Aug 24, 2010 - Home of the Blues

Hone of the blues. Campground right in city, river and at a casino, caching. Had to cut across some lanes to make the turn or we would have ended downtown, fast hands lol. Set up right across from the huge arch that is the gateway to the west very nice. Off to casino as we call for a Ride that is provided what a place. i as usual had no luck Randi provided the winnings as usual and came home with more than she went with. Ate at the big buffet in casino too much as usual and back to rig to drift off listening to night trains go chugging by

Jul 1, 2010 - Finally arrived at Campground

We've arrived at our Campsite at the Casino Queen RV Lot. So happens, we are in the parking lot of the Casino Queen, with a beautiful view of the St Louis Arch. We're here because I want to see the July 4th fireworks over the Arch. Bonus, we changed time zones so we are an hour earlier than we thought. :-) Bobby

Jun 18, 2010 - Friday Moline, IL

Bob got up early and took the car into get new tires. By the time, he got back the sky was looking pretty threatening. Bob decided to play some putt golf until the storm "hit". Well it hit pretty damn fast. The power went off and I stuck my head out to see where Bob was and the door almost blew off the hinges. I grabbed my camera and snapped a few shots - got a great one of what they call a shelf cloud here - before the rain and wind really hit. Grabbed Darby, jumped into the car and headed over to the club house to wait out the storm Once...

Jun 17, 2010 - Thursday Moline, IL

This morning we drove to the Swedona Lutheran Church. Bob had recently discovered that he was baptized at this church. This is the church where Bob's mother and her siblings were baptized and confirmed. Marlene Metzger (Bob's cousin) said that her cousin Jean Cooper was a member at the church and would be happy to meet us there to look through the church's old records. Although Jean wasn't there when we arrived, the church secretary was expecting us and showed us to the basement and got out all the old church records. Bob found the entries...

Jun 16, 2010 - Wednesday Moline, IL

We met a whole horde of Bulls for breakfast at a place called Ice Cream Palace. Now the strange thing about having breakfast here is that they serve Mexican food - for breakfast?? and they do not sell ice cream (what's with that name?? The group then split in half with half going over to see Joe Jr's new RV and the other half heading to the casino. Our plan was to go see the RV and then to go to the casino. We never made it to the casino. Joe and Amy's new RV is parked on Jim's property. It was currently running off of a 30 amp hook-up but...

Jun 14, 2010 - Monday, East St Louis, IL

Arrived at a resort that cousin Marlene had recommended. It's a RV park associated with a casino. R-E-A-L-L-Y nice park. We were a little concerned going there as Bob remembered this part of St Louis as not being the best part of town and the road was a little questionable getting to the park. But it was very clean, immaculately so. Well landscaped. Security patrolled 24/7, a 12 foot chain link fence with security cameras completely surrounding the RV compound. We could see the famous St Louis Arch, "gateway to the west", out our front...

Sep 25, 2009 - St. Louis, MO

Sept. 24--After getting settled at the Casino Queen, we drove the Honda across the Mississippi to St. Louis, MO and visited Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site. The property, known as White Haven, was first owned by Grant's father-in-law, Colonel Dent, a fine southern gentleman, and was a working farm of approximately 850 acres. Dent owned slaves and this did not sit well with Grant. He never liked the idea of "owning" a person. Over the years Grant bought the farm from Dent, and worked in the fields along with the laborers. He expanded...

Sep 24, 2009 - East St. Louis, IL

The bus is parked in East St. Louis, IL at the Casino Queen RV Park ========================================================================= Drivers Log: 569 miles this leg, 9497 miles total. How we got here--See Google Map "Drive to East St. Louis, IL" -- A to B 214 miles overnight at WalMart, B to C 254 miles overnight at WalMart, C to D 101 miles arrive Casino Queen ========================================================================= We have had rain at some point everyday since leaving West Virginia. Sometimes light rain,...

Sep 24, 2009 - East Saint Louis, IL

Thursday, Sept 24 – Springfield, Missouri to East Saint Louis, Illinois The skies were grey and it drizzled and rained all day (yuck!) We turned to billboards to some color and amusement and here are our favorites: Russell Stover chocolate outlet (free samples!!!) Franklin Mint outlet for discontinued items Cheese outlet (yes really, cheese!) Darby Pottery factory seconds (when you want to give/have second best?) Case Pocket Knives factory outlet (do you have to be ‘sharp’ to work there?) Meramec Caverns: hideout of Jesse James, includes a...

Sep 20, 2009 - East St. Louis, IL

Our short visit to Springfield, Il is over and it's another short ride today to East St. Loius, IL. We're staying at the Casino Queen RV Park for 4 nights while we visit the St. Louis, MO area. The park is right across the river from MO and we can see the Gateway arch from our campsite. Despite the rather gloomy weather while we were there Bill finally got some sunset shots.

Jul 17, 2009 - East St Louis

Casino Queen RV Campground, great location if you want to sight see St Louis. Very close to Busch Stadium so you get a great view (and sound) of the fireworks when they play night games. MetroLine stops at the Casino so you can ride that instead of driving, but its kind of expensive we bought 2 all day passes for total of 15.00. A one way to each destination is 2.25. The all day fee is okay if where you want to go is near the metro, otherwise, its cheaper to drive.

Jun 19, 2009 - day 5

got up early, left for the arch. went to top 637 feet in capsule. beautiful view. took the tom sawyer river boat down the mississippi for an hour, rode the tram around the loop, checked out the pool and casino at the hotel across the street from the rv park, lost 20 bucks. came back to the rv around 3, took nap, showered, Tony ate burgers. Leo, Bunny and I went to the casino. I broke even (50) they won about 100. It is now mightnight, tony is sleeping, our first storm has arrived, I'm glad cause the RV need a good cleaning. We will get up,...