I awoke early on the morning of June 30th and started packing the rest of my food, etc. I got on the road at 9 AM as planned with somewhere in Missouri as my destination for the first days travel. I planned to stop in St Louis at the Gateway Arch as I was told it was worth the stop. I arrived at the arch around 5:30 and found a place to park along the river. From a distance the arch didn't seem very impressive but as I got closer, it proved to be very impressive. I walked past the riverboat casino (they have a lot of casinos in this area) towards the arch. I took a few pictures trying to figure out an angle to get all of the arch in one shot. It was not possible unless I drove further away. I got in line to go into the area underground below the arch and realized what I thought was the ticket line was actually the security check point. It was like going through the security check point in the airport except they didn't strip search me. Maybe next time. I walked into the main room and there was a cool museum type display on one side that told the story of life on the frontier. They used robotic figures that spoke and looked amazing. I then decided to take the ride to the top of the arch. I bought my ticket and headed to the tram or at least that's what they call it. I was assigned to door 6 and when it opened, I was staring into a pod that looked like a diving bell used to go to the bottom of the ocean. Five of us crammed into pod number 6 for the ride up. The technology to get us to the top involves elevator, roller coaster, and I don't even want to know what other means. I have a recurring dream about elevators where the elevator goes up and then sideways and then diagonally. It's more of a nightmare because in my dream I always expect the elevator to fall or get stuck. Well, here I am living that dream. I never imagined that dream would become a reality but it did. Once on top you peer out these small rectangular windows to the city on one side and the river and beyond on the other side. You have to bend at the waist to look out the windows so everyone is sticking there butts out as if on display. I started laughing to myself at the sight of all the different shape butts sticking out at me. It would be a great location for a proctologist to set up shop. The view from the top was OK but I actually liked looking at the arch from the outside.
I left there at around 7:30 in search of a campground for the night. I headed toward Kansas City and once out of town about 20 miles I started looking for campgrounds on my GPS. I found one that looked promising about 30 miles ahead so I headed that way. I was talking with a friend on the phone and had her look it up on the web and she said it looked really nice but there was a note saying closed until March '09. There was not a phone number listed so I trusted fate to take care of me and it did. I arrived just as it was getting dark and was greeted by the proprietors, Sandy & Mike. They were very nice and I got settled in for the night. They told me they serve breakfast starting at 7:30 so that sounded good to me. I woke up at 6:30, took a shower and headed to breakfast with the locals. There was just one long table that would sit about 8 people. I got a cup of coffee(I don't normally drink coffee but it was the social thing to do and it was actually good coffee. I ordered my breakfast and sat down with 2 men. One was a man of 70, Mr Hansen and the other was his grandson who looked to be in his late 20's. Mr Branch reminded me of my dad in a lot of ways. He was a farmer like most people in this area and he was a wealth of information. Two more local men walked in for breakfast. One was Ivan Branch, another farmer and the other man was named Mike. Mike didn't utter a word the whole time we sat there. In speaking with Ivan, I found out that he was a cancer survivor. He contracted lung cancer from working at the brickyard breathing in the silica when he was younger. He only had 1/3 of a lung left to breathe with but he looked good considering. I asked, to no one in particular, "Where the hell am I anyway?" Mr Hansen proceeded to tell me that I was in the center of Missouri in Callaway County. I learned that Callaway County was the only county that did not pick sides during the civil war so it was known as "The Kingdom" back then and Kingdom City now resides in the county. They also told me that I was about 7 miles from Fulton, MO which is home to Westminster College where Winston Churchill gave his famous speech. Ronald Reagan also gave his famous speech about tearing down the wall there. Margaret Thatcher and Mikail Gorbechev have also given speeches there as well. They told me that there was a memorial & museum dedicated to Winston Churchill there. I finished my breakfast and said goodbye to my new friends with a promise that if I was ever near this area again that I would stop in to say hello. These people are the heart & soul of America and I was glad I had made their acquaintance. I packed up and headed to Fulton to see the museum which is under the church of St Mary Aldermanbury. This church was originally in England but after it burned down the foundation stones were brought to the U.S. and the church was rebuilt. I went through the church first and happened upon a tour group just arriving so I got to sit and listen to the story of the church. It was a beautiful little church. I headed down to the museum after that and was very impressed with all the artifacts from Winston Churchill. The whole exhibit was very modern and well displayed. I spent 2 hours there before finally leaving. I made my way to Kansas City and had lunch at Gates BBQ. I was told by a friend that it was the best BBQ anywhere so I had to find out for myself. The BBQ was good but not the best in my opinion.
I decided it was time to hit the road and put some miles behind me before the end of the day so I headed toward Iowa. Iowa, I found, is one of the most boring states to drive through. Everything I saw looked the same from the bottom of the state to the top. Nothing but corn fields and wide open land. There was one thing that was different and that was the road construction. Apparently Iowa is getting large sums of money from Uncle Sam via our taxes to rework all their roads and bridges. Every 5 miles the road went from 2 lanes to one lane. The good thing is that there are not a lot of people driving in Iowa so it didn't slow me down very much. I believe that Iowa must have the lowest unemployment rate in the country because half of them work on road crews. Anyway, I landed at a very nice KOA campground on a lake and settled in for the night with leftover BBQ for dinner. I was still about 7-8 hours away from my ultimate destination of Mt Rushmore so I went to bed early so I could get there by mid-afternoon.
I left there at around 7:30 in search of a campground for the night. I headed toward Kansas City and once out of town about 20 miles I started looking for campgrounds on my GPS. I found one that looked promising about 30 miles ahead so I headed that way. I was talking with a friend on the phone and had her look it up on the web and she said it looked really nice but there was a note saying closed until March '09. There was not a phone number listed so I trusted fate to take care of me and it did. I arrived just as it was getting dark and was greeted by the proprietors, Sandy & Mike. They were very nice and I got settled in for the night. They told me they serve breakfast starting at 7:30 so that sounded good to me. I woke up at 6:30, took a shower and headed to breakfast with the locals. There was just one long table that would sit about 8 people. I got a cup of coffee(I don't normally drink coffee but it was the social thing to do and it was actually good coffee. I ordered my breakfast and sat down with 2 men. One was a man of 70, Mr Hansen and the other was his grandson who looked to be in his late 20's. Mr Branch reminded me of my dad in a lot of ways. He was a farmer like most people in this area and he was a wealth of information. Two more local men walked in for breakfast. One was Ivan Branch, another farmer and the other man was named Mike. Mike didn't utter a word the whole time we sat there. In speaking with Ivan, I found out that he was a cancer survivor. He contracted lung cancer from working at the brickyard breathing in the silica when he was younger. He only had 1/3 of a lung left to breathe with but he looked good considering. I asked, to no one in particular, "Where the hell am I anyway?" Mr Hansen proceeded to tell me that I was in the center of Missouri in Callaway County. I learned that Callaway County was the only county that did not pick sides during the civil war so it was known as "The Kingdom" back then and Kingdom City now resides in the county. They also told me that I was about 7 miles from Fulton, MO which is home to Westminster College where Winston Churchill gave his famous speech. Ronald Reagan also gave his famous speech about tearing down the wall there. Margaret Thatcher and Mikail Gorbechev have also given speeches there as well. They told me that there was a memorial & museum dedicated to Winston Churchill there. I finished my breakfast and said goodbye to my new friends with a promise that if I was ever near this area again that I would stop in to say hello. These people are the heart & soul of America and I was glad I had made their acquaintance. I packed up and headed to Fulton to see the museum which is under the church of St Mary Aldermanbury. This church was originally in England but after it burned down the foundation stones were brought to the U.S. and the church was rebuilt. I went through the church first and happened upon a tour group just arriving so I got to sit and listen to the story of the church. It was a beautiful little church. I headed down to the museum after that and was very impressed with all the artifacts from Winston Churchill. The whole exhibit was very modern and well displayed. I spent 2 hours there before finally leaving. I made my way to Kansas City and had lunch at Gates BBQ. I was told by a friend that it was the best BBQ anywhere so I had to find out for myself. The BBQ was good but not the best in my opinion.
I decided it was time to hit the road and put some miles behind me before the end of the day so I headed toward Iowa. Iowa, I found, is one of the most boring states to drive through. Everything I saw looked the same from the bottom of the state to the top. Nothing but corn fields and wide open land. There was one thing that was different and that was the road construction. Apparently Iowa is getting large sums of money from Uncle Sam via our taxes to rework all their roads and bridges. Every 5 miles the road went from 2 lanes to one lane. The good thing is that there are not a lot of people driving in Iowa so it didn't slow me down very much. I believe that Iowa must have the lowest unemployment rate in the country because half of them work on road crews. Anyway, I landed at a very nice KOA campground on a lake and settled in for the night with leftover BBQ for dinner. I was still about 7-8 hours away from my ultimate destination of Mt Rushmore so I went to bed early so I could get there by mid-afternoon.
Steve, great pictures. We can't wait to see the Mt. Rushmore pics. We miss you! Maggie says she misses you and wants you to come back. She said she'll make you pumpkin pie when you get back. Annie's upstairs getting ready, and we're all going to the Tucker's house for BBQ and other great eats. Have Fun!!!
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