Midwest Traveler: Cape Girardeau, Mo., starred in the movies

You may have recently seen Cape Girardeau, Mo., on the big screen and not even known it. The town played the role of the fictional North Carthage, Mo., in "Gone Girl," and the town has embraced the role with driving tours and memorabilia. But a trip to Cape shouldn't begin and end in Cape. Southeast Missouri has many other interesting sites to see. Don't miss these memorable destinations, most no more than an hour's drive from Cape.

You've probably seen the sign for the original Lambert's: Home of the Throwed Rolls. And yes, they really do throw rolls there. Somehow, they seem to know what kind of throw to toss, so very few rolls wind up on the floor. The athletic-looking guy in the back? He gets a long, fast throw that soars over the heads of other diners. The older woman in the front gets a gentle toss. The toddler, a simple handoff.

The throwed rolls are only half the appeal. The other half are the pass-arounds. Macaroni and tomatoes, fried okra, sorghum, fried potatoes (pronounced FRAHD TAY-ters by the servers). The regular meals are generous, delicious, and I'm sure full of fattening things I don't want to know about.

Earl and Agnes Lambert opened the first Lambert's in 1942. The business expanded over the years, with the restaurant outgrowing its first two locations as word of mouth spread. Today, Lambert's has restaurants in Ozark, Mo., and Foley, Ala., and is still family-owned. Prices are quite reasonable (a fried chicken meal with all the pass-arounds and two sides is $12.99), but keep in mind, Lambert's does not take credit cards.

More info: 1-573-471-4261; www.throwedrolls.com.

When I was growing up, my grandparents lived in Puxico, so I vividly remember visiting Mingo, particularly one visit, when two beavers worked feverishly to build a dam, oblivious to the tourists around them.

In 1976, through the Wilderness Act of 1964, Congress designated 7,730 acres of swamp, riparian areas and Ozark Plateau uplands as the Mingo Wilderness Area. Today, it's a great place to spend time in nature with the family. Other animals that frequent the area are river otter, bald eagles, waterfowl, swamp rabbits, wood ducks, migrating monarch butterflies and alligator gar. On a recent visit, on a hot and steamy summer day, we hiked a couple of short trails, including the popular boardwalk through the swamp. We saw some ducks, a blue heron and a crawfish.

More info: 1-573-222-3589; www.fws.gov/refuge/mingo.

If you love touring historic homes, the Hunter-Dawson house, a combination of Georgian, Greek Revival and Italianate architecture, should be on your list of places to stop. Sitting regally on several tree-lined acres, the mansion hearkens back to New Madrid's days as a trading stop along the Mississippi River. And unlike many other historic house tours, this one lets you step inside the rooms and closely examine all the artifacts.

William Hunter died just before his Southern mansion was complete in 1860. His wife, Amanda, and their children moved into the house shortly after.

The Hunters owned as many as to 36 slaves, some of whom may have helped build the house along with craftsmen in the area. Today, the house is filled with original pieces bought by Amanda herself, many of them from Mitchell and Rammelsberg Furniture of St. Louis. The house has 15 rooms and nine fireplaces. From the painted canvas floor cloth to the original pine work, the house is as authentic as possible to the period. You can even see the date 1873 scratched in the kitchen window, presumably from when daughter Ella was engaged.

More info: 1-573-748-5340; tinyurl.com/mo7cb64. Admission is $5.

Housed inside an old college building, the museum is far more impressive than you might expect, tucked away in the back roads of southeast Missouri.

The museum hosts a number of interesting exhibits: a natural history room, a Civil War room, a geology room, a Lego room and more. But the real draw here is the dinosaurs. The first floor tells the story about "Missouri's Dinosaur," the Hypsibema missouriensis, a variety of dinosaur called a hadrosaur or duck-billed dinosaur. The dinosaur was discovered in Bollinger County in 1942; in 2004 it became Missouri's official dinosaur. A group of schoolchildren later named it "Dyna MO."

The museum houses dinosaur fossils and artifacts from around the world as well as a fossil preparation lab.

Upstairs, you'll see replica skeletons and life-size models of a variety of dinosaurs, from T-Rex to a Bambiraptor. One room even has a mini dino dig and toys, puzzles and books on dinosaurs.

More info: 1-573-238-1174; bcmnh.org. Admission is $5 for adults; 17 and younger $2.

Holly Mitchell, an interpretive resource technician, showed me around the museum, pointing out historic graffiti from mill workers. In one instance, a note was dated 1935, and recently the man who wrote it returned to see it again. "That was really neat to see," she said.