Life on the Mississippi

 Monday, August 30, 2021

Today was planned to be mostly a driving day--we are heading for Milwaukee in earnest now. But I did want to stop in Hannibal, Missouri, to check out Mark Twain's childhood home and Museum. We'd also planned to follow the Great River Road again, but it seemed like we didn't do that-- our GPS put us onto US 61, but north of St. Louis that's a divided highway with a straight shot north. So we let it take us until we did reach Hannibal, right on the river.

Downtown "historical" Hannibal is a very cute little town, with a lot of Mark Twain-themed store names in the old buildings. We found a place to park on the curb right outside the museum, and after eating lunch, we went in. The Museum encompasses 7 buildings. The first, main one, was a history of the Clemens family, and Twain's boyhood in Hannibal, and went through the rest of his life using a timeline. Of course we read

Statue of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn

everything--it was disappointing not to have time to watch the 90 minute video which was running continuously as we read the panels in the museum. After that, we saw the Huck Finn house behind the Museum. I had never known that Huck Finn was based on a real boy who was, like his fictional doppelganger, a river rat with a drunkard for a father, who was feared by the parents of other boys, and hence admired by the boys themselves. Huck's house (supposedly the house of this real boy) was actually larger than I would have thought, although quite simple, with only two rooms. It had been reconstructed just a few yards away from the museum.

Inside the Museum

From there, the path led us to the Clemens house itself. It was a nice-sized cottage with several upstairs bedrooms, and a kitchen, parlor, and dining room downstairs. Small, but cozy. I hadn't realized that the Clemens family owned slaves, and there was quite a bit about slavery during Sam's boyhood as well as his anti-slavery stance once he had grown up and understood it better. Both the Museum and the house were filled with quotes from Twain's autobiography, as well as from speeches he made later in life which cast a light on his boyhood. Quite famous in his own time, his life and its similarity to the life of Tom Sawyer (as well as to quotes from the book which sounded exactly like episodes from his own life) must have been as interesting to contemporary audiences as they are today.

Parlor in the Clemens House

After the house, we decided not to go into the three small buildings which were "Becky Thatcher's House," the Justice of the Peace office, and Grant's Drug Store. The Justice of the Peace was significant because Twain's father, although unsuccessful in business throughout his life, was elected to be a Judge, and was much respected in that regard. Joe and I opted for the Becky Thatcher Ice Cream Emporium instead, but of course a town so small did not have no-sugar-added ice cream for Joe, to our disappointment. I had a small scoop of chocolate ice cream, but that was it. And we decided not to walk the three blocks to the last building, the Museum Gallery. In retrospect, I realize I have no idea what might have been in there! 

Joe whitewashing the fence

Instead, we decided to get back on the road, realizing that it was already after 3pm, and we had almost 150 more miles to drive for the day. We arrived around 6:30 at Shady Creek Recreation Area, a Corps of Engineers park in Iowa, right on the shores of the Mississippi. It is absolutely beautiful here--the Corps parks seem to be a cut above many others we've been to. The only problem when we arrived was, there was a camper in our reserved space! This doesn't usually happen, but the camp hosts (two nice women) helped us find a different space which actually had a nicer river view. The people in our spot are nowhere to be found--it's a trailer and the tow vehicle was not here last night and is still missing. Joey says the husband's body is inside, and the wife took off in the SUV, but I'm hoping it's something less nefarious than that! In any case, we are happy in the spot we have, and tomorrow we have to leave anyway, to continue our journey to Milwaukee. Tonight, it's gotten much cooler, and we don't even need the AC, our exhaust fan is pulling cool air right over our bed. Sadly, we will swap this gorgeous area for another urban parking lot, but it's our best option to accommodate both some sightseeing and proximity to Natan and Ruby's wedding on Thursday.

Mississippi at Dusk, with barges passing by

Our 50th Wedding Anniversary

 

Sunday, August 29, 2021

Joe and I were married exactly 50 years ago today. We woke up and the first thing we discussed was not, "Happy Anniversary," but "Will you be long in the bathroom?" I guess that's what 50 years of marriage (or of anything!) does to people! We did go back to "Happy Anniversary" very quickly after that, however.

Our plans for the day were to be tourists in St. Louis--specifically, to visit the Gateway Arch National Park. I had purchased the complete ticket package yesterday, including a movie on the making of the Arch, a trip up to the top, and a boat ride on the river with narrated tour about the history of the city. We started out early for our 10:30a.m. boat ride. This RV Park, which has no beauty other than the beautiful night view of the Arch, makes up for that in convenience--it is truly less than 15 minutes from downtown, and it took us less than that to get to the levee, where we parked (at a steep angle) for the boat ride. 

The ride was an hour long, and was fun, especially when going downstream so that we had a breeze (there was no breeze going upstream.) The pilot narrated the whole time, identifying various buildings and explaining the history of things we were seeing. I was able to get one pretty good selfie of us before we docked, with the Arch in the background, so that will be serving as my memory of us on this auspicious day.

The cruise was over at 11:30, and it seemed too early to go to lunch. So we drove to Forest Park. It is huge, and we really didn't have enough time to do something like go to the zoo (and it was HOT again), but we stopped at the Jewel Box, an art deco glass building now used as a greenhouse and event space (weddings would be beautiful here.) We were the only ones in the building most of the time, and we didn't stay long. We did, however, note that it would be a good place for a wedding. So we went up to the front where the bride and groom would stand, and we "renewed our vows" for 50 more years. 

Inside the Jewel Box

By then it was 12:30, and we decided we'd better go eat. We had decided to have lunch at Pappy's Smokehouse, our most favorite BBQ place in the world. We never go past St. Louis without stopping at Pappy's, even if it just means getting off the interstate, stopping to eat, and then continuing on. We got there very quickly, which was lucky, because there was a long line. There is ALWAYS a long line, but this time it moved much more slowly because they had cut down on the number of diners. Masking was required, and I saw that they were spraying and wiping down tables rigorously after each group left. So we waited about 20 minutes before being seated, but the service is always very fast. And man, was the food incredible as always! Especially compared to Central BBQ in Memphis, there was NO comparison. Joe had a rack of ribs again, and even I loved them! I had the chicken as I always do. When I say that the green bean side dish was the first thing I finished--that's how good THEY were! Joe was moaning in ecstasy with his ribs, while i was moaning over my roasted corn on the cob side dish. All in all, we were just in heaven from the food.

Mural Dedicated to the Builders of the Arch

We had to run afterwards, though-- it was already about 2:10, and we had a 3pm ticket to see the movie, "Building the Dream", about building the Arch. But first we had to run back to the RV to walk Cassie. We rushed back home, jumped out, had 15 minutes to walk the dog, and then jumped back into the Jeep and drove to our parking garage, which was about a 10 minute walk from the Arch. We were really hustling, and managed to make it into our seats for the movie at 2:56pm.  

The movie was so impressive! It seems miraculous that this Arch could be built, when you see all the details that went into it. We were both just amazed. It was so impressive. After the movie, we stopped in the big waiting area where the trams to the top of the Arch leave from (it is a big space behind the Museum.) Joe wanted something to drink, so he got soda, and then we went to the gift shop to pick up my National Park pin for my collection, and a few other things. Then he rested while I looked at one corner of the adjacent museum.

St. Louis, looking West

At 4:30, we went to the tram line. They are being very Covid conscious throughout the National Park building/museum, and they kept us far apart and sorted us into the tram cars--each family group had a car to themselves. They also strictly limited us to 10 minutes, so they could transport people on schedule and so it would not be so crowded at the top of the Arch. The tour guide was very entertaining as we waited, and we got to see a cute little video "describing" some of the important events and people from the 1960s (when the Arch was built)-- everything from the Beatles to the Women's Movement to MLK's "Free at Last!" and the moon landing, Walter Cronkite and The Graduate, Woodstock and JFK. So that was entertaining, and then they sorted us out again to get into the little claustrophobic cars that take you up to the top of the Arch.

Looking East Across the River to Illinois

Needless to say, the views up there were spectacular. I'd forgotten my good camera in the car, but the zoom on my phone camera allowed me to see our RV all the way across the river. The entire view was pretty clear and I'm sure we were seeing for miles and miles. Looking down at the city was amazing as well. The 10 minutes passed all too quickly! Then down we went again.

There were quite a few steps involved, though, both getting to the trams and at the top of the Arch, and it really wore Joe out. So he decided to rest a bit, while I looked at the Museum. I thought it was very well done, blending both the history of the city of St. Louis and its importance as the "Gateway to the West," with the history of the country as a whole. There were exhibits on the importance of the Louisiana Purchase, and the subsequent "winning" (or stealing) of the West. And finally, there was a large section on Eero Saarinen and the contest for a design for a monument to stand on the shore of the Mississippi River, to represent all the history and the importance of the city. There were descriptions of how the Arch was designed and how it was built. I found all of it very interesting. And as we walked away, it was really hard not to take more photos of it!

At the Top of the Arch

At about 6:30, we walked back to our car in the parking deck (getting it out just before 7:00, when our ticket ran out.) We'd had a big discussion while sitting in the building--what to do about dinner. Neither of us were starved after our huge lunch at Pappy's, but I wanted *something*, specifically, a St. Louis specialty--toasted ravioli. After looking up restaurants making the best toasted ravioli, we found that most of them were closed today. In the end, we looked for a combination of pizza (St. Louis also has its own style of pizza) and ravioli, and settled on Imo's Pizza, which was not too far away.

Description of Treaties with Indians, All Broken

Visions of "Manifest Destiny" to Settle the West

St. Louis as Mercantile Center for Westward-Bound Carvans

So for dinner we had a small pizza with "the works" (the suggestion of the guy at the counter) and a portion of toasted ravioli. The latter was scrumptious! As for the former, I told Joey before we ate that it was important to take it on its own merits, not compare to NJ pizza. St. Louis pizza is made with an almost crack-like crust, very very VERY thing (half of a "thin crust" pizza at home.) We decided that although it was good, it was much more like a "loaded nacho" plate at home that like a pizza. Also, i thought the cheese tasted like velveeta--but Joey looked it up, and it was a blend of cheddar, swiss, and provolone. All in all, I would certainly not order "the works" again, but it was tasty. We brought about half of it home (we brought half my chicken from lunch home also, so we have LOTS of leftovers for the next few days.)

It was hard not to take photos of the Arch as we walked away

And then, we came back to the RV again. It has been a super-long day, but I think we made it memorable. I wanted something to remember our anniversary by, and this was a lot of fun. And Cassie was just fine in the RV with the air conditioning all day, so having this full-hookup campsite was worth it for the peace of mind. Altogether, I think our stay here was very successful. But... I am not as young as I used to be (I've been married 50 years!!!) and I am tired.

Driving up the Great River Road

View of Mississippi River from our Campsite

 Friday/Saturday Aug. 27-28, 2021

We left Memphis this morning and headed across the Mississippi to begin our drive up the Great River Road, a designated All-American Road on the Arkansas side. Our first destination was the town of Marion, to visit the Sultana Disaster Museum. I found this site the night before, when I downloaded the Great River Road app which tells about interesting stops all along the route up the Mississippi from Louisiana to Wisconsin. 

Photo taken of Sultana the day before disaster

The Sultana was a steamboat which was destroyed on April 27, 1865, when its boilers exploded. The boat was loaded far beyond its official capacity of less than 400 people; there were about 2200 on board. The majority of them were Union soldiers who had been prisoners of war at Andersonville or Cahaba POW camps. Through corrupt kickbacks from the boat's captain to Union officers, soldiers were loaded onto the boat to sail north to their homes. A photo of the Sultana taken the day before the explosion shows the decks overloaded with people, horses and mules, listing to the port side. According to our guide, more than 1700 people were killed (more than the 1200 originally counted.) It was the worst maritime disaster for the United States, surpassing even the Titanic in casualtiies.

We were amazed that we'd never heard of this event before! The museum was small but very comprehensive, with a list of ALL the passengers about the Sultana and notes as to whether they survived. We started out with a short video overview of the event, and then a docent gave us details about the exhibits.  There was a cabinet with photos of many of the people on board, a model of the boat, and photos and articles. There was also an exhibit describing the Andersonville prison camp, which was known for being the most deadly camp a soldier could be sent to.  It seems that even soon after it happened, news of the wreck of the Sultana was overshadowed by other events: within the same 24 hour period, Lincoln's funeral train left Washington, DC, John Wilkes Booth was killed, and General Joe Johnson surrendered the last large contingent of the Confederate Army. So the Sultana disaster is almost unknown.

When we finished our visit at the museum, we decided to have lunch--we were parked in a shady spot off the main street, and there was plenty of area to walk Cassie too. It was almost 2pm when we headed north again. Our next stop was the Hampson Archaeological Museum State Park. Dr. Hampson owned property which contained relics of the Nodena Indians, and he spent his retirement digging up pottery and other evidence of their culture. The museum is quite small, but it's impressive that it really represents one man's dedication to learning about an early indigenous culture. We spent about an hour there (we were literally the only people there except for the park ranger and a secretary.)

Nodena Pottery human image

Nodena pottery display

After that, we had to take the interstate rather than the more mellow Great River Road route, because we would not have gotten to our campsite before dark otherwise. We spent the night at the Trail of Tears State Park in Missouri. We were parked right next to railroad tracks, and just on the other side of those was the Mississippi River. It was very mellow and we got a very good night's sleep, despite the train coming through periodically about 50 feet from our bedroom. 

Our morning started with a visit to the park's Visitor's Center to see the exhibit on the Trail of Tears. The relocation of the Cherokee Nation from western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee is well known--partly because the Cherokee had one of the most "modern" cultures of any Native Americans. They had a written version of their language, and during their "golden age" in the early 19th century, they had a newspaper, schools, and a governing council with its own laws. However, they were pushed westward as a government policy in order for white settlers to move into Cherokee land, despite advocates for their cause going as far as the Supreme Court. President Jackson was not interested in upholding the rights of the Indians to their land, and in the end they were forcibly relocated.

Trail of Tears Diorama

Reading the details of the governmental machinations which are so similar to some of the justifications used today to trample the rights of people was very sad. The Cherokee, once resettled in Oklahoma, once again established their own community with laws and elected leaders. But eventually they were absorbed into the new Oklahoma Territory, and they gradually had to relinquish their own government in preparation for statehood.

Joe and left the Visitors Center after a chat with the ranger, saying that when you think about it, the arc of history is a very sad one--all progress comes at the expense of someone else, it seems. 

We went back to the RV, had some lunch, did some planning for tomorrow, and finally packed up to leave. We headed up the Great River Road again, and after an hour, we crossed the river into Illinois on the eastern shore. The main reason we crossed was to go through the town of Chester. Its claim to fame is that it is the "home" of Popeye the Sailor Man, or to be more specific, of Popeye's creator, who came from Chester. As soon as we crossed the river, the statue was there to greet us, along with a parking lot sufficient for us to pull over into, and a lot of folks taking their photos with Popeye! There was a visitor center there too, but I didn't even go in--we didn't want to linger forever. Joey did take my photo with Popeye, however--unfortunately, only one came out where he didn't manage to chop of Popeye's head!

We spent about 30-40 minutes in a traffic jam for one mile from the bridge to the main route north--they desperately need a stoplight at that intersection! But it gave us time to snap a photo of another Chester--Home of Popeye sign, which also wished a happy 50th anniversary to Loren & Peggy Jany. I think Highland Park should put up a sign to wish US a happy anniversary tomorrow!

Once we finally got on the route north, it took about 90 minutes more driving and we arrived at the Draftkings at Casino Queen RV Park. This is a huge parking lot, basically, but it is set up with all pull-through sites with full hookups. There's a laundry, showers, etc right here as well, and it is 15 minutes from St. Louis. I decided last night that we should "do something special" so we'd at least remember what we did on our 50th anniversary. So I booked us reservations to go on a riverboat cruise for an hour in the morning, and then (after time to come check on Cassie, and to have lunch) a ticket to the movie about the building of the St. Louis Arch, followed by a tram ride up to the top of the Arch. So we will be tourists at the St. Louis Arch tomorrow, learning all about the Westward Expansion, and (mostly) staying out of the expected heat in the 90s yet again. And we'll look for someplace for a nice dinner, too. I'm hoping we have a memorable day.

Rain, Pappy’s, and Driving Some More

Joe points to George Takei’s menu

2019-10-11 (Friday)

It rained a lot early this morning, and before bedtime last night too. Not sure I mentioned it in last night’s blog, but with all the rain, we discovered we have a leak over our bed where Joe replaced the old, non-working exhaust fan this summer with a new one. There was definitely a very damp spot in the ceiling before we fell asleep, and it was notably larger when we woke up. This is not good news, and will have to be dealt with asap (but not before we get home.)

We left our very damp campground at about 10 as usual, and noted that every river we passed in the vicinity was overflowing. Wow, it was wet everywhere! But we were fortunate that it didn’t rain at all today while we were driving. It was just gray skies all day, that’s all.

We stayed off the interstate as long as possible, rejoining it about 30 miles from St. Louis. Then we gave ourselves a treat—we drove into the city to have a late lunch at Pappy’s Smokehouse. Pappy’s was voted the best ribs in the country by the Food Network, and I think Joe agrees. However, today he didn’t have ribs, he had a pulled pork sandwich, while I had my usual, the BBQ pulled chicken. I even have notes on my phone to remind myself not to bother ordering the brisket, because the chicken is “that good!”  Seriously yummy— we really enjoyed it!

Inside Pappy’s— walls lined with celebrity menus

Just a little more about Pappy’s— it is not a pretentious place, but man, is it popular! We were there at about 2:30 or 3:00... and there were about 20-30 people in line ahead of us! The place just never stops. The wait time is pretty short, and while you are on line, you can read all the famous autographed messages on menus lining the walls. (We sat next to one from George Takei.) In order to make it go fast (which it does), they hand out menus while you wait in line. Then you get up to the cashier, give him your order, pay, and move out of the way. If you ordered a fountain drink, they give you a huge cup, and you move on to fill it. Then another staff person finds you a table in the large but basic dining room. A minute or two later (literally), another staff person emerges from the kitchen with your food on a plate, calling out your name. I went to the ladies room to wash my hands as soon as we were given a table, and by the time I came back (and wash my hands was ALL I did!), the sandwiches were already on the table.

Folks waiting on line at Pappy’s. Sometimes the line is out the back door.

So we tried not to wolf our food down, hungry as we were by that time. Another thing I didn’t mention was the parking. You’d think it’s brave to take an RV towing a Jeep into a city. And it is. But I just don’t “get” this neighborhood. The street Pappy’s is on—a major street with a bus route—never has anyone parked on it! It has metered spaces, and we just drove up to the curb and parked (we took up two spaces with the Jeep.) This has been our experience every time we’ve gone there. I think maybe it’s kind of on the fringes, in a semi-industrial area on one side of the street, and a small college on the other (we parked next to the college.) But in any other place with a college, all the spaces would be taken. We’ve never seen that here. And it’s only a few blocks from the interstate exit. So we get off, drive two blocks, park on this totally empty street, eat, come back, and hop back on the interstate. It’s ridiculous by east coast standards, if you ask me.

Anyway.... that was our excitement for the day. After lunch, back on the I-70,and we zoomed past the St. Louis Arch, over the Mississippi River, and into Illinois. We planned to stop at the Illinois side of the border with Indiana, but the Walmart we went to, despite getting good “overnight reviews” on our RV Parky app, told us (when we asked inside) that we couldn’t stay there. So we had to drive another 25 miles or so into Indiana, and we are staying at a Walmart in Terre Haute. We were tired and not very hungry when we got here, so we “hung out” a little bit, and now we’re going to sleep. We want to make a reasonably early start tomorrow, because we are heading to visit Jan and Gary in Ohio, and watch the football game with them.

Driving Driving Driving

2019-10-10 (Thursday)

We’be sure been having a lot of weather lately. For several days, we were driving under cloudless blue skies through Nevada and Colorado. Yesterday afternoon we finally noticed clouds had arrived, but it was still a HOT day (in the 80s). Except by the time we parked, it was getting a bit breezy. The temperature didn’t drop too much overnight-it was about 60 when we woke up this morning—but we had wind through our open windows all night, and it seemed to be really whipping up in the morning.

As we dressed and had breakfast, we were pretty worried about driving—the wind was rocking our RV noticeably. We are nothing but a big box on the highway, when all is said and done, and driving in high winds is pretty scary if not downright dangerous. We checked all the weather reports locally and ahead of us on the road, and were somewhat alarmed at mentions of a storm front, and severe rainstorms in central Missouri, our destination for the day.

Finally we decided to go as far as Wichita, only an hour away, and see what the current reports were. We got on the road at 8:45 (early!!!!) and were happy to not feel buffeting as we drove. In fact, the wind seemed to be at our back. By Wichita, there was nothing to note that was alarming, so we kept on driving. We adhered to a strict one-hour schedule, taking turns, because it was a pretty monotonous road, and hard on the eyes.

That was pretty much the sum of our day— taking turns driving. The sky was overcast most of the day, although it seemed we were headed toward slightly lighter clouds. We stopped in Eureka, Kansas, for lunch. We drove down a side street to the local park, where we were the only people to be seen. Cassie appreciated the grass very much. Then we drove on. At about 2:00, we crossed the state line into Kansas (I was driving and Joey didn’t get any photos for me). And still things were going smoothly. We made good time on US-54, still going due east.

As the afternoon wore on, we projected where we might be able to stop, and ended up finding a town near the Lake of the Ozarks, which seems to be an enormous reservoir, judging by all the irregular edges. After two nights at Walmart, we voted for showers, so I used my Good Sam app and found a nice campground in the town of Osage Beach.

Just as we checked in, we heard lots of loud thunder, and by the time we reached our assigned site, it was raining cats and dogs. It has been raining most of the evening since. Not only that, our phone weather alarm apps both went off a few minutes ago, warning of flood alerts in this area. Poor Cassie does NOT like this weather—she has been shoved under the kitchen table for a while to stay safe, although she has now come out as the rain lessened a bit.

The report is that it will rain all night, and early in the morning. There are all kinds of random threats to go with it, such as nickel-sized hail and even tornadoes. Usually nothing like that really happens, though, so I’m not too worried, but I hope it stops before it’s time for us to really start driving. We are heading toward St. Louis, and then into Illinois, and will be forced to take the interstate sometime during the day. We are so glad to have stayed off it until now; it’s difficult driving with all the trucks blowing us around. We’re happier taking our risks with Mother Nature. Our worries about the high winds this morning turned out to be nothing, and I’m sure I’ll sleep just fine tonight.

Driving Until We Find Our Lucky Star

August 23, 2015

Route 66 diner, St. Robert, MO

Today’s blog will be short, because we drove all day with minimal entertainment during the drive. We left St. Louis at about 9:30 in the morning, and headed southwest on I-44 toward our ultimate stop for the night, planned as Oklahoma City. We were traveling along the old Route 66 road for much of the time, and saw a number of references to stops along the route whose nickname is “the mother road.” I was perusing our tour guides and maps for much of the day, at first looking for “something interesting” to stop and see, because the drive was not supposed to be terribly long. I didn’t find much in Missouri, however, and we soon started looking for a town along the way which might have some good barbeque. We were hoping to make up for missing Pappy’s last night.

The AAA books gave me a couple of options, but one came along at 11:30, which was too early. So we stopped for lunch in St. Robert, at a recommended roadside bbq place. Joe said his pulled pork was yummy, although “nothing extraordinary”, but I was pretty unimpressed with my brisket.  We also found a Missouri tourist office, so I was able to collect a bunch of literature for our return trip, and we drove past the Route 66 diner, which looked suitably retro. I jumped out of the RV and took a photo before we got back on the highway.

That was it for our stops for the day—for some reason, that morning segment seemed to drag, and it was already after 1:30 when we finished lunch. (We were delayed an extra 5 minutes by Cassie’s ecstatic rolling in the grass.) We drove all afternoon through Missouri, and into Oklahoma. We stopped and picked up a bunch of literature at the welcome center 10 miles past the state line, but neglected to ask about the toll roads coming up. Oklahoma has a bizarre set of toll roads which are all short segments of longer roads, and we never did figure out how they decided what to charge. The first time we left the road was the honor system: “Did you come from Missouruh?” “Yes.” “$1.25”. After that we paid $4, $1.75, and later, at two exact change coin toll booths, $1.15 and $.60.  I’m still wondering if we should have bought a “Pike Pass.”

All afternoon, I was trying to find a place to stay for the night. Oklahoma City had four Good Sam rated campgrounds, but they would all run us about $45, and all we really wanted was to stop and sleep and hit the road again in the morning. There were no state parks anywhere near our route. There were NO highway rest stops anywhere in the vicinity (we were switching between I-44 and I-40) and when I checked the internet, the reports were that the Walmarts did not allow overnight parking. I didn’t want to stay at a Cracker Barrel, and didn’t see any Flying J’s coming up—both places which are RV friendly. I did notice a mention of the Oklahoma County Fairgrounds, which gave me the idea to see if they allowed RV parking when there are no events at the fairgrounds. I couldn’t find a website to tell me that, but I ended up on a website listing free rv parking places, and while looking for a county park or info on the fairgrounds, I found a list which included a casino in El Reno, about 10 miles or so west of OK City. I found some reviews of it, one from just a month ago, which indicated it was 1) free, 2) had hookups, and 3) was safe.  I’ve always wanted to try casino camping—this is something I know a lot of RVers take advantage of, and it is usually free or extremely low cost. So I put the address of the casino into my Google Maps.

Well, in this case, Google Maps had its head up you know where (if it would have had one.) It led us off the free interstate onto another toll road, and then onto 15 miles on a very badly paved road in a quite rural area.  When it finally brought us out on the main highway the casino is on, it told us to turn the wrong way and then took us down a dead-end road. It was deep dusk by then, and our rear view camera has lost its antenna and isn’t working. I had to get out to help Joe make a k-turn (luckily it was a dead end, so no traffic.) We went back to the main road and stopped at a gas station/convenience store to ask, where was the casino. The lovely young man directed us back the way we had come, telling us we couldn’t miss it. He was right—if Google Maps hadn’t taken us on such a stupid way, we’d have been there probably 30 minutes earlier, too. 

But—indeed, here we are, at the Lucky Star Casino in El Reno, Oklahoma. There are 10 RV spaces here with FULL hookups (electric and sewer!), for free, and the casino security guy could not have been nicer when I went in to register with him. He told me he’d always wanted to see Atlantic City. He says they are open 24/7, and if we need anything to come and let them know. I believe the casino is owned by the 500 Nations, and if it weren’t so smoky, I’d go inside and support the tribes. But I’m very tired and I really DO want to get going early tomorrow—we are planning to stop at the Oklahoma Route 66 museum about an hour from here.

“If Peter Pan Had Had a Blow Torch”

Day 3, August 22, 2015

We woke up to gray skies and the threat of thunderstorms, but for the first hour or so, it was just fairly cool and no rain. Joe grabbed the opportunity and changed the oil in Samantha, and despite my trepidation—it did in fact take him just about 15 minutes! He was very happy with himself, and we think those Camping World people are a huge ripoff.  While he was doing that, I have no idea what I was doing!!

We were very happy that it was overcast, to tell the truth, because we were going to leave Cassie in the RV while we spent the day at the St. Louis City Museum. Our concern was that the RV Park was paved, and if it got very hot, it might be too much. So we were glad to find out that the weather was predicted to not go over 80 degrees. Nevertheless, before we left, we set up an electric fan and turned it on to keep the air moving.

I had never heard of the City Museum until I read about it in a blog I read, Technomadia.com .  They have been full-time RVers since 2006, but they spend extended time in St. Louis with family, and they have written several times about the City Museum. They have described it as their favorite place in ALL of their travels, saying it was what you might expect if someone had given Peter Pan a blowtorch.  So I had to see it for myself—it sounded like it would be right up our alley.

Human Kaleidoscope

So we left Cassie, and started our walk to the museum, just under a mile from our RV Park. The weather was looking quite threatening by then, and it had already rained a couple of times for brief periods. So we prudently packed two rain slickers in a backpack in case we got caught in a shower during our walk. Sure enough, we’d gone about 3 or 4 blocks when it started to rain. As it got heavier, I pointed out a doorway which looked as if we could shelter inside. It was better than I’d expected—it was the entrance to an old abandoned building with several steps up and then a large sheltered area in front of the doors. We waited patiently and watched as it rained cats and dogs for about 10 minutes. After a while, Joey got antsy, so we decided to try Plan B, the ponchos. The rain did not let up, and our feet were kind of damp by the time we got to the City Museum (it was still raining, although more lightly.)

Caves and Cages

From the outside we could see the parking lot surrounded by concrete snakes, the MonstroCity outside playground with its coils of slinky-like climbing tunnels and ball pits (for big kids—with BIG plastic balls rather than small ones), and the roof—with a yellow school bus plunging off the corner of the building.  As soon as we got inside, Joe started pointing out that the stair railings were made of rollers (like the rollers you put your luggage on in the airport to go through screening), the wall was made of metal baking pans, and the ceiling was hung with millions of strips of torn fabric. We wandered toward a large concrete whale, walked into a tunnel, and realized we absolutely HAD to go everywhere together, or we’d instantly lose each other. There was simply no telling where the tunnels came out. 

Cave tunnels and dragons, face with open mouth and teeth.

The thing you immediately realize is that the entire place is full of places to climb and crawl, and often those places are right over your head. We saw kids EVERYWHERE (it’s Saturday, and it was raining—of course the place was mobbed), but mostly they were up in the air crawling through some kind of slinky-like tunnel or other cage-like structure.  Nearby are the “caves”, and they are simply incredible! They are a maze of tunnels, some of them so small that only a child under the age of about 8 could fit through, and others that adults can walk through easily—with every size in between. We walked around one corner to see what was there—and what was there was three holes leading to 3 different tunnels. It was a kid’s wonderland and a parent’s nightmare! If my child had crawled into one of those tunnels, I’d have no way of knowing which way she had gone or where she might come out! But I have to admit, we LOVED the caves, with their fantastic dragons, mysterious figures, and utter unpredictability.

MonstroCity Playground

On the museum’s second floor, we walked through a snack bar and found a “shoelace factory”, complete with a 19^th century shoelace machine which was weaving multi-colored shoelaces. There was also the entrance to the museum’s aquarium and a door leading outside to the MonstroCity.  On the third floor, we found the circus room (we watched a magic show) and Beatnik Bob’s “Shrine of Shameless Hucksterism”, which had pinball machines, the “world’s largest underpants”, and many other bizarre and ridiculous items. I think the Art Room was also on that floor, where kids could make their own art (the museum is by way of being a piece of performance art, with the performance being done by the visitors!) 

Sliding

At one point we sat down on a bench with drinks, and suddenly I heard a voice somewhere nearby saying, “Hello! Hello! Who are you?? I’m under you!” After a minute or two of this insistent noise , I asked a child near me, “Is there someone UNDER me?” and the child said “Yes” as she walked by. I looked down underneath the bench and sure enough, there was a tunnel running the length of the bench, with two little girls in it. They had come from the room with the “skateless skate ramps” and the round slides. Opposite us, there was a city-scape on a platform which in a normal museum would have been enclosed; in this museum, it was yet another place for kids to crawl underneath, and pop their heads up into the landscape above them.

Rescued Architecture

On the fourth floor, we discovered rooms created with rescued architecture from some of St. Louis’s oldest buildings which had been taken down, no doubt in the name of progress.  One particularly attractive frieze was the façade for an early Buick dealership, for example.  But we also found a room full of insects (“The Importance of Beetles”), some wonderful sculptures, and one kinetic art installation which was just fascinating—hundreds of mirrored pieces suspended from nearly invisible filament, casting floating images on the wall behind it. This floor also had some more "typical" museum-like rooms, such as a room filled with Urban Archictecture finds. Everything in the ENTIRE museum comes from within the city limits of St. Louis.

Mysterious cave dwellers.

At some point, we wandered into what seemed to be caves but were the base of a ten-foot tall shaft to the roof of the building. We followed the metal curves around and at some point realized we were on a circular staircase leading up to the 10-story slide. As we climbed, we realized that this was an old factory building and the slides were actually chutes which were used in the manufacturing process—many of them simply ended in mid-air, broken off years ago. We continued to the top, however, and after tucking in our valuables and making sure my camera was in its case, we slide down 10 floors of circular slide! It was actually quite fast (at least for me—Joe had to pick his feet up because his shoes tended to slow him down) and loads of fun. I landed at the bottom completely dizzy, and almost unable to stand up again. I just stood there laughing my head off.

A view of the 10-story slide. In reality, it's dark!

We went out into the MonstroCity, and the last thing we did was go up to the roof (the rain had long since stopped, although it was still cloudy). There we found a large slide, the school bus, sculptures, a water garden, and some wire cages leading up to the very top of a dome. At the top, they went down INTO the dome, and then led over to the wall of the dome, with a very tight “staircase” of bars to climb down to the floor. The idea of being suspended up there, or of trying to come down the wall, was something I never would have wanted to do, even as a kid! But plenty of people (of ALL ages) were inching their way up and down. The last thing up there was the ferris wheel. We’d seen it going last night when we came into the city, and it was going today—but after careful consideration, I knew I’d never enjoy it—I don’t like ferris wheels so much even planted firmly on the ground, and this one was on the roof of a ten-story building. So after we’d had enough roof, we went down one flight—and from there, took the ten-story slide down to the bottom a second time! 

All in all, I think we were there for five or six hours, and it was just spectacular. Joey said he could spend hours more there if he hadn’t been so tired J In fact when we left, the lines were even longer than they’d been in the morning. By that time, the families with young kids were leaving, but lots of teens and young adults were flowing in. The Museum is open until midnight on Saturdays, and I understand they sometimes have concerts and things like that. There are several places where “adult drinks” are sold in the building, and I can imagine it’s a great date night location. I suspect they even have pipe organ concerts with the pipe organ which is inside the 10-story air shaft next to the slide.

Joe in a "rocking chair", an industrial-sized spool.

We finally stumbled out, feeling we really had found a treasure (not exactly unique to us, however!) We walked back to the RV and just as we got here, more rain started to fall. So we spent an hour resting while it rained. At about 6:30 we were hoping to go to Pappy’s Smokehouse for dinner—Pappy’s has the reputation for the best bbq in St. Louis as well as anywhere else! But I saw on the website that they are open on Saturday from 11am to “8ish—or whenever we run out.” I was a bit worried, so Joe called to see if they still had food, and if they’d still be able to seat us if we arrived in about 20 minutes. They were already out of ribs and chicken, but the guy said they’d be able to feed us. 

So we walked a mile in the opposite direction to Pappy’s—only to discover a “Sold Out” sign on the door when we got there! We were VERY disappointed (at least a half-dozen other folks walked up after we got there and were also very unhappy), but there was really nothing to do about it. I guess we should have ordered “to go” when we called! Anyway, we walked back (we’ve walked 4 miles today on the streets, not even counting all the walking and climbing we did in the museum) and I took a shower while Joe made us mac and cheese for dinner. And now, as soon as I upload this blog and some photos, I will be going to bed. I am tired, and I’ve been typing for an hour!

But just remember: You DO want to come to St. Louis and visit the City Museum—it is really like nothing else we’ve ever experienced.