St. Louis Trip

Living in MO means you have to go and see the famous St.Louis Arch. So this Saturday my husband drove us 4 hours into St. Louis to look at Amish furniture and tour the city.

It was a dreary rain cold day to begin with. We made our way over the Mississippi River into Waterloo to look at handmade furniture, but the place was closed! We had even called ahead to make sure they would be open. Very frustrating. So we drove back across the river to see the St. Louis Archway. East St. Louis is very industrial and ugly looking, lots of coal trains. We got into downtown and hunted out some hourly parking, then walked to the Arch. It is a very tall silver structure with a lot of tourist and St. Patrick's parade revelers hanging around. And there is a museum under the arch. And they have tight security as you enter the museum. Not a warm and cosy welcome to the gateway to the west. At least we got to keep our shoes on.

The museum was the journey of Lewis and Clark, with some artifacts from that trip, passages from their journals and huge photos of Indian guides and landscapes. There was a sculpture showing how the arch was made. The artifacts were neat, however they lacked titles and details about their purpose. It was not a well cared for museum, needs updating. And the park rangers working security there seemed very unhappy to be there.

We walked back to our car and got ready to head out for some Vietnamese food. Then, we noticed a terrible burning plastic smell in the car as we drove out of town. The brake light and the battery light were on and the car was loosing voltage very quickly. We pulled off the big highway and drove to a BP station that was open near an exit ramp. They had a mechanic still there on a Saturday afternoon. He said our Subaru alternator was shot and had to be replaced. Luckily he could get one installed in a hour! What luck! So after an hour we had a new alternator and were headed for a late dinner and Krispy Kreme donuts then three more hour drive back home.

You can keep the city life, I am very happy to stay in my Ozarks from now on.