Installment Six of our 2010 Journey

We prefer to travel on Sundays as the traffic through big cities is usually lighter. Also departing at 7 am finds little or no wind and this morning found a beautiful sunrise. The drive to St. Louis took us seven hours including fuel and rest stops for us and The Girls.

Instead of going through Indianapolis as our mapping program directed, we went through Louisville on I-64 which is a lot smoother road than I-70. It’s worth driving the fifteen extra miles. We arrived at our RV Resort in St. Charles, MO early afternoon just in time for a nap, another reason for leaving early. It is very nice to be in a park that has all concrete and grass.

We did the typical tourist things like visiting the Arch. As we entered the underground visitor’s center, we had to go through metal detectors, just like at the airport. Five security staff made us take everything out of our pockets and place it in a plastic tub, as if we were taking a flight. We then went through the metal detector. Jim made it through fine but Sheryl’s titanium hip set the alarms off. A few more security people arrived, and after an explanation, all was fine. The good thing is that they didn’t strip search her and we didn’t take our shoes off. But, Sheryl asked that they scan the hip again because she liked the sound of her great new hip! Think of the cost to keep this National Monument safe. There are two entrances so double the number of security people standing around, our estimate there are about thirty.

Once inside the visitor’s center, we went through the Westward Expansion Museum, we were impressed and it would have been easy to go around another time. Click on the picture to see the slide show.



The best thing about the whole “arch” experience was that we discovered St. Louis got the idea from McDonalds.