St. Louis, Missouri

Good morning, my friends. That title up there is a lie. When we took off yesterday, I was unaware that the City of St. Louis spans two states. As it happens, we're staying on the Illinois side in the little town of Cahokia, Illinois. Apparently, Cahokia is also known as East St. Louis. No matter. We can see Missouri across the river from where we are.

So let's talk about yesterday's drive, shall we? We headed out US 65 until we reached I-44. The road looked like this most of the way, and we were to stay on I-44 for about 90% of the distance.

It was a good day for barns.

Now look at that tower on the left side of the image below.

Here's another one on the right side of the image below.

What the heck is it? I'd think it was a grain silo, but it has holes...like windows. Also, I saw one with a mature tree growing up through the center and out over the top. 

This one has a quilt block...always good to see.

We stopped at one of the rest areas along I-44. I didn't get a very good photographic representation of this, but each one of those picnic shelters has the name of a business found on Historic Route 66. Also, the building that housed the restrooms had a big fancy mural inlaid in the floor showing the entire length of Route 66. (I wish I'd taken a picture of it.)

When we got back in the car, I inquired of The Google about the relationship between Route 66 and I-44. As it turns out, I-44 is one of several interstates that has replaced Route 66. Also at the rest area, we saw this blooming shrub. My phone tells me this is Hawthorne.

Looking up the towns we passed through, I learned that Strafford, Missouri, is mentioned in Ripley's Believe It or Not! According to Ripley's Believe It or Not!, Strafford is the only town in the United States with two main streets and no back alleys. I went looking for an image that could illustrate this "two main streets" notion, and couldn't find anything that was very illustrative. I ended up clipping a satellite view of the map so you could see what Ripley's is talking about. It's probably still not particularly helpful.

The road to the north was the main street until Route 66 was built between the backs of the businesses and the railroad. The owners simply built new entrances, giving them two front doors. 

Driving on, The Google tells me that Marshfield, Missouri, is the hometown of Edwin Hubble. Yes, the telescope guy. A replica of the Hubble Space Telescope can be found in front of the Webster County Courthouse. Here's a picture I found online. It's a one-quarter scale replica.

Also, we passed through Bourbon, Missouri. The name refers to bourbon whiskey and is believed to be the only town in the United States to be named after bourbon whiskey. 

It also happens to be the birthplace of Ruthy Ross, who was a playboy playmate of the month in June, 1973. She was born in Bourbon in 1948. And if that isn't something for a small town to crow about, then I don't know what is.

Our drive yesterday was around 260 miles. Eventually, we entered the City of St. Louis proper.

And for the first time in hundreds of miles, we merged onto a different road. Our nav unit told us to take the Memphis fork, but eventually, we were routed back toward Chicago.

It wasn't long before the bridge over the Mississippi River loomed into view.

This is at least the third state where we've crossed over the Mississippi River. We've been to the headwaters at Itasca State Park in Minnesota. Here's a photo taken there:

And we've been to the Mississippi Delta in New Orleans, Louisiana. The riverboats were out of commission for that visit.

We've even been to the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium in Dubuque, Iowa.

So you can see, we're well-acquainted with the mighty Mississippi. Here we go...up and over.

There it is...a big river.

About halfway across the bridge, we crossed the state line into Illinois.

We were nearing our final destination when I looked ahead and...HOLY SH*T!! THERE IT IS!!! It's the Gateway Arch!!!

Well, I think the only other time I got this excited about seeing something new was when I noticed the Statue of Liberty right beside a New Jersey RV park where we stayed when we visited New York City some years back.

Upon our arrival, there's always a line at the catio to see where we are now. Smitty was first out and held his position, much to Sadie's consternation.

Eventually, he gave her a chance too.

We're here for one reason...to see Gateway Arch National Park. Already we have our day mapped out. The RV park has a shuttle that will take us ten minutes down the road and back across the river to where the national park is located. There we'll kill some time until we board a riverboat cruise along the St. Louis waterfront. Here's a picture I found online. We're taking the one-hour cruise, but dinner cruises are also available with a hefty pricetag.

We'll spend some time at the park and at the museum. Probably we'll get some lunch before boarding the boat. It sounds like fun to me.

So we have a full day ahead. I need to get some steaks marinating for tonight's dinner, and then I'll make some breakfast. And then...we'll be on our way! I'm hoping I'll have lots of good pictures for you tomorrow. Until then, strap on your life vests, my friends. I'm not expecting any mishaps, but one can never be too careful.

A Hike and a Quilt Shop

Good morning, my friends. We had a day of running around Branson yesterday. There were four items on our to-do list, and we accomplished all four. 

The morning started with me taking the first stitches on the third block for Grandpa's Bridges. Somehow it seems like the right trip to have started these embroidered quilt blocks.

Sadie was just settling in for her morning nap when we left the RV.

On our way to the quilt shop, we spotted this guy. Yeah...I don't know.

Someone on Facebook posted about visiting this shop in Branson. It looked like a good one to me. Certainly, it's a pretty building.

Oh...but this is a bummer.

Well, if I can't take photos, then it doesn't get its own blog post. I'm sure they're feeling the weight of that decision as I'm writing this.

So...no photos, except the ones I thought I could sneak in. This was taken from the back of the store. You can see it's a very large store.

I really liked this sweatshirt. At $55 plus tax, I didn't like it enough to buy it.

There were a few vintage sewing machines scattered throughout the store. I think I got pictures of all of those.

This featherweight had a note pinned to the right side. It said, "Machine not for sale. Please don't mess with it." Kind of makes you want to mess with it, doesn't it?

So those were all the pictures I took. It was a nice store, and big. They had lots of fat quarters cut. I liked the colors in these three I bought. They seem like colors and designs I can use in art quilts, and that was my only reason for choosing them.

I chose this one as my regional print. It reminded me of the rocks we've seen here in Missouri and in Arkansas, and it fits with the ones above. It will work well in different art quilts. They wouldn't cut a fat quarter for me, and so I bought a half yard.

Our next stop was the Waterfall Trail. It was an easy trail and fairly close to the main part of the city.

Of course I took pictures of every blooming thing. My phone tells me this is honeysuckle.

This one is delphinium tricorne.

I could see a blooming tree across the stream. It was too far away to identify it.

I thought this was wood sorrel, but my phone tells me it's ranunculus flammula. 

This is wild geranium.

About halfway to the end, we passed by this small waterfall...about two feet of drop for the water. 

I noticed this one blaze as we went. It has a hiker on it.

I stepped off the trail about two feet to take this shot looking upstream.

We passed by these structures. There was a whole row of them. They kind of detracted from the "woodsy" feel of the hike.

I recognize this as a trillium. It hasn't bloomed yet. Trilliums are among my favorite wildflowers.

Here's a picture of one blooming in our woods at home.

While we walked alongside the buildings, we noticed this guy nibbling at the grass nearby. I believe this is a marmet. He was about the size of a cat.

Farther on, we found another overhang like the ones we saw in Arkansas.

The rocks extended for some distance here.

Finally 2/3 of a mile in, we came to the waterfall.

Here's a little video so you cans see and hear it.

More wild geranium was growing nearby.

This was the end of the trail, but we were able to get up above the falls a little bit to see the pool.

If we continued walking, it would have looked like this. The trail ended here, however.

Heading back the way we came, I noticed these table rocks.

From there, we hopped back in the car and headed for Ozarkland, where they advertised fresh fudge. Did you notice the yellow airplane in one of my pictures from yesterday? I wondered what it was. Turns out it's a part of a miniature golf course. This makes me think of times we traveled with the boys. We never missed playing miniature golf if it was available. Those were fun and competitive games.

Traffic was backed up at one of the traffic lights on the main drag. While we waited our turn to get through on the green, this helicopter flew overhead and landed right beside us. 

Also, I got a look at where King Kong was climbing. It's some sort of Hollywood theme place. It's not a good picture. I was shooting directly into the sun.

Finally, we reached our desired destination. This place was a zoo. We got our fudge and then made our escape.

The fudge was wrapped up in pieces about the size of a standard brownie. I wanted to choose four different flavors. When I'd picked four, the woman behind the counter said, "You still need two more to fill the box." Well...it would have been rude not to fill the box, wouldn't it? Besides, it was priced that way. Buy four, get two free. Works for me.

So, wanna see what we chose? 

I can't remember all of them, but here goes: Top left to right: orange cream, some kind of praline, birthday cake, Bottom left to right: chocolate peanut butter (or something like that), salted caramel, cookie dough. We ate two of these with our afternoon cup of espresso. They're nice, cut into four little pieces.

After that, we picked up a few items from the grocery store, and that was our day. We ended up making one more trip into town. Mike noticed a couple of bolts had rattled loose from the RV, and he needed to replace them. We found our way to an Ace Hardware store, and saw yet another more civilized part of Branson on the way. It's a little like Las Vegas here, minus the casinos. The main drag through town is crazy busy with tourists. Get out into the outlying areas, and it looks like any other small American city.

Okay, so this is our last morning in Branson. We have a bit of a drive today to reach St. Louis. Our only reason for stopping there is to see Gateway Arch National Park. And, yes, it's probably overrated, but I want to see it. Today will be a day of driving. Tomorrow we'll visit the arch. Our next stop after that will get us in range of Paducah, Kentucky. That's right...the quilt show starts up next week. I'm looking forward to it. Attending Paducah is a big bucket list item.

So, time's a-wasting. We need to be on our way, and I need to be making Sunday morning pancakes. Fill up your water bottle and buckle up. We have a long drive ahead of us.