image conjured by the name. Instead of wild beasts swinging from vines, or perhaps a mountain shaped like a gorilla's skull and a secret lair in a hollowed-out volcano, Monkey Island only offers a resort hotel with a golf course and a marina. Nevertheless, it was a place to sleep.
We loaded up around 6:00 one Saturday evening. So we would have enough room inside for people and coolers, we strapped the sleeping bags and other non-essentials to the roof. We pulled out of Columbia, Missouri with driver Don and passengers Tracey, Amy, Hool, Jessica, and Karen aboard. We stopped in Jefferson City to pick up Deana and Corey to make a crew numbering eight. Remarkably, everyone found a place to sit within the carpeted interior of the Mystery Machine. I could tell by the snorting exhaust of the Mystery Machine that we had a full load, but she still drove great. We stopped in Eldon for a bathroom break. Being conservative, I decided to check the tires. While doing so, I broke a valve stem and caused a tire to begin leaking rapidly. Knowing we had a long trip ahead of us, I didn't want to be without a spare for the rest of the trip. We limped from the gas station to with! in 1/2 mile of a store where we could get a new valve stem. From there, two of us walked while the other six posed for pictures with passers by. We managed to check out with a tire pump and a valve stem just as the store closed. Luckily, I was able to insert the new valve stem in the wheel from the outside. We pumped air into the tire without ever taking it off the van. (Those interested in purchasing the van need nor worry, I just put a new set of tires on her to avoid such mishaps.) We were far behind schedule when we stopped for McDonald's in Camdenton. Again, the Mystery Machine was the subject of many photos by other McDonald's patrons. This would be the trend for the rest of the trip. We made better time after eating. We stopped for restroom breaks in Buffalo and then a rest area on I-44. It was after midnight when we turned off the Interstate west of Joplin. Just as we did so, the clutch pedal fell to the floor and stayed there. I neglected to bring a flashlight, but was fortunate enough to have a video camera with a light. I crawled under the van with the camera. I immediately saw what went wrong. A pin holding the clutch linkage was missing. I quickly found an extra bolt with which to replace the pin and we were back on the road in just a few minutes.
From there, we followed the directions we had gathered to view the Spook Light. We began heading down country roads. It seemed like we were in the middle of nowhere. The roads generally passed through open fields with the full moon shining bright. Amy climbed up front to sit on top of the motor between me and Tracey. Just as we approached the Spook Light site, the trees closed in around and over the road to block out the moon light. We drove down the road a ways before settling on a site to stop and wait for the lights. We opened the back doors so those sitting under blankets inside could watch for the approaching lights. The rest of us paced nervously in the road. We did so until approximately 3:30 in the morning when we decided to pack it up and head for Monkey Island. The room we had reserved at Monkey Island was not large enough for all of us, so two of us slept in the Mystery Machine. I think we go the best deal, because we had more room and privacy than anyone. In the morning, we realized that two of our friends from central Missouri had made it down the night before and had a spacious room all to themselves. They were kind enough to let us use their shower, however.
The day was already becoming warm when we all piled back into the machine for the trip home. We stopped to take a picture of the road sign for Highway 69 and realized, yet again, people were taking pictures of the Mystery Machine. We decided to take I-44 all the way to Lebanon on the way back. The Machine cruised great with every other car honking and waving at us along the Interstate. Just past Marshfield, traffic ground to a halt. We opened the side doors and people took turns jumping out to stretch. I shut off the engine and just let the van roll to keep up with the gradually moving traffic. Tracey even climbed up on the roof to fetch a book she had stowed away in our bags up there. After miles of inching along, we took an exit. It was a gravel road heading in the general direction of home. We had no idea where it would take us, but anywhere was better than stuck on the Interstate. This felt like a true adventure. We didn't get to see a ghost, but we had eight people who all set out in a wacky, 32-year-old van for whatever adventure came our way. I think most of them got more adventure than they expected, but it is a trip that won't be forgotten. We eventually made our way to Lebanon via gravel road. We made a few stops for ice cream and restroom breaks on the rest of the way home, but the rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. At the end of it all, eight people had spent almost 24 hours traveling over 600 miles in the Mystery Machine.
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Inside The Mystery Machine
Wild Times On the Mystery Machine
Oktoberfest
Lawrence
