St. Louis

Monday June 26 We walked down to the City Museum where we caught the shuttle. It cost two bucks and you can ride all day getting off and on at whatever stop you want.
The city museum. Patrick wanted to check it out and we said we would get to it after we saw the Arch but we didn't get to the museum. 

 We caught the shuttle to the court house that is now part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. The court house is famous for the Dred Scott case. I took this photo from the park across the street from the court house while B and P were up in the arch.

 A view of the court house from the arch side.

 Inside the court house. We bought tickets for our tours and got stamps for the book.

 Part of the tour package we bought included a boat ride on the replica paddle wheeler. I was disappointed that the paddle didn't move. The electricity was out on the dock and the restaurant we planned to grab lunch at was closed. We ended up getting some food on the boat. Brats and Budweiser for me. The only beer sold in St. Louis, right?

 This bridge was the first built across the Mississippi. Built by James Buchanan Eads, cousin to the President. People would not cross the bridge because they were afraid that it would collapse. He brought some circus elephants and they crossed the bridge. Supposedly, elephants will not cross anything that is unsafe. This convinced people the bridge was stable and they began to use it.

headphones

 Inside the arch is this neat mural/sculpture. It shows the arch being built and the cranes and tracks on the side of the arch they used during the construction. They have a neat movie that is well worth the three bucks just to chuckle at the lack of safety gear and casual attitudes to working so high in the air. 

After seeing the movie, we had time to kill until B/P went up to the top. It started to spit rain and the radar showed a big storm coming. We walked up to the courthouse and caught a cab back to the RV park so we wouldn't get caught in the storm. It never really rained and I drove them back to the arch and dropped them off in time to catch their carriage car to the top. They are not handicap accessible.

 there was a large gathering of a women's college sorority. All the gals were wearing white shirts with the same logo. Three of the girls, college graduates, were at the top of the Arch with B/P. Becky over heard them trying to figure out which river they were looking at. They thought it was the Mississippi but were not sure. Becky told them it was the Mississippi and the girls were ecstatic at figuring out they were looking at the mighty dividing line between east and west. Then they huddled together and tried to figure out how to spell Mississippi while posting photos on their social media accounts. 

 While B and P were in the Arch, I cruised around the waterfront. There were lots of old buildings, many looked abandoned. I found this neat little place tucked behind the power building. 

 A cool house across the street.

 When we were at the courthouse, Patrick spied a restaurnat across the street he became infatuated with and wanted to eat at. So we had supper at Caleco's Bar and Grill. I had the pork steak. It was tender and juicy and the American potatoes were excellent.

 These two bicycle cops stopped outside our window and it looked like one is writing a ticket to the other.

We waded through traffic because the Cardinals game let out right as we were leaving the restaurant. We finally got back to the RV park and called it a night.