May 8, 2013 - Kansas City to St. Louis

The ride from KC to St. Louis is about 285 miles on Hwy 70 the whole way. Not a bad drive with lots of green pastures and occasional farms. Stopped in Columbia to take a look at the college, the University of Missouri (Mizzoo Tigers). “The Zoo” has quite a sports complex! Near Jefferson City ( the state capitol and a fair drive from Hwy 70) we stopped in Kingdom City for some groceries. (Is now over 80 degrees and humid.) The Carlson’s recommended Laumeier Sculpture park which is SW of St, Louis near the junction of Hwy 270 and Hwy 44....

Apr 29, 2013 - Ever camped in an industrial park?

Another short entry...other than construction, truckers, flooded rivers and fields not much to see. This campground turned out to be in an industrial part just across the state line from St. Louis. Tomorrow's goal is Gateway Arch. Anyway, you can imagine our joy to find that 1/2 the campground was filled with workers on the oil pipeline. Good for the campground and actually they were a quiet bunch. Otherwise the campground would have been empty this time of the year. Had a nice site under a just budding tree and could walk Colden out of...

Aug 4, 2012 - St. Louis, MO

We left our campground early to see the sights. We stopped first at the Lewis and Clark Center in Hartford, Illinois. You can see from there the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. Lewis and Clark had their campsite there and this is where they made all of their final preparations for the trip. The museum had a replica of L&C’s keelboat, showing how they packed everything. They would have been in big trouble if they had lost that keelboat! From there we went to St. Louis and had lunch just below the Arch. We debated going...

Aug 3, 2012 - Illinois!

Wanting to take showers and not wanting to unhook the trailer we asked the camp host if she thought we could turn around at the location where the showers were. She said she wasn't sure but said we could take her car anytime..."the keys are in the console." What service! So we hit the road feeling very refreshed. Now it seems that the storm from Colorado has followed us. The sky to the west is very dark and lightning is everywhere. It seems this area has had hardly any rain since late April just small little showers although not enough to...

May 20, 2011 - St. Louis, MO

We are staying in a KOA in Granite City, IL on the east side of the Mississippi River. I was quite surprised at the river here. It's not a flowing, wide expanse of fairly clean water like it is up in Iowa, but a dirty, swirling, narrower river that makes me think of the Missouri at Omaha. It is presently 20' deeper than normal and has flooded a parking lot and several statues near the arch. Meriwether Lewis appears to be fighting for his life in perhaps 5' of water. We drove over the old, rough brick streets for a few blocks before...

May 19, 2011 - Granite City KOA

We traveled all day in the rain and it appears we are escorting this weather system as it moves eastward. The trip across Missouri on I-70 was actually very pretty as we drove over the rolling hills and enjoyed the beautiful greenness covering the landscape. We ended-up at a Cracker Barrel in Columbus, MO for a late lunch. We haven't made our grocery store trip yet, but that will come soon...Sandy

Sep 16, 2010 - South thru Illinois

We left northern Chicago in the RAIN, traveling slowly and carefully along bad roads and worse traffic through Chicago. It really tired Larry out just getting out of the city. The rest of the day's travel was along peaceful farmland. There were pockets of commercial & industrial areas, but mostly farms. We stopped for the night in Granite City, Illinois, near St Louis, MO. The Elks lodge was nice with RV parking including 30amp electric and water. We had hoped to visit with our dear friend Jane, but she called us to say she was really sick...

Jul 2, 2010 - Granite City, IL

Three states, 326 miles, and we’re back in Central time in Granite City, IL, just northeast of St. Louis. We bid good-bye to Kentucky pretty fast with an easy enough ride through Louisville. There was a little road construction in Indiana but it didn’t slow us down too much. We hit a few rest areas and had lunch at a rest stop. As we rode through southern Illinois, traffic started picking up a bit with the weekend holiday makers. We arrived here pretty early but it was a challenge getting set up so we could get a good satellite signal;...

Apr 26, 2009 - Granite City, IL - St. Louis Gateway Arch

(Ron Writing) We attended Sunday School and worship service at the First United Methodist Church in Festus, MO. Our Sunday school class was led by a very delightful and insightful 78 year old lady. Before and during the worship service there was some special music which we really enjoyed. Brad Madson, a professor of jazz music played piano; Al Sherman, a former high school band director and now playing professionally in several groups and on cruise ships was on the bass fiddle; and Mark Caputo was on the alto sax. The trio were very good...

Sep 22, 2007 - Springfield to Granite City, IL

Raised my blinds this morning and I wasn't alone at Walmart...4 RV's and 2 tractor trailers. This portion of the trip was on rough roads paralleling the interstate. In Mt. Olive, I pulled into a Dollar General to get change for the donation collectors at the stop sign. Turned out there was a young man sitting outside the door collecting. Also, a lady selling caps for the highschool. I visited with them for awhile. Next door to the Dollar General was Russell Soulsby Shell Station, circa 1926...looked in the windows at the old relics. In...