Saturday - Part 1...

Saturday all our touring would be in the St. Louis area so we didn't have to get up at O'Dark 30. Yeah!! We hit the breakfast buffet which, in this case, happened to be a restaurant attached to the hotel that was used for catering purposes and the breakfast buffet. Again, it looked like an amazing, huge buffet and really only had bits to eat. But it was free and gave us a good start to our day.

Our first stop we mistakenly thought would be a short one. Katelyn loves animals. If you want to halt the girl in her tracks, put an animal in front of her. She really wanted to see the Clydesdale horses. We were not going to visit the Anheuser-Busch brewery on this trip. They do keep a few Clydesdale's there. But Anheuser-Busch purchased the Ulysses S. Grant farm and we were going to visit there. This is were the real stables are for raising Clydesdales and the majority of them are kept here.

This farm was really President Ulysses S. Grants land and home. The land was a wedding gift to the Grants. There is a log home on the property and it was built by Pres. Grant. To maintain the home as a significant historical landmark, the Anheuser-Busch purchased the farm and added the park now contained in the farm. It is called "Grant's Farm". You pay for parking only ($11 for our car) and there is no entry fee into the actual farm.

We got there and expected a little farm where we would spend a little bit of time and then on to other things to see in St. Louis. We ended up spending most of the day here.

Claude found us a spot in the parking lot near where the Clydesdale stables and fields are located. We got out of our car and found these on the lane in the parking lot...

These are hoof prints and they lead you across the parking lot to the Clydesdale stables. We really didn't need to follow them because our parking spot was right by the stables which we visited first.

There are signs on every enclosure warning you the horses may bite. I never saw any indication of it and I didn't test the horses to see if they would bite. Just took their word for it.

We found one horse laying down asleep in his stall. His name was Jake. We walked back thru his stall on our way to the trams and he was just beginning to wake up. Katelyn stood by a statue of a Clydesdale for a picture on my cell phone for me to send to Nissa. Just wanted her to know where her child was. We also sent one to Bailey via cell phone. She told Andie, "I yike that horse!" There was a little colt that was quite friendly. We by-passed the photo booth with the real Clydesdale in it for pictures. Here are a few of our pictures of our visit to the Clydesdales.

There are several gift shops at Grant's Farm. We popped in the one by the Clydesdale stables and Katelyn found her hat. I do think it fits her personality to a 'T'.

Now we were ready to drop our purchases into the trunk of the car on our way across to parking lot. They have you line up to get across the street and stream to get in another line to wait for the trams. Fortunately a lot of that is in the shade. I often marvel that we make friends in a line that takes a while and wonder if exchanging Christmas cards the next Christmas might be in order. Well...we weren't really in the line that long. But in front of us was a mother and baby and dad. The baby was in the stroller until we crossed the street and the stream. Then mommy took little Bryce out of his stroller for some holding and play time. Bryce started to look around and his eyes caught Claude with his beard and Cabela's hat. He was riveted on this man with all that hair and a hat. This little family was from Wisconsin and this was Bryce's first time to go to see animals. He did enjoy watching Claude. Claude even tried to let him touch his beard but he was a little to young to know all about doing that. Very nice people.

Then we climbed on the tram and took a tour of the farm acreage. We drove past Ulysses S. Grant's log home first. The gates to get into this portion of the farm are huge wrought iron affairs. On each side of the gate are huge stone columns with elk on to for decoration.

The tram then drives you around the perimeter of the acreage that makes up this farm. During this portion of the drive we saw the lay of the land and also geese, cows, ostriches, deer, blue herons, and other animals.

The tram drops you off at the entry to the park portion of the land. The first thing you see to your left is a 'milkhouse'. They sell big baby bottles of milk that little kids can use to feed that huge pen full of goats.

To the right is the Capybaras habitat. Katelyn kept quoting a line from 'Princess Bride' about 'rodents of unusual size' (I think that is right). Her observation was spot on.

In the center was a pond but we passed it quickly to get to the West Tier Garten Amphitheater. There was a show going on there and we had missed the first bit. But we stood at the top to watch the remainder.

The grossiest part was the 'rat race'. They had 3 young boys who said they weren't afraid of things come into the staging area. They also had 3 little girls who professed the same belief come into the staging area. Then they had the 3 boys stand to one side and stretch out their arms and lap them over one another. They had the 3 girls stand to the other side and do the same thing. Then they brought out 2 large white rats. What the kids had done was form a bridgelike road with their arms. The object was to put a rat at one end of the boys and the other rat at one end of the girls arms and see which rat could race to the end first. The boys rat won because the girls rat got tangled in one of the girls long hair. Yhew!!! Yuk!!! and any other 'y' words that fit for this race.

The other really cute thing they did was with a red parrot. We all know the Anheuser Busch logo with the large capital letter 'A' and with an eagle in it with it's wings spread. They put an 'A' on the table and told the red parrot to be the logo. The parrot inserted his head in the 'A' and spread his wings. Great fun to watch.

This parrot also did math games. There was an owl in this show and some other things. Then we went back to the pond we passed on the way into the amphitheater. I was ever so happy we went back. Guess what I found...HUGE Tortois'i'. This made a turtle lovin' girls day. As I started to take pictures, the one in front raised his head as if to pose for the picture. I'm using his picture as my wallpaper on my cell phone now.

There were beautiful birds and parrots all over the grassy areas in the middle. Along one side was an enclosure with a big iguana in it. Katelyn was fascinated with this because when she was a baby they had an iguana for a pet in their apartment.

The next show was about elephants. To get there we passed a fox, a peacock, the lemur habitat, the elephant habitat and, most importantly, the Tier Garten Treats. We made note of the 'treat' location and headed into the East Tier Garten Amphitheater to get good seats for the elephant show.

The elephant's name was Mickey. He was full of personality and worked really well with his trainer. The purpose of the show was to educate you about the life of an elephant not just to show you some tricks. Although that was used to show you how their body works. They started off talking about the pads on Mickey's feet and how they cushion the 4,000 pounds of his body when he walks. Mickey obligingly lifted his front foot first and put it through the fence. Then he did his back foot so we could see the pads on the bottom of his feet.

He also opened his mouth so we could see his teeth inside his mouth. Most of us think of the tusks as his teeth but there are other ones in the back of his mouth and they can get big. They also fall out as they wear out and he grows others.

To show the flexibility of his trunk a lady in the audience brought down a dime from her purse. She gave it to the trainer. The trainer laid it on the concrete ground in front of the fence. Mickey reached through with his trunk and picked up that penny. He then carefully carried it over to the lady and placed it in her hand with his trunk.

Mickey showed us his ability to balance all 4,000 pounds of his girth on one front foot and the opposite back foot.

Then they told us they eat huge amounts of food each day. Some of this is front the tops of very tall trees. To illustrate this they put a piece of food on a long pole and held it up. Mickey stretched his body and trunk to reach that food.

Mickey did lots of other things like twirling around, and obeying other commands. He even showed how he filled his trunk (which is really a combination of his upper lip and his nose) with water and used it to spray himself to cool himself off. Then he took his bows at the end. It was a very good show and really informative in a fun way.

After the show we made a bee-line for the Tier Garten Treats. Time for some liquid refreshment in all that heat. We enjoyed funnel cake sticks also.

While we were eating Mickey came out to eat LOTS of hay and to play in his habitat before his next show. They had a tire tied to a tree trunk with a rope. Mickey was extremely exuberant with this tire. I would not want him coming at me like he did with the tire. It made me appreciate their keeping him behind a steel fence during the program. He is probably a very gently beast but if he got upset...Katy bar the door!!!

Our tummy's refreshed we were ready to walk more of Grant's Farm. We passed the Five Fountain Lake full of all kinds of birds from cranes to black swans. The funniest to me was this little fella. He was a duck but I don't know what kind. He had a tuft of feathers on his head that looked like a really bad toupee.

Then we found the miniature horses and donkeys. In the picture below, Katelyn is petting a Mediterranean donkey. They have such pretty markings.

Then we found the llamas and the camels. The llamas had all been sheered recently. I showed Katelyn this picture of her with a llama and we both agreed they both had the same expression on their faces. I think the single sheered llama looks like some kind of poodle cut.

Since this is owned by Anheuser-Busch, there is a Bauerhof in Grant's Farm with a Brat Haus. We didn't get a brat because that line was forever long. But we did tour the collection of antique carriages, more horses with unusual manes, a firearms collections, and we noted gargoyles in the ceilings.

Claude took a seat at a table with an umbrella in the middle of the Bauernhof and Katelyn and I headed back to see some animals we missed. The girl does love her animals. We found the eagles (not the band, the bird), the kangaroos and the lemurs. Then we met Claude, found the tram and headed back to my car.

We left Grant's Farm very happy we picked that as one of our tourist stops.

Fabulous Friday...

Since I take the longest getting ready, I was always the first one up. We got ourselves ready and headed down for breakfast buffet. Then we were off to St. Louis.

Our first stop would actually be Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site in Collinsville, Illinois. Several years ago Claude and I took an anniversary trip to Natchez, Mississippi. Then we drove the Natchez Trace Parkway to Memphis, Tennessee. In Natchez, Mississippi there was a large 'mound' preserved there and several smaller mounds. I was fascinated learning about this culture of people that lived in the United States so long ago. This Friday we would visit the largest community north of Mexico of the Mississippian culture, Cahokia Mounds.

We started our tour at the Visitor's Center. This huge concrete plaza in front behind the little retaining wall, had colorful line drawings painted on it. These were where different years of buildings would have stood and what their shape would have been when they existed. We arrived just as they were starting the movie about Cahokia Mounds. After the movie we walked through the museum of artifacts and maps and charts, etc. They have a reconstructed section of the village in the museum with mannequins positioned throughout performing the things done in daily life. The neat thing about this particular village is that it backs up against the glass wall behind where the screen is in the theater for the movie. The last scene of the movie is when they raise the screen and light up the village so you can see one side of it through the glass. Very cool.

We went to the doors to the 2, 200 acres the State of Illinois protects. You can walk around this acreage and view the 70 remaining mounds of the 80 that existed originally. When we got to the door, we realized it had started to rain. No thunder and lightning but enough rain one should use an umbrella if they were going to spend any time in it. We opted to browse the gift shop and see if the rain slowed down.

The gift shop yielded postcards, 'tanka' jerky (buffalo) and a Christmas tree ornament. Katelyn was happy to find a machine that smashed pennies so she could increase her collection of smashed souvenir pennies of all of her travels.

We checked the sky again and found the rain had slowed enough to head outside. We found where a parking lot by the largest of the mounds was located while in the gift shop and that would be our destination. But first I had to get pictures of the great marsh across the street from the Visitor's Center. Turned out the deer were just coming out to graze. I wouldn't have expected that until the evening but maybe grazin' is good after a rain. At the far back of this picture are two deer, I promise, you might not see them here but they are really in the back of this picture walking toward the water.

Then Claude chauffeured us over to the Monks Mound parking lot. Let me share first a couple of postcard pictures that give a sense of what this community would have looked like:

Monks Mound is the largest prehistoric earthen construction in the Americas. It contains about 22 million cubic feet of earth. All this earth was dug from 'borrow pits' and transported in baskets on people's backs to form this mound that covers 14 acres and is 100 feet tall. The chief lived in a building on the top of the mound and would conduct ceremonies and govern from this location. It was named after French Trappist monks that lived on a nearby mound from 1809-1813. Monks Mound is the largest mound in the pictures above.

Our goal for this tourist spot was to climb to the top of Monks Mound and view what we could see of the rest of this State Historic Site. We really didn't have time to walk all the paths. Stairs have been built where the steps would have been for the mound. You climb these and are asked to stay off the grass covered earth sides of the mounds. Monks' Mound is actually in two levels. They have been kind enough to provide a bench to sit on after climbing to the first level. Then you climb a 2nd set of stairs to the top.

Katelyn set to exploring what she could see from this wonderful height. Bless her heart, she was the first to spot the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. Since it was a cloudy day and hazy after our morning rain, it was not easy to find the Arch. She was very excited to see it through the haze.

I'm including a picture of two adult people at the top of Monks Mound just at the curve before the flat top. This give a perspective of the size of this mound.

This view is of a lot of the top. I'm at the end near the stairs we climbed to get to the top to take this picture. Claude is directly opposite me at the far edge of the top and Katelyn is on the right side of the top. This is a lot of dirt to haul by hand in baskets to make this mound!!

From the top you can see some of the other mounds and Woodhenge. Woodhenge is the equivalent of Stonehenge and was made of tall tree trunks planted in the ground at specific intervals to determine the changing seasons and ceremonial dates.

Here is a good picture of Katelyn and Claude sitting on top of Monks Mound while I finish taking pictures.

We next headed to Woodhenge. WAY in the background of this picture is a smaller mound and behind it is Monks Mound. This is only one piece of Woodhenge as you can't get it all in one picture from up close. I did take the picture with a telephone pole on the right to show the height of the posts in Woodhenge.

Now we were going into St. Louis to find the Gateway Arch and ride to the top. Claude did this years ago when we were in the Air Force and living in California. He was sent to St. Louis for two months for some kind of training. Nissa was a little one under two years old and I was very, very, very pregnant with Andie and we stayed behind in California. So he was excited about having an opportunity to this again.

I took soooooo many pictures of the Arch. I'll only include a few. We were very fortunate that we easily found the parking garage and headed to the top level to park. This top level exited right into the park around the base of the Arch. The first picture is Claude and Katelyn walking through the park to the Arch. The second is of the Arch through the trees in the park.

We entered the security to get into the base of the Arch. Once again we didn't think to have Claude leave his pocket knife in the glove compartment of the car. The security is like airport security. We figured we would lose another pocket knife to another security system. Claude took his knife out of his pocket and put it in the basket with his change and wallet, they ran it through the security camera and let him enter. Not A Word!!! Unbelievable. We were very grateful we wouldn't have to purchase another pocket knife.

I got in line for our tickets. Claude and Katelyn scouted for food. We had not eaten since that teeny tiny breakfast buffet at the hotel. They came up with a blueberry muffin for me and water. I got the tickets and the available time for the tram to go up the arch was over an hour away.

We spent most of that time going through the Museum of Westward Expansion. There are other documentary films you can pay a fee to see but the Museum of Westward Expansion if free. We managed to go through it backwards. Silly us. But there were wonderful things to view and several places to sit. I got several shots of Katelyn pretending to touch the exhibits. One of my personal favorites was about baseball. They had a wall set up with baseballs in it. There were diagrams of how to hold the baseball to throw certain kinds of pitches. The baseballs were attached to some type of elastic so they would pop right back in the wall. Katelyn really enjoyed trying each pitch.

Time passed fairly quickly and then it was our turn to stand in the line for the tram. They pass out numbers for the tram car you will be loaded into. These cars are really little enclosed cubicles with 5 seats so that 5 adults sit knee to knee. The door closes and you have two tiny windows that you can see a minimal of dark stairs. You stay sitting upright. The tram cars are made so they click into an upright position a few times as you leave the curve at the base of the Arch. Then you have a period of a quick smooth ascent. Then a few clicks as the tram cars keep themselves upright as you finish at the top. I think they operate sort of like ferris wheel cars do. The entire ride up is about 4 minutes one way. There are 8 tram car (cubicles) so they can take about 40 people at a time to the top. When you get to the top you walk up stairs to the very center of the top of the arch. Again there are long windows that you can look down at the Mississippi River and St. Louis. Then it becomes your turn to get in line again to get another tram car assignment for your trip down the Arch.

While waiting in the first line to get on the tram to go to the top, we were given cards with the number 6 on them. There were 3 of us and we knew that meant we would have two other people assigned to car number 6 with us. This lady and her son were given cards and told to come and stand by us in the line. They were from Florida. She was very friendly and immediately told us she was VERY claustrophobic. She anticipated she would scream all the way to the top. She repeated that story with great animation several times and told of times where she had done just exactly that. Then she looked at my hubby and said, "You will save me, won't you?" I just had to shake my head and assure her she asked the 'wrong' person. Oh My!!! The very selfish part of me marvels at people who KNOW they can't do something for a very a valid reason and then thrust themselves into it and make the others who paid dear money to enjoy a once in a lifetime experience miserable. That is the selfish part of me. I admit it resides in me and I do have these feelings. Fortunately, another couple was also assigned to come and stand in line with us. After careful observation, I noticed the new couple had the number 6 on their cards and the claustrophobic lady had number 8 on her card. Yippee!! I say this unabashedly. I can also state for the record the other couple we did ride up with were of like mind and cheer that she was not in their car. Katelyn did say she saw 'claustrophobic lady' at the top of the Arch and I did NOT hear her scream once. Such silliness.

It is 630 ft at the top of the Arch. We had good views of Eads Bridge, Casino Belle, Busch Stadium and the City of St. Louis. Great fun and several pictures were taken.

We all totally enjoyed our trip up to the top of the Arch. So far on Friday we were on top of Monks Mound and on top of the Gateway Arch. Not a bad Friday so far. We also found we were grateful for that great cloud cover all day. The temperature was in the 90's and having clouds overhead really made the heat not nearly as bad as if the sun were shining directly on us.

Now we figured, if we hurried, we could get to the riverboats for a cruise up and down the Mississippi River. Claude and I have found we really enjoy seeing a city from this perspective. It gives one a very different view of the city than a ride through it does. Katelyn had never done a riverboat cruise so this was something she was also very interested in doing. The walk to the riverboats was just out the base of the Arch and down the grand staircase to the street that runs along the Mississippi River. Then just down that street a bit to the riverboat dock.

We got there just in time for the 4:30pm cruise. This was great because the next one would not have started until 6pm. Claude got the tickets and we headed to the top deck of the boat. Our boats name was 'Tom Sawyer'. Once again I got more shots of the Gateway Arch from different perspectives and some shots of scenes along the Mississippi River banks. Here are a few of my favorites - 1) A horsedrawn carriage in front of the flood wall, 2) Eads Bridge with Casino Belle in the archway, 3) the American flag with clouds behind and 4) Katelyn with the Gateway Arch behind her.

Our poor riverboat captain tried to get us through our entire tour and then back to the dock before the real rain hit. However...by the end of the cruise there was lightning in the sky. We left the top deck for the sheltered decks below. As we put into port the rain came down in buckets, I do mean buckets. We were drowned getting from the boat to the cover of the port and the little cafe on the port. We decided to sit it out at the tables in front of the cafe under their cover. I'm posting a picture of Claude sitting at one of the tables. The gray behind him is the rain. The next picture is the view from that table with only a little shower coming down. Buckets I tell you, buckets!

Now, I did have umbrellas, three of them actually. However, they were in the car in the parking garage. That was a street, the grand staircase and a park away. Katelyn and I hit the gift shop. They had ponchos for $2 each. I bought 3 of them. Katelyn also managed to find the penny smashing machine for the riverboats. She smashed her souvenir penny while I searched for a Christmas ornament. After we were successful on both counts we headed back to Claude, donned our gorgeous rain gear and headed for the car. By the time we got to the car the rain was just a little sprinkle.

Our final stop for the day was for dinner. When we travel we try very hard to find local places to eat. I asked some friends who were familiar with St. Louis to recommend some things. I found some ideas on the Internet. We were set to dine in unique spots for this portion of our trip. This was also my birthday and I was ready for a nice big dinner, my blueberry muffin was not creating a full feeling in my tummy anymore.

Our dining destination was Pappy's Smokehouse. We were able to find our way there fairly easily. They had a sign on the front door asking us to enter through the back door. Hmmmmm... We got in the back door and found a line. Hence the need to use the back door so you are at the end of the line easily. Something tells me they do this a lot!! Also by the back door was a sign stating they were already out of ribs and brisket. Hmmmmm... This tells me they are a VERY popular place to eat and the food should be good.

My cell phone rang so I quickly told Claude what I wanted but that I wasn't choosey and I headed outside to take my call. It was the mini-Marx's with a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday to Ma. I told Andie after that I wished I had a recording of that. They were both right on key and at full volume. It was wonderful.

Then I headed back in to find Claude and Katelyn closer to the counter and with a notice there were only a few servings of chicken left. The Pappy's Smokehouse sign and menu state they are open until whatever hour OR until they are out of food. We got to the counter and there was no more chicken, only pork. We each ordered pulled porked dinners. I was very happy they had sweet potato fries and green beans. It was a delicious meal even if our selection was extremely limited. I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting the St. Louis area. But I would suggest you get there early. We got seated and it wasn't but a few minutes and they were out of meat completely. They told us they had an unusually long lunch hour and it ran right into dinner hour. There was a ball game in town that night and that may have had something to do with it.

With dinner enjoyed we were on our way to find our hotel. The next two nights were in the Comfort Inn. Both these two nights were also covered with points and were free to us. What a great way to travel! We nestled in the Comfort Inn and managed to eat our cake for dessert. Happy Birthday to ME!!!

Thursday and They're Off and Running...

Thursday, July 29th, we got Katelyn to work on time and then had  a few hours to get things ready for our trip.  Yes, that's right folks, we were goin' on a road trip for a few days. Claude and I packed and prepared the house to be left for a few days. Then we headed to pick up Katelyn.

Imagine my surprised when we pulled up and Detta Wilson's car was parked in front of City Hall. It was my first big clue something was afoot at the Circle K (alias...City Hall). It turned out Cindy, the City Clerk, and Katelyn prepared a birthday surprise for Detta and me. What fun!!! A card and a little cake to take on our journey to celebrate. The cake had a little 'crab' on top in lieu of the crab feast I would miss since we were not headed to Washington, DC this year. It was a nice beginning to this birthday weekend for me and for Detta. Thank you Cindy and Katelyn!!

Then we piled in my little red car and Claude headed it toward Lexington. He had one meeting to attend to before we could actually buggy on down the road. Katelyn and I found a Sonic and had some lunch while Claude went to his meeting. Katelyn had been wanting to try a foot long chili dog. I told her Mimi & Papa loved those and introduced me to Sonic. She was able to enjoy this treat and we had a chance to chat for a bit. Then we headed to find a gas station to fill up for the road trip. Then back to the Blue Grass A.D.D. building to pick up Claude.

Claude joined us and drove us to Evansville, Indiana for our first stop. We had a nice room at the Holiday Inn Express for FREE!! Yep, I used my points with Holiday Inn and had one free night.

Dinner this night was at a Denny's that was just like a diner from long ago. It was within walking distance it felt good to stretch our legs after riding for several hours. We enjoyed our meals and then headed back to the Holiday Inn Express.

Now for a good nights rest because Friday would be a very early rise time to get on down to St. Louis and be real touristas!