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The night view of St. Louis from our RV park.
Second stop, St. Louis. Although we have been to St. Louis many times, we have not been since the Gateway Arch has been a National Park. I needed to scratch it off on my map.
If you haven't been, I highly recommend it. The Arch, zoo, science center, major league sports, Fox theater, food, the list of things to see and do goes on and on. There's something for everyone and every age. We were spending one night and only going to The Gateway Arch National Park this time.
We had reservations at the DraftKings at Casino Queen. Often we stay at a Casino because it's a Harvest Host. Here it was a complete RV Park and, for us, kind of an expensive one. With only one night, however, we wanted to be close to the Arch and this was it. We were directly across the river with great views of downtown St. Louis. Not sure where, but there was a metro station close or a 7 minute drive, or according to Google, a 9 minute bike ride. We chose the latter.
We saw other bike riders take the actual bridge, but we chose the pedestrian path, walking our bikes on the 2 or 3 encounters with walkers. It wasn't steep but I will admit I walked a short spell going over on the uphill. I'm not fond of bridges anyway and the 5 foot path didn't seem very wide to me.
I almost forgot about getting a night picture. I headed out around midnight and I believe I disturbed a few dogs. Of course, between road noise and lots of trains maybe they weren't sound asleep. I swear it sounds like the trains are right behind our RV.
Sometimes the computer, or the program I'm using, has a mind of it's own. Why when I try to caption the picture below does it just keep deleting it? I have no idea, but I'll just work around it by saying this is the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge, informally known as the Stan Span. The cable-stayed bridge, similar to the one in Quincy, IL, was built in 2010.
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| We rode our bikes across the Eads bridge, the first bridge across the Mississippi in St. Louis. Completed in 1874, it is also the oldest bridge on the Mississippi. |
The museum at The Gateway Arch NP opened in 2018. There are 6 galleries that cover St. Louis's role in the United States, beginning when the city was founded in 1764 to completion of the Arch in 1965. There were many different types of displays. including some that were interactive. A large group of teen-agers appeared to really be enjoying it.
I found it to be a little 'rambling' and would have preferred it to have a specific path to follow, but it was still enjoyable and definitely informative. I look forward to going back after I've digested what I took in this time.
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| Peace medals were awarded to tribal leaders throughout early U. S. history. They were offered as gifts of introductions to celebrate treaty signings and other important events. |
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| Great fire of May 1849. |
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| The Eads bridge we rode our bikes across. In 1874 they took an elephant across to prove it was safe. Legends say that elephants have a sixth sense and won't cross an unstable bridge. I guess that should make me feel better??? |
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| Built in the 1890's the Wainwright Building is ten stories high and is considered one of the first skyscrapers. |
In the 1870's the number of factories across the country grew. St. Louis was a great distributor of buffalo hides. The video below shows how buffalo hide was used to make the drivebelts that powered factory equipment. This was a popular interactive display.
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Just outside the museum section they had a display that showed 4 live views from the top of the Arch.
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| Eads Bridge |
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| A wedding couple getting pictures taken on the grounds. The have certainly added a lot more green space since becoming a National Park. |
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| Cathedral of the Basillica of St. Louis completed in 1914. I think I've been there before. We didn't walk around to the front because the wedding party was headed that way. What a wonderful wedding spot that would be! |
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The RV Park is behind the casino and no, we didn't go gambling.
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| Pat noticed some train tracks below. |
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View from our RV Park.
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Stop 3 was at Calvert City, KY. Thanks to Cracker Barrel for letting us spend the night. Plus for us, we each had a meatloaf dinner. The fried apples were so good!
Where are the Piepers now? Calvert City, KY |
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