Day 11: Day-Trip to St. Louis

Today we made a 'run' (literally - since we went straight there and back in a day, virtually without stopping...) over to St. Louis (just a couple of hours away).  As close as we already were, and with all the studies we've been doing on this trip about the U.S. westward expansion - Lewis & Clark; Santa Fe Trail; Oregon Trail; California Trail; Mormon Trail; Pony Express; Transcontinental Railway; etc. - it seemed almost a crime not to go the extra couple hundred miles to the National Memorial built just for this!  And, of course, since reading about it in the Percy Jackson series, the kids wanted to go up the Arch!!

The trip there was both short and long.  Short, as in we did nothing but drive and work on our journals.  Long, as in it was 130 miles each way (I know, relatively short driving day to our current standards...).  It was long, as in we left Mary's apartment at 8 AM and didn't return until nearly 10 PM.  It was short, as in all we managed to do in that time was see the Memorial and Arch, and attend a letterboxing event.  (For some of our friends, it will come as no surprise that we chose to spend 1/2 of the time we had in that historic city meeting a group of other letterboxers...)

We didn't stop to take any pictures along the way, but the first thing we did once we got to St. Louis was to drive across the river to Illinois.

It was kind-of a cheat, but the kids are counting states they've been through on the trip, and by crossing the Mississippi (which, by the way, was the first time they'd ever seen that river...), they got to add Illinois to the growing list.

And, by coming back across the river on one of the city bridges instead of the Interstate, we got this awesome view of the Arch!!

The next several hours were spent going up the arch, and then doing another Junior Ranger program at the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial.  Click here to see those pictures.

After the Memorial, it was a quick drive (and a not-so-quick stop at McDonald's to get a very late lunch) over to Tower Grove Park for a letterboxing event & fundraiser for the St. Louis Shakespeare Festival called "The Taming of the Clue".

This was an awesome park - very cool layout and architecture!

It was nice to meet up with a bunch of the local letterboxers.

A small 'flurry' of exchanging went on... exchanging stamps and stories!

Then, after MO UR4Me (that's her trail name) got done with the teaching part for all of the new folks, the kids & I went hunting the boxes planted for the day with momma4 and her girls.

It was great fun, and Kayl made some new friends!

We didn't get any pictures, but on the way home we stopped off in Wentzville at a pizza place recommended to us for not only some good food, but for a great letterbox!

Quick Stats:
total mileage so far - 2954
hours driving - 50
States - 10 (73 counties, 6 state capitals)
sites/parks/monuments - 19
Junior Ranger badges - 8 (& 1 Junior Paleontologist badge!)
letterboxes - 19 (1 Blue Diamond!)
Meet & Greets - 1 (6 Exchanges, 4 PTs)