St. Louis Arch and Catsup Bottle Tower !

ST LOUIS GATEWAY ARCH
I woke up this morning worried about the trip UP the St. Louis Arch and I had good reason.  Check this out....

If you look real close, you can see windows at the top.  We looked out those windows !!

These are the pods you crawl into and travel in to get to the top and back to the bottom.  Five persons to a pod and they are tight, about 4X4 feet square and they turn as they travel through the arch.  It's unnerving and definitely, definitely not for anyone with claustrophobia ! 

How I traveled !

St.Louis view out the west windows !  Spectacular !

Boats in the Mississippi, seen from the east side windows.

Linda and Henry at the tippy-top !

 

Joe and I at the tippy-top !

CATSUP BOTTLE WATER TOWER

Joe read that a nearby town had turned one of their water towers into a catsup bottle.  This we had to see and we found it...in Cartersville, Illinois !  So, where's the mustard?

Tomorrow morning we say good-bye to Linda and Henry !  They are heading home a week early and Joe and I are very sad about that....we have had so much fun together it will such a void without them ! Today was a day where we all reflected on the many, many special moments of our trip...its been a wonderful ride for all of us !  xxoo TML

St. Louis Arrival

We came accross Missouri today, 270 mile drive but under blue skies and no wind.  We stopped along the way and had a picnic lunch but we are all tired from the drive. We are camped on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River in St. Louis.  It is so cool because we can see the famous arch from our campsite.  Our campground is really nice, full hook-ups and it will fill up this Friday for the holiday weekend.  Linda and Henry will be heading out on Friday, going home a week early.  Tomorrow will be our last day to tour around and going up the arch is definetly on our to-do list.  Here are a couple of pictures of our campground.  xxoo TML

See the arch?

That thing is tall and I have lots of angst about the elevator ride to the top !!

Truman, Pony Express, Jesse James and more !

Whew, what a day....we made the most of our time in the Kansas City area !  Tomorrow we head toward St. Louis.  xxoo TML

HARRY TRUMAN PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY
In Independence, we toured the Harry S.Truman Library which was really nice.  I am too young to remember him (boy, I don't get to say that often!) but it was interesting to learn about that era.  He had to make some very difficult decisions !  Here are a few pictures...

This was on his desk in the Oval Office....

The paper he held up after he WON the election !

Harry and Bess Truman Graves

PONY EXPRESS MUSEUM

The Pony Express originated in St. Joseph, Missouri.  The first delivery left from St. Joseph heading to Sacramento, California with an ETA of 3 days.  This is pretty amazing considering what mail delivery developed into over time.  Here are pictures from the Pony Express Museum....

PATEE HOUSE HOTEL

This is a historical landmark in St. Joseph because it served as the headquarters for the Pony Express in its start-up.  It was also frequented by Jesse James and is located near Jesse James home.  We had a great time touring it...they have a little contest where you find something that doesn't belong in 20 different displays...such as in the Post Office display they had all kinds of 1800's postage artifacts and among them was a Forever Stamp.  When you have your guesses filled out, you check them at the desk and if you have 16 or more correct you earn a stock certificate.  We all got stock today !   Here is the Patee House Hotel...

We learned today that Walter Cronkite's father was the local dentist of St. Joseph and displayed the picture above in his office.

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Actress Jane Wyman was also from St. Joseph. Who knew?

JESSE JAMES

Jesse James and his brother Frank have a huge presence in this neck of the woods.  There are museums one right after the other on the James Gang.  We didn't get to go to them but we did see Jesse James house, the one he was shot in as he adjusted a picture hanging on the wall in his living room.  This house has been since moved from its original location on a hill but this is the original home.  Here is a bit of Jessee James...

We're Back in Missouri !

We drove over 250 miles today to reach Platte City, Missouri, which is near Kansas City.  We saw lots of flooding near the Missouri River and a long stretch of I-29 South was closed all together.  Even on our alternate route we had to squeeze through some barricaded one-lane detours in flooded areas.  The weather was actually really nice but there was a heavy rain last night which may have caused additional problems to already flooded areas. We could see that some of corn and other crop fields were saturated but we have no idea if that destroys the crops. 

We stopped at a truck stop along the way and had a great late breakfast.  It was a lot of food and very good too !  We are now tucked in at Basswood Resort RV Park and its very nice.  While we are here we have a couple of day trips planned so that is a nice carrot dangling out there for us.  Its warm and we feel the humidity for the first time in a long time on our trip....we have enjoyed not having that part of the weather.  Hugs and more hugs....TML

Where are we now?

It is so confusing for us tourists....Sioux City is but one dot on the map, but its in three states !  Okay here we go.....Our campground is North Sioux City, South Dakota.  If you drive 2 miles south on the interstate you cross into Sioux City, Iowa AND if you cross the Missiouri River, which runs along side the interstate to the west, you are now in South Sioux City, Nebraska.  We lost track of what state we were in all day long and some couple at Wal-Mart explained it to us.  Oh and yes each of the three Sioux Cities has its own mayor !  What a hoot ! xxoo TML

Wall Drug Store, The Badlands and a Corn Palace

Okay, we are back in the land of WiFi !  We drove yesterday from Rapid City to Lower Brule and made two stops along the way...Wall Drug Store and The Badlands National Park.  We stayed overnight in a parking lot last night and headed out early this morning for the next leg which was to Sioux City with is at the very southeast tip of SD, surrounded by Nebraska and Iowa.  To break up today's long drive, we had breakfast in Mitchell and visited the Corn Palace.  We are now settled in for 2 days and it feels good to be parked !  Okay....let me get caught up !

WALL DRUG STORE
This was one of the stops on our trip that we really looked forward too.  What I expected was an old road side store that would be worn but possibly have an add-on section to handle tourist traffic.  The owner put this store on the map when his wife came up with the idea of giving away free water to anyone that visited the store.  People started stopping just for the water and business thrived.  Well now this place is a huge, very crowded, very loud tourist trap and if it weren't for the smell of the fabulous cinnamon rolls they bake and sell, I wouldn't have enjoyed it at all.  We had our 5 cent cup of coffee and the rolls to die for....all was good in the end !  This is Wall Drug Store today...

THE BADLANDS NATIONAL PARK

Just down the road from Wall Drug is the 27 mile driving loop around the Badlands National Park.  We enjoyed the drive and the mountains reminded me of dried sand castles that will last only until the next wave comes up from the ocean onto the beach.  What is incredible to imagine is that cowboys had to cross this area on horse and the canyons are so steep and narrow that seems almost impossible.  We really enjoyed the prairie dogs, which seem to be in a community of their own.  They pop up and run all around and you could literally watch them for hours !  We saw them in Idaho but we weren't sure what they were until we saw them again at the Badlands.  Enjoy these pictures...

Prairie Dogs !

THE WORLDS ONLY CORN PALACE

Yep, this town is corn to the max...they pop it and they put it in pop art ! Even their streetlight posts have little corn husks on them !  Mitchell is all about corn and they actually re-decorate this palace annually and inside you can enjoy the photos of previous years decorations.  I know, ho-hum but I asked a sales girl about how they decorate this place and she perked right up to tell me much more than I wanted to know....she is really into the corn !  So, do check out the art...these murals are made from corn cobs and they are really pretty.  Enjoy !

xxoo TML