Day Two - Manifest Destiny

We pulled out of Casey yesterday and headed on towards St. Louis to visit the arch. Casey is roughly an hour and a half outside of the city, so we got up early and made plans to be to the Arch around 10am or so, and it's a good thing we got a move on when we did! The lines were already getting long when we first arrived, but we still had plenty of time to get our tram tickets and walk around the museum.

The tram is a very interesting experience. Basically they shove five people into a small barrel-like structures, have them straddle small white plastic "futuristic" 60's stools, and then jerk and pull you to the top. Still, the view was worth it, and the experience was great.

The arch is located right near the riverfront, so we parked the truck right near the water and walked around the park there. The water was very high, apparently a great deal of the Mid-West has had high water lately, and Carl took some pictures to show the changes on the riverfront. One of the funniest things is that there is a statue of Louis and Clark right on the shore; however, the water was so high, it looked more like they were drowning and reaching up for help.

Another interesting thing we did while in St. Louis was that we drove down along the riverfront a ways just to have a look around. One of the walls was done completely in graffiti, but it all came together to make a fascinating mural. We took some pictures of some of the more interesting bits. This one here is of the Arch and has cardinals on either side of it.

Before pulling out of St. Louis, we made one last stop at the local Borders bookstore. Carl picked up a book on Rt. 66 which gives you driving directions and points of interest, and we pulled out of St. Louis trying to decide what detours we would like to make between there and our campsite in Joplin, MO.

One place we definitely wanted to see was the famous Wagon Wheel Motel in Cuba, MO. Sadly, it did not live up to our expectations, but Cuba itself was worth the detour. The town is very small and quaint, but they have recently taken it upon themselves to revive tourism and have commissioned local artist to paint murals on some of the older buildings which depict various times and high points of the town. For example, one mural was dedicated to a time when Betty Davis visited Cuba, MO.

A bit further down the road we took another pull off and went to Devil's Elbow. Crossed over the river is just on the outskirts of the Mark Twain National Forest. The part of the old highway 66 that we travel made use of an old steel truss bridge built in 1923.

We made camp in Joplin, MO. The campsite itself was fairly nice, but nothing compared to the lovely lakeside spot we had called home the night before. Our neighbors were also less than desireable. They had four children, three of which were under 4, and the entire family was shacking up in a pop up camper. Oh well, at least we only had to listen to Dora the Explorer and the excessively loud mother for one night.

Today we're on the road to Oklahoma City to visit the memorial museum, and then it will be on to Amarillo, TX. We're also still traveling a great deal of the old route 66 that we can find, and I promise there will be some fun pictures for next post :)