World United States Missouri St Louis

Our Electronic Gypsy Journal Gypsy Journal - 12/1/05 - 12/31/06

St. Louis, Missouri and East St. Louis, Illinois Aug 29, 2006

8/29 - 8/31

The last stop for this month was the campground at the Casino Queen RV Park in East St. Louis, Illinois. The trip from Jefferson City was 146 miles.

From our campsite we could see St. Louis, Missouri and the famous Gateway Arch. When Ken took his morning walk he would cross the Mississippi River on the Eads bridge (oldest bridge in St. Louis) and make it to the arch and then return within an hour and twenty minutes. This is a great campground for seeing St. Louis.

Some of the places we have visited in the area include:

>Anheuser-Busch Brewery - We had a great tour of the brewery. Joan got a chance to try an interesting beer called Peels, a fruit malt.

>Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site - The White Haven Farm is the farm Grant lived at after he got married. It had been in his wife's family and he purchased it from her father.

>Delmar Loop - This restaurant and shopping section is located in the western section of the city next to Webster University. The St. Louis Walk of Fame is in this area. The Walk of Fame includes 113 bronze stars inserted in the sidewalks in honor of famous St. Louisans such as Chuck Berry, Bob Costas, Tine Turner, etc.. While we were in the neighborhood we ate lunch at the 4 star Blueberry Hill Restaurant (6504 Delmar, St. Louis, MO 314-727-4444). They serve a great hamburger and onion soup.

>Scott Joplin House - The house is a State Historic Site and preserves the flat where Scott Joplin once lived. Scott Joplin was a composure and famous rag time piano player in the early 20th century. We got a tour of the house which included some piano playing by the tour guide.

>Old St. Louis Courthouse - This building was built between 1839 and 1862 and is still a grand old building. It is famous because of the Dred Scott cases which were tried in 1847 and 1850. Dred Scott was the black who sued for his freedom and eventually won in this courthouse, only to be overturned by the Federal Supreme Court in 1857. This case is considered one of the contributers to the starting of the Civil War.

>Gateway Arch - We took the tram up to the top of the St. Louis Gateway Arch. That sucker is high. You get into these little five person cars for the short three minute ride up to the top. The arch stands 630 feet high and the view from the top is impressive.

>Union Station - Union Station was the largest single-span train shed when it was open in 1894. It is now beautifully restored and houses stores and restaurants.

In August we put 1194 miles on our house and 985 miles on the Jeep.

9/1 - 9/4

We finished up our visit in the St. Louis area by:

>visiting the Museum of Westward Expansion which is located underneath the Gateway Arch. The museum has beautiful mural size photographs depicting the Lewis and Clark journey along with excerpts from both men's logs. Each of the early presidents had unique medals minted to hand out as gifts, especially for the Indians. The museum had an excellent collection of these medals.

>watching a movie on the building of the Gateway Arch. What an undertaking that was. The most interesting fact involved the land that the arch stands on. Old town St. Louis was located on the river banks. When they built the courthouse it was actually to the west of town. When the National Park Service acquired the 92 acres it included almost all of the old St. Louis including the courthouse, office buildings, warehouses, etc.. The park service demolished every building, except the courthouse, to make a park. Eventually the arch and museum opened in 1965. It is too bad they could not save some of the old buildings and have a little less grass.

>taking an hour boat trip along the Mississippi narrated by a park ranger.

>going through the museums in the Old Courthouse. The first time we were there they closed the place before we had a chance to finish.

>driving to Defiance, Missouri to see the home of Daniel Boone. He moved to Defiance when he was in his late sixties and died there at the age of 84. He and his family built a beautiful three story stone house that is still in excellent shape.

>eating a delicious lunch at a 4.5 star Mexican restaurant called Senor Pique (14424 Manchester Road, Manchester, MO 636-394-3455). We highly recommend the cheese enchiladas with mole sauce, pork tacos (with pineapple), Azteca soup, and the guacamole. We consider this restaurant a real find and could easily plan another trip to St. Louis just to revisit this restaurant.