Our first point of sightseeing was Chain of the Rocks bridge over the Mississippi River near St Louis. It's part of old Rt. 66 and also famous for the 30* bend midway.
We had to go over a one lane bridge to get to it. 2/3 of the way across, we met a string of motorcycles; we could fit past each other, but right behind them came a SUV. No way was there room for both of us! We were bigger, farther across and had the green light. He had to back all the way off the bridge and let us off. Personally I wouldn't have wanted to back that far with an entire family watching & following. Maybe next time he'll obey the traffic light. :)
Even thought it was only 9am, it was sweltering hot. JS chose to sit in the RV while the rest of us walked across the mile long bridge. Actually, we didn't go quite the whole way because of the heat.
Cute castles built on old pilings...
R. & I were intrigued by stories of older truck drivers who crossed this bridge in the 50s & 60s when it was still open to traffic. A semi trailer would hit the bridge at this bend.
When a wider bridge was built in 1967, they were going to tear this one down but scrap steel prices were so low it was too expensive to scrap it and it remains as a biking/hiking trail.
Next we drove into St Louis to go to the Gateway Arch. All the times I drove by, I never had the opportunity to go up in it so that was a must on this trip. The helpful folks at the KOA told us there is no way we will get close with a big RV on account of all the construction going on, and gave us directions to a free parking lot across the river. The roads weren't marked very well so we had to turn around a couple times till we found the parking lot. We had to walk -in the heat- to the Metro station, figure out which train we needed and purchase tickets...
We love riding the Metro so this made our day!
Then we had to walk I-don't-know-how-many-blocks in the scorching heat to get to the Arch.
The ride to the top is a little like being in the canister getting sucked through the tube at the drive-through of the bank. A little more clanking and not as much vacuum noises.
Oh look, our RV is still there and hasn't been vandalized. lol
Lots of construction in the park...
the KOA folks were right- there is no way we would've got in there with the RV!
Let alone find a parking spot.
After the return Metro trip, we were walking toward the parking lot under the overpasses to stay in the shade as much as possible when were stopped by a fella with a backpack who accused us of trespassing. It was bizarre because he was also under the overpass with us and did not look at all like a city employee or anyone official. He made sure we understood we don't want to be implicated for vandalism or graffiti. Now first of all, do I look like someone who was just waiting for a chance to do some graffiti?! #2, there was no graffiti in sight. #3 what was he doing there if it was a no trespassing zone? Still a mystery to us.
I think we all enjoyed the Arch, and the Metro ride alone was worth our time, however it all took much longer than we anticipated. We had a 3 hour drive to Mansfield MO to tour the Laura Ingalls Wilder home, which was closing at 5pm. We weren't quite going to make it. We decided it wasn't worth driving out of our way to see the exterior of a house, so we eliminated that from our schedule and drove straight to KS.
It was 100*. We were guzzling water. R. was worrying about the transmission gauge showing it was running hot. (Later it was confirmed it reads hotter than the actual temp.) We absolutely had to run the generator to have a/c in the coach. And then there were the rumble strips... MO puts their rumble strips right on the white line -which makes them extra accessible. Does anyone else have this pleasure? Do you know what I'm talking about? When the main driver of the RV is someone who drives truck for a living (where #1 it is a bad idea to swerve with a load, and #2 hasn't quite adjusted to different wheel base of an RV vs. a semi yet) we got to ride 'em extra long. Which made yours truly cringe -on account of the crack in the windshield that was slowly spreading.
At 8pm we rolled into the driveway of the Sommers family. They had a delicious dinner waiting for us- some of the best grilled chicken thighs ever, fresh potatoes from the garden, tossed salad and home made ice cream. The food & fellowship were a real treat!
Day 3
The Sommers sent us on our way with a bag of local pecans. (I was not aware KS is far enough south to raise pecans.)
We were beyond the fartherest west any of our children had been, but didn't reach that point for R & I until evening.
First we swung by Galena KS to see "Cars on the Route". Galena is the inspiration for the movie Cars.
What's not to like about a real Tow Mater?
Cute little Rt. 66 town
Next we drove to Oklahoma to stop in with the Millers, long-time friends of R's family. They did exceptionally well at gathering their family (married children) together for lunch on a busy weekday.
They served us ham, mashed potatoes, mixed veggies, tossed salad, dinner rolls, apple crisp & ice cream. You might as well tell the sun not to shine as tell these folks not to cook us a feast! :)
We still had 6 hours to drive when we left their house. RV parks were a little scarce so we drove the whole way to Dodge City KS. People had warned us that KS goes on "forever". Wow! It really does. We have yet to figure out why Dorothy wanted to go back to Kansas! Of course, our experience was made infinitely worse by the fact that it was 102* and the generator wasn't running right so R. made the executive decision we should let it cool off and drive with the windows open. It was so miserable with the sun beating down on the huge windshield. There was nothing to see except wheat & barley fields for miles & miles. It seemed like the sun would never set to give us a reprieve.
We finally arrived at the RV park, which was nothing but a field with hookups. Behind the cattle feed lot. The office had just closed but the lady was nice enough to tell us over the phone which site we can use. We plugged in and got the a/c going asap. Of course, wifi was also an important hookup, but we couldn't connect at this place. A hail storm had just gone through and knocked out the internet, to the kids horror. But for only $24, what can we say?
1 comment:
Just starting this journey - interesting! 😊
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