6-29-11

This morning we cleaned up Mimi and got her road ready after our long stay here in St. Louis. Before we hit the road, however, we drove back over to the Gateway Arch and took the tiny pod tram to the top. The tram was basically a bunch of little tiny 5 seat eggs hooked together that went straight up the inside of the arch.


It was a little claustrophobic, but the views on the top were worth the 6 minute ride up. Lucca really liked it up on top looking down. I swear she is fearless.











( the last photo was the view of mimi in the park across the river.)
After visiting the arch museum back at the bottom, we went and had a picnic lunch in the park.

Now it was time to hit the road. We had a 15 hour drive ahead of us over the next 2 days.

After a few hours in the car we stopped to visit a friend of Jordan's, Alex, who lives in Columbia, MO. We met him at a beautiful park with a great playground where Jack and Lucca played while we had a nice visit. Sorry Alex don't think you sold us on Columbia...too damned hot. We also hit 10,000 miles while we were driving in to Columbia.



We continued to drive through the night and showed up at our planned campsite in BF (Russel) Kansas. It was still 90 degrees when we pulled in at 2:30 am. It so happened that in the middle of nowhere the site we wanted was full. So we had to drive up the road a little and found another campground where we crashed for the night.

Location:St. Louis, MO - The road- KS

6-28-11

This was the day in St. Louis that I had been waiting for. After packing up the car from our hotel visit, we dropped Lola at mimi ( who was fine) and headed off to the City Museum. The place is really hard to explain, but think chutes and ladders in real life. The place was an 11 story shoelace factory that was taken over by artists and made into an amazing place. There is so much...caves that have tunnels that take you to other parts of the museum, an aquarium, a 10 story slide, a roof top carousel, performance spaces, an old skate park on the 3rd floor that is now just used as a big slide room, ball pits, art rooms, blocks, sponge block rooms, an architectural embellishments museum, cafes, and an intricate outdoor system of ladders and cages that link several airplanes firetruck and other goudyesque sculpture. Kind of like a human hamster playground . Like I said, it must be experienced to really get the idea. Jack was hesitant at first to go through some of the tight, dark spaces. After a while though he was leading me through stuff that I thought I'd get stuck in. If I were 25 years younger this would be my heaven.






When we got there we first explored a little,








then headed to the toddler area where Lucca played with blocks and Jack went into the little ball pit.





Then we all played in the sponge area.






Then jack did the narrow gauge train ride. After a snack we caught a magic show, then had lunch. After lunch Jordan and Lucca took a break while Jack and I explored the caves and many of the tunnels. Then we met up again for a trip up to the 11th floor rooftop. Up here they had a 7 story slide that Jack climbed and slid with no hesitation.








We climbed into the schoolbus that was hanging over the edge of the building. Then he played in the fountain for a while,


climbed to the top of a tower,






and did a huge ropeswing.


Time was running out and we wanted to get to the airplanes out front.








After a little more exploration we ended with a trip to the ball pit.





What a day...

Back at Mimi we had dinner and cleaned up for a long haul tomorrow.

Location:St Louis, MO

6-27-11 Day 77

After waking up in our completely dark, very cozy hotel room Jack said "I like it here, lets stay 11 more nights." That pretty much sums up how we all felt. It was very nice to have some space, a two real beds and a bath tub. We decided to take advantage of this break from life on the road and stay one more night and use the pool and the game area. We ate at the hotel for breakfast then went in the pool, and played way too many of those claw games where you never get anything. Lucca and I went out to get sandwiches for lunch and then we all took a long nap. After nap we went to the hotel restaurant for dinner. The kids took a long bath in a real bath tub. I got a crib for Lucca and made Jack a special bed on the couch so we didn't have to share beds with them. Paul and I watched Water for Elephants and went to bed in separate beds. It may not seem like much but it was heaven for us!

Location:St. Louis, MO

6-26-11

So today starts 5 minutes after yesterdays post was posted. We were just about asleep when Mimi starts to shake from crazy wind. Paul remembers that we left a bunch of stuff outside so I run out to it anchor it all down. The wind is really intense and the thunder and lightning storm is still going strong. (Mimi is one of the lightest weight trailers you can get which is great for gas but not so good for rain and wind, so we hear every drop of rain and rock with the wind.) Paul decides to look at the weather and sees that there is a severe weather warning in effect for 60 mile an hour winds, quarter sized hail and intense lightning storms. Hmmmm, what to do? There is a hotel at the Rv park we are at so that is an option and the cinder block bathhouse is right next to the trailer. As the rain pounds harder and the lightning is striking all around us Paul is getting more and more nervous. He wants to go now and I don't want to go outside at all. After much debate and looking at numerous weather sites we decide to hold tight and agree that if the wind picks up we would leave and go to the hotel. After all it's not the rain and thunder that will harm us in Mimi it's the wind that could be dangerous. We are actually enjoying the sound of the rain and thunder (none of which woke the kids up) so I decide to go to sleep. Paul is still really worried (he keeps us safe) so he stays up until the storm passes around 3:30. Phew that was the worst storm either of us have ever been in.

When we awaken a few hours later we are a little tired to say the least. We decide to head to the zoo for a little bit, I got us tickets for a circus tonight. The zoo is really a nice one. They have really worked on creating beautiful walkways that continue the animals exhibits. Like out side of one of the bird areas there were "nest" holes on the wall with "eggs" laid there. And a dead wood antelope hanging in a tree outside the cheetah enclosure. They also had two baby elephants, which are always a favorite of ours. The cafe we ate at had some really good healthy food, the train was good and they had a carousel that only had animals they have at the zoo. A good zoo!















As soon as we left we the zoo both kids fell asleep so we....,You guessed it, drove while they slept. We did have to rush it a little so that we could get some food into them before we had to get to Circus Flora.



The Circus was good and everyone enjoyed it, but it has been a long day and we were all really tired. On the way home I decided to check the weather to see if we were in for another storm. Yep another severe storm warning but this time it was for a tornado! So with out hesitation we called a hotel and are now enjoying a very large suite at a Holiday Inn. We packed up some important things, gave Mimi a kiss goodbye and hoped that we will see her in the morning.

We were just watching the weather channel and saw some video of the arch (we are staying right next to it)and when the lightning struck you could see the beginnings of a tornado. So we are glad we are here and hope that mimi holds tight.

Location:St. Louis, MO

6-25-11

Today we planned on spending time with the least vocal and most neglected member of our family, Lola. She has been so good, patiently riding in the back of the truck for hours at a time with no complaints. Our camp here in St. Louis is basically a big parking lot for a casino, and directly across the Mississippi from the St. Louis Gateway Arch.





There is a big park at the base of the arch, so that is our destination for the day. We saw a big helicopter in the park when we drove in and saw people getting to tour it. Jack was real excited... When we got to the park, before we headed over to the helicopter, we hung out in the grass for a bit and let Lola play, the we headed down towards the Arch.





As we got closer, we noticed more military vehicles, and booths, and heard marine recruiting propaganda being played over the loudspeaker. Apparently today was the culmination of Marine week in St. Louis. We let Jack go in the helicopter, but nervously steered clear of the kids trying out the machine guns.











After hanging out for a bit in the shadow of the arch, we moved on to an empty part of the park.





I took some photos and even got to see the mississippi starting to flood. It seems like whenever we are around, the Mississippi decides to flood.


















We went back to Mimi for naps, which we all took. For the afternoon, after a misguided adventure into a scary part of town, we ended up at a mall for dinner. Of all the places...we ended up at the California Pizza Kitchen. Before we got our food Lucca was chewing on crayons when she gagged, and threw up all over the place. We managed to clean up before anyone noticed, but had to sit with a stinky Lucca for the rest of dinner. Back at Mimi we settled down for bed as the rain started, again.

Location:St. Louis, MO

6-24-11

Another big day on the road. On the way into our site last night we saw a sign for a place called "The Wilds". We asked the camp host and he said it was a real neat place. So this morning we took a detour and headed into "The Wilds". After driving what seemed like hours on back roads, we pulled into the parking lot only to find out that we could not park on the grounds and leave Lola in the trailer as planned. At least there was an option given, so I dropped of the family and drove back about a mile and left the trailer and truck in a pull out that was off of the property. I decided to ride my bike back to the parking lot where Jordan and the kids were waiting. Unfortunately, when I pulled my bike down, the tires were flat. After a quick fix, I rode back. We took the shuttle up up the hill and discovered what the Wilds were about. Apparently this whole area was a old strip mine that was donated to the Colombus Zoo in the 80's ( Jack Hannahs zoo) The zoo restored about 10,000 acres of the land, but because of the lost soil they could only grow grass. This created a perfect environment to build the countries biggest wild animal conservation park.


The tour we took lasted about 2.5 hours and we saw all kinds if endangered animals. We even had the luck to see some baby cheetahs, and a rhino came right up to the open air bus.




















After some lunch, I went back got Mimi and picked up Jordan and the kids right as another big storm was coming through. We decided to make a big push to St. Louis. This time we drove about 7 hours and pulled into camp about midnight. I think all the time in the car is getting to us. We are all tired and cranky. Some rest here in St. Louis will hopefully help.

Location:Oh-St. Louis