From The Road: A Pleasant City Excursion and Elsewhere in Missouri

Peachy and I usually sidestepped cities, but we decided to go into St. Louis, MO, and were glad we did. The iconic Arch was visible from afar, and looked both ethereal and immense at the same time. It truly is a wonder. Couldn't figure out how to photograph it, and got a crick in my neck craning to see it all. Yes, I chickened out of riding to the top, partly because the day was rainy, and the visibility poor. I did ride on a "steamboat" named "Tom Sawyer", however, and met two really nice English women in the U.S. for a family wedding in Las Vegas and some sightseeing. I also enjoyed the city's many big trees, intriguing dooryard gardens and artwork, a magnificent Cathedral Basilica covered inside with mosaics (made of more than 41,500,000 tesserae in thousands of colors), a huge urban park with ponds and water lilies, and Grant's Farm.

A beautiful view from back in WY.

Grant's Farm is named for President Ulysses S. Grant, who once owned it, and who actually helped to build the log cabin still there today. The property now is owned by the beer company with the Clydesdales, and, in fact, is one of their breeding stables. I was wowed by the size of the stallions in their stalls, and enjoyed watching the cavorting foals and the placid dams in the paddocks. It is a wonderful place, with a zoo, a shuttle, wild animal park, and events. Everything is clean, everyone is friendly, and all together it was a total pleasure.

My hostess invited me to an informal dinner party with her fellow grad students, and I came away confidant that the future is going to be in the hands of a competent and caring new generation. Good news!

Once out of the city we winded our way North, along the river, enjoying the scenery and the tugs pushing barges loaded with coal or other things hidden by covers that looked somewhat like turtle shells. We camped near Tom Sawyer's cave the next night, a little South of Hannibal, MO. I ate fried catfish and toasted ravioli in my quest for regional food, and went to sleep with the song of crickets in my ears. The morning dawned clear and beautiful, but I spoiled it by falling while getting out of the upper bunk, scraping my hip and bruising my ribs on the milk crate used as a step. Ouch. As I moved around it improved, but I moved gingerly.

Fun friends.

Hannibal was once a very active port, and I walked along the levee, watching the river roll by, the tugs and barges going downstream, and admiring the riverside park with gardens and a Peace Pole. When I left the river, I noticed that Mark Twain was sitting on a corner bench, so went over to chat. The gentleman looked amazingly like Twain, but said he was sometimes taken for Albert Einstein, or Albert Schweitzer (all three of whom he noted, suffered from bad hair days). He signed a picture postcard for me, and left me with a Twain quote: "Kindness is something the blind can see and the deaf can hear."

When we left Hannibal, we continued North, past more soybeans and corn, a surprising number of roadside stands selling fireworks, and the occasional horse-drawn farming machine. I cut the driving short just across the Iowa border, and we found a beautiful lake built and managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. We had it almost to ourselves, and the charge was only $6 a night, so we stayed there four nights, enjoying the birds, the stars, the nice couple hosting the campground, a spirited church service at The Church of the Nazarene on Sunday morning, and quiet time to heal the bruises.

My fortune from a Chinese cookie: "You will travel far and wide on both pleasure and business." Right on!

Shalom until next time.