We Revisited the Mississippi Today

WHERE ARE WE? Vandalia, Illinois

It was a beautiful day when we got up this morning.  We just sat and drank coffee for a couple of hours watching the white pelicans swimming and catching fish in the lake.  We wonder if some of these came from Rivers Lake back home.  We have about 50 who live on our lake in the summer.

About 11 am we headed over to meet up with Chuck and Angie.  We have a trip to St Louis planned for today.  I had thought we were going to miss seeing St Louis so this is a pleasant surprise.  We were underway about noon.  Headed west down the freeway with Angie and Sue as pilot and co-pilot!

We have already been to Chicago so lets not go that way and Kansas City is too far, so lets go to St Louis.

In about an hour we got our first look at the famous arch. We are looking forward to seeing it up close.

It is right down by the Mississippi River!!  Did I say Mississippi River??  We are back on Great River Road, even if its only for a day.

We went to the Basilica of Saint Louis to check it out.  The church was established in 1770 and is a beautiful building.  The inside is quite nice and the pipe organ is amazing.  I would love to hear someone play it.

Then we were off to the arch.  It is just a short walk from the Basilica.  What an amazing structure and its right by the river. This however, has never been on my bucket list but is is worth seeing!!

There is a tram that takes you to the top of the arch, so we are going to do that today.  I can't imagine how an elevator takes you up in such a small area.  We are about to find out.

They give you a boarding pass which designates which tram you will be on.  There are only 4 of us on our tram.  I'm not sure why, but they talk about being claustrophobic!!!  They even called us the Green Team!!  How fitting.

They lined us up in a stairwell beside these little doors.  It kinda looks like a crypt!! Thought maybe we were in a mausoleum!!

And then door #5 opened and we were ushered inside.  It was a little pod that holds up to 5 people and is about 6 feet round.  Now I see why they talked about  claustrophobia.

4 minutes later we arrived at the top. There was actually a small window in the door which let us look out at the workings in the leg of the arch.

We got to hang around up in the top of the arch for about 10 minutes.  The top is 630 feet in the air.  Quite a view from up there including the lovely grass area with the old court house in the background.

The old courthouse

Basilica of Saint Louis and where the truck is parked

Busch Stadium home of the Cardinals

Windows we looked out.  Not very big.

There was a neat museum of St. Louis at the end of the arch tour.  It was all about the history of the area.  And a neat little train photo op.  Yup we had to try it.  

On the way home we stopped at the the Blue Springs Cafe for supper.  At this restaurant you order whatever meat you want and they bring it to you and then they bring bowls full of mashed potatoes, green beans, beets, coleslaw and delicious dinner rolls.  It is like having family dinner back on the farm.  Chuck and Angies kids Jonathon and wife Rebecca along with their children Zane, Alex and Megan joined us there.  We had a nice visit but I didn't get a picture of all of them.  Sorry Jonathon and Alex!!  Oh well, they were there.  The meal was fantastic with more than we could eat.  Oh and they had lemon meringue pie for dessert!! 

We arrived home about dark just in time to let Archie out for a run.  He spent a quiet day in the Motorhome today.  That was our day.  Good Nite!!