The Drive, Day 1, Fri, 8-28, Camp Dubois & Confluence of Mississippi & Missouri Rivers...

The inspiration for this year’s big adventure was the Lewis & Clark Expedition. Sent by President Thomas Jefferson, they would lead the Corp of Discovery from today's St. Louis, Missouri to Seaside, Oregon. We would drive 6998.9 miles in 26 days for an average of 264 miles per day. Our longest drive day would be over 7 hours. We would travel through 18 states, 4 time zones, cross the 45th parallel 2 times and use our America Is Beautiful Old Age Pass four times. This trip was epic for us. So many beautiful things to see, new things to learn and old favorites to see again. Time was spent with each of our siblings but one who was out of town.

We determined we couldn't see everything on the Lewis & Clark Trail so we determined we would see the three places they created winter camps, take a boat ride on the Missouri and the Columbia Rivers since they used the rivers as much as possible and see a few other things along the way. In addition, we had other places we wanted to see along the way.

Let's start our first day. We started at Bojangles for our biscuit breakfast at about 9:30am. It felt so good to see our travel vision unfold. There was yellow beginning to show on the trees in Kentucky. 

We sent this picture to our kids on our family Facebook page and assured them they did not need to worry about us. We were passed by a string of antique cars!! This was near Leavenworth, Indiana. 

Our first stop as in Hartford, Illinois. This was were the Corps of Discovery spent its first winter (Dec 1803-May 1804). This camp provided the opportunity to train the Corps. A lot of discipline was used to get them into shape for the grueling journey ahead of them. The camp was named Camp Dubois. The actual camp is gone but the Lewis and Clark Historic Site has a replica of the keel boat made for their journey up the Missouri.

The replica was made from a simple drawing in the journals kept by Lewis and Clark. I was told by a guide that this replica was actually brought into the building for this exhibit backwards. It has to be removed, turned around, and brought in again!

  

      

   

This statue at the entrance of the Visitor's Center is of Lewis & Clark with Lewis' dog, Seaman. 

We did make a quick pass around the museum before heading to Confluence Tower. This tower allows you to see, from the top, the place where the Missouri River flows into the Mississippi River. When the expedition left in March 1804, they would go UP the Missouri River. The word UP is important. They would be taking that keel boat and several pirogues UP the river, against the current. This would necessitate them often having to walk along the sides of the river and pull the boat through the current. There were two tour buses at the Visitor's Center. They were also headed to Confluence Tower. We were ahead of them and asked the lady about getting two tickets for us to go up the tower. She told us they were waiting for the tour buses and a group was already at the top. She was able to squeeze us in for a very quick elevator ride to the top and pointing out where the Confluence of the Rivers was. We were so grateful. There are three landings on this tower and they are all accessible by stairs to elevator. It costs $10 per person to go up the elevator with a guide.   

These are views of the Mississippi River from the top of Confluence Tower. The third picture is the same as the second except for a red dot below where the Missouri River flows into the Mississippi. There is a little island or peninsula that is come from behind. You can see a slight difference in the color of the water of each river at that point. 

   Then we went to the opposite side of the top of Confluence Tower. This picture has a red doc under what appears to be a tower. It is actually the St. Louis Arch and we are lined up with it so it appears like a tall tower instead of an arch. 

The Mississippi flows down this side of the tower as well. It seems there are locks on one side and not on the other. The water in these two pictures is the Mississippi River.  

 We headed into St. Louis and would see the Arch in full view. 

Our destination was Zia's on the Hill. This is definitely a favorite of Claude and me. I only get their salad. The dressing is so yummy. Claude usually has an Italian meal with a salad. This family is from Italy and their recipes are from there. 

 As we prepared for this trip, we decided to approach it as though we were living out of our car for 26 days. With that in mind, knowing there would be stretches of highway we would travel with no hotels, no gas stations and no restaurants for miles, Claude prepared to plastic containers with food for our trip. One of the neat things he found was Double-stuff Oreos with NO sugar. Amazing. 
Our first night was spent in St. Louis, Missouri. 
 
Gas this day: $4.09
Changed from Eastern Time to Central Time.