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Published: June 13th 2023
Laser Tag at Jellystone
Andrew was really impressed with the laser tag game at our campground! At first, we kind of balked at the $10 price tag for the game. Once Andrew saw the equipment, he said it was worth it!Years ago, we traveled through Hannibal and tried to tour the Mark Twain Cave. There was extensive flooding, and the area was underwater. This year, on our drive to Arkansas, we decided to stay near Hannibal and finally get to the cave!
Many roads and highways are under construction near Des Moines right now. We ended up traveling east first, and our route took us through Pella and down near Keokuk. We listened to a dramatized audiobook on the way,
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. I thought I downloaded an edited version for children, but that was not the case. We ended up having a conversation about language and slurs.
Anyway, we made it to our destination! The drive was scenic and beautiful. It was mostly a two-lane highway the whole way, and we drove through rolling hills. Everything was green. The closer we got to Missouri, the more frequent the patches of forest were along the highway.
We're staying outside of Hannibal in Montrose City at Jellystone - Mark Twain Lake. It's our first stay at a Jellystone, but we're used to staying at KOAs. The idea behind the resorts are similar. They're meant for families and
Laser Tag Obstacle
Playing Jellystone laser tag is serious business. have lots of activities for children. This campground really takes it to the next level! There is some activity listed every hour. One of them appears to be an activity where they drive by all of the campsites, and if you're outside, you get soaked. I don't know if I'm reading that right, but it sounds hysterical, "Wet-n-Wild Wagon Ride - HUGE CROWD FAVORITE! Meet us at the Yogi Bear Pavilion to load up for a wet and wild wagon ride! You will get SOAKED! Campers, if you are outside, you will get wet... have your hoses ready for the ultimate water battle!" Our kids were mostly excited for the water park here, but they also wanted to do laser tag, a game called "candy dice," and the ice cream sundae social. I couldn't talk them into the dads versus kids shaving cream games.
We did laser tag our first night. Andrew was super impressed with the scopes and targets. I think he ended up having the most fun out of anyone!
The next morning, we set out for Mark Twain Cave. It's about a half hour drive from here. Tickets are first come, first served. I wasn't
sure how busy they'd be and didn't want to end up in a situation with a 2pm return time or something. So, we left at 8am and got there at 8:30 to secure a ticket for the 9am tour. We probably could have arrived at 8:55 and still gotten on the same tour! Of course, it's a Monday, so I'm sure weekends and holidays could be different.
The cave itself was neat. The kids and I weren't all that impressed with the actual tour, but Andrew liked it a lot. We were at the back of the group. The guide would stop and point out different parts of the cave with his flashlight. We were too far away to see what he was pointing at. After struggling with this for the first few stops in the cave, I finally gave up trying to follow along with everything he was pointing out and just enjoyed the trek through the cave. The cave is beautiful, even though it's mostly a dry cave (there are a couple sections with a bit of water, but it's still considered a dry cave). There are a few sections that get just a touch narrow, but
nothing too tight. The ceilings never got low. The ground is clay and fairly flat throughout, although it's not always smooth. He explained that sometimes condensation can form that makes the ground a bit slick. We didn't experience any slippery areas, but there were some sections with hand rails just in case.
Even with being in the back of the tour, it was an enjoyable experience, and I'm glad we went. There are a few interesting takeaways from the tour to share. First, Mark Twain actually named one of the features in the cave. It's the section called "Aladdin's Palace." Also, he signed his name in the cave, it's easily visible on the tour, but nobody noticed his signature until 2019! The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was published in 1876, and tours of the cave started in 1886. Apparently, signing your name was allowed and even encouraged on tours until the late 1970s. Today, it's not allowed. Actually, how our guide put it was like this: Today, it's discouraged. You can't sign your name unless you have $1,000 and a year to spend in jail." That made me giggle. In total, there are over 250,000 signatures in the cave!
The last bit of interesting info I liked was a section our guide called "the waterpark." Apparently, before the cave became an official natural landmark, local children loved to go into the cave for a fun slide. There's an opening where the ground drops like a slide. He said that kids would pour some water on the clay ground to make it slick and slide down. They'd emerge nearby, covered in mud, run back up, and do it again. Sounds like a pretty good time to me!
Speaking of water slides, that brings me back to our Jellystone campground. After the cave tour, we spent the rest of the day back at Jellystone, enjoying the family activities. Andrew, Joanna, and I went down for a game of "candy dice." They give you different challenges to roll, and if you're the first one to complete them, you win a piece of candy. There's one round where you start at a table and keep rolling your 5 dice until you get a 1. Then you leave that die there and take your remaining 4 dice to the next table. There, you keep rolling until you get a 2. You leave that
S. Clemens
Our tour guide let us know that Samuel Clemen's signature wasn't found in the cave until 2019! dice behind and move to the next table to roll a 3, and so on. Of course, everyone ended up at the last table rolling their last die as fast as they could to get a 5. It was a simple but fun activity.
After candy dice, we decided to head to the waterpark! The waterpark here is impressive, especially for being out in the middle of nowhere! I believe there are 6 big water slides, a wave pool, a lazy river, and a kiddie area. It's been unseasonably chilly here, and the waterpark was closed yesterday because the high temperature was 66. Today was just a bit warmer. We headed over after lunch, and it was 70 degrees out. Everyone had fun, but the water felt very cold with it being fairly cool outside! Oliver lasted for six water slides and then asked to go back to the cabin. Andrew and Jo stayed an extra hour! There were no lines, probably due to the temperature outside, so they had a blast going on every water slide multiple times. At one point, someone asked them if they were Canadian since they didn't seem to be bothered by the cold!
Truly, though, even though it was cold, we were all impressed with the water park on site.
The kids attended the sundae social at the resort at 3pm. For $2, they got a little ice cream sundae. Afterwards, we all played a round of mini golf. The mini golf was pretty good, and it's free to guests at Jellystone.
At the end of our stay, I asked everyone what their favorite part of the trip was so far. Andrew liked laser tag the best. Joanna liked the waterpark. Oliver liked hanging out at the cabin (we played a lot of card games!). I liked mini golf. We really enjoyed our time here at Jellystone and got to spend a lot of quality family time together, which is just what we wanted.
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