We arrived at the Granite City KOA about 3 and got settled in and decide this would be the day to get the laundry done. An always recurring chore, but with multiple washers and giant dryers to never takes too long. Then it was time to settle down for a nice chefs salad and watch Dancing with the Stars.
Oct 11 The Arch We are moving slow, and just take our time getting started, but by this afternoon we head into St Louis to see the Arch. I remember following the building of this monument to Westward expansion. I saw the arch once before, at the end of a Mississippi River Cruise, we were docked at the base but we didn't have time to actually see any more. As there was construction going on all around the monument we were lucky to find a place to park nearby and thats not easy with the dually. We got tickets to ride the tram up to the top and it is a pretty spectacular view from the top. We wandered through the exhibits all about the building of the monument and when we realized it was 4, we were ready to get out of town before the traffic gets to bad.
Oct 12 Wed. Cahokia The Indian Mounds. This is another reason for stopping in the area and we are not disappointed. We think of our society as so advanced and then we find evidence of 40,000 people living in a city covering 80 acres here from 600-1300 AD. This Mississippian Culture City exceeded anything in America up until the 1780's when Philadelphia reached that size. The peoples of this area cultivated Maize, Legumes, and Squash. They left no written history so the research continues as to what their society was really like. We climbed the stairs to the top of the largest mound and even though it was an overcast day we could make out the skyline of St Louis off to the west.
Oct 13 Thursday. The Melvin Price Locks and Dam. On our drive into the area we had gone by several signs for Lewis and Clark Monuments so today we decided to take a drive back north and see what we could see. We pulled into a area marked Great Rivers Museum. We ended up at the Melvin Price Locks and Dam, operated by the Army Corps of Engineers. This Lock replaced an earlier Lock 26 and was opened in 1994. The main lock is 1200 ft long and 110 ft wide which will accommodate the full boat which is 5X3 barges and the goal of all the locks on the river is to maintain a 9 ft navigation channel the full length of the river. The 9 tainter gates each 110ft wide by 42ft high and looks pretty impressive from the side of the river. The guide who took us around said they were raising the gates to drop the river at the migratory water fowl refuge up river. Its the time of year when the birds are starting to migrate, just like us. Heading south.
Oct 14 Friday. Lewis and Clark Museum and Confluence Driving along Highway 143 we had seen a tower, seemed interesting, a Lewis and Clark memorial that gives us a view of the confluence, and that is what you can just see behind us in the picture, thats the confluence of the Missouri and the Mississippi rivers where Lewis and Clark started their trip. They don't really know where the camp was that Lewis and Clark spent the winter at. All evidence is gone so there is a cluster of Lewis and Clark memorials all along the river where we stayed. We spent the better part of the day a Lewis and Clark Museum. We have been having some pulling issues with the truck and we got an appointment to take it in tomorrow.
Oct 15 Saturday New brakes on the truck, The Saint Louis Zoo.
We got the truck in early and found that we had a bad caliper, so new calipers and a new brake job, again. Maybe this time we found the problem at the route of the brake issue. Then we head on over the river to the St Louis Zoo. Really great Zoo, but it closes early so we make a priority list and see the few things that we really want to. We thought the Orangatans were going to stay hidden but after a few minutes we saw an arm and then the mom came out into view and a juvenile. They are very entertaining.
Oct 16 Sunday Drive to Horse Cave KY and we had to get this picture because for the last 5 days we have been right off old Route 66, we saw this sign everyday, and even crossed over Chain of Rocks Bridge, also part of the old Route 66, not used any more except by locals.
We got settled in at the KOA at Horse Cave Kentucky and once again, almost no internet, unless we want to go up to the office and sit at picnic table. Well we have a few caves we want to check out here, so we will be busy.
Oct 17 Monday. Mammoth Cave We head on into Mammoth Cave National Park and the headquarters to see what is available in the way of tours. There is really only 2 tours available this afternoon, so we buy our tickets and also pick up a pair of tickets for tomorrow for one of the other caves. The tour includes a bus ride to the new entrance and a nice walk underground. The guide warned about the number of stairs that we would need to navigate, but having navigated Wind Cave we weren't too worried about it and it was a nice walk. As a novice caver Danny got to see formations that were incredible to contemplate. One drip of water at a time, seeping down though the strata depositing the tiniest amount of calcium carbonate and other minerals forming drapes or stone. It is amazing! I never cease to be in awe, even after 20 some caves, and hope to see many more. Our drive home is an alternate route out of the park and we happen by an old cemetery and decide to check it out. This was part of the land that was acquired when Mammoth Cave Park was formed, so the old church is still there and it is apparent that this was a cemetery used by the families in the area. We even found one gravestone that talked about the occupant having died in a cave. humm.
Oct 18 Tuesday. Great Onyx Cave, National Corvette Museum. Up early this morning and letting Butter stay home in the comfort of air conditioning as we have a busy day planned. First our morning tour to Great Onyx Cave. This tour requires a slightly longer bus ride and we end up going out the road we had taken the evening before. This Cave was privately owned and developed and was quite a going concern for many years. The gal that ran it was quite an entrepreneur in her time. Enticing people in and then baiting with whats around the next turn, "but oh no thats another tour". Funny, some things never change. This cave isn't artificially illuminated so they hand out Coleman lanterns to every fourth or fifth person and I was one of the lucky ones. We just need to make sure we keep the lanterns spread along the line of people so everyone has a fairly illuminated pathway. WE also got the story about the guy who died in one of the local caves. He went off exploring alone and dislodged a boulder which pinned him in pace. He was discovered but none of the rescue attempts were successful.
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| deep in the cave and no flashes allowed this was the best we could do |
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| This was just at the entrance to Great Onyx Cave |
After the tour we decided to head to Bowling Green. My brother had asked if we knew that the National Corvette Museum was near us. No we didn't, but we do now. Had a nice simple lunch at the Corvette Cafe and spent the rest of the afternoon touring the history of The Corvette. We also got to see where the 60-foot-long, 45-foot-wide, 30-foot-deep sinkhole opened up and ate 8 classic corvettes. We saw that and we saw the cars that were victims of the same ground formation that formed the great caves just to the north.
I am not a serious "car" person, but this museum did give me pause and made me dream of driving down some country road in a convertible corvette, a red one, a 1967, yep I can see that so clearly.
Oct 19 Wednesday Drive to Pell City, AL across Tennessee This was a long drive, but we had decided to alter our plans and take in a Nascar race, so the race is on. We actually had another night at the KOA but as there was no real driving need to stay, and the internet was non existent we decided to just hitch up and head on down to Alabama.
Oct 20 Thursday Talladega. We went over to Talladega today to pick up our tickets for Sundays Race and go through the museum. When we arrived there was a tour of the track heading out so we bought tickets and headed out in a small bus for a driving tour of the whole complex. It was pretty amazing to see the 33 degrees of banking on turns 1 & 2 and I sure couldn't see the difference when we rounded over to turns 3 & 4 at 32.4 degrees. I can tell you that the track looks really narrow when it is up on edge, but visualizing 3 cars wide rounding those turns made it extreme.
Then we took our time wandering through the museum and found several hours later we really needed to get home and have some dinner. Its exhausting to walk and read!
When we got back home we had new neighbors pull in, 2 couples in a nice 5th wheel. After introductions we found they were here for the races also and they would be going over Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The important part of this is that they said they knew all the back roads and we could get to the parking lots with little to no waiting. That will be very welcome.
Oct 21 Friday. As this is another park with very poor internet, we can get on early in the morning or late at night. So today we were determined to find a good wifi service and we didd. The City Library, we went in and got a few hours of catching up, and I got the last blog posted. As it was getting late we decided to go out to dinner and found the Pell city SteakHouse. I ordered the special of the day and Danny got a RibEye, he told the waitress it was the toughest piece of steak he had ever had. She didn't offer to return it to the kitchen, and he didn't push it, Butter got more then half that steak. My pork chops were really great and we shared a piece of Apple pie that was pretty darn good. This is not a place I would recommend.
Oct 22 Saturday We took an easy day today. Hung around home and rested.
Oct 23 DEGA As a Nascar fan this was on the bucket list and somehow I still am just a little giddy that I get to go to Talladega. Our neighbors proved to be invaluable as they led us right into the parking lot nearest our seats and I was confident that I could navigate us back home at the end of the day. We arrived early and had our soft side cooler with lunch and drinks for the day and we located our seats and dropped off the cooler so we could gl see the souvineer trailers. I was very disappointed. For all the years at Infineon, all the drivers had their own trailers, you could wander and pick just the right trinket, but here Nascar has a huge area and all the drivers 'stuff' is under long tents, with the amount available determined by some factor of popularity I suppose. Sort of a let down, but Danny found a t-shirt for the Track Talladega 2016, and we found him a ticket holder so he would always know where it was. Then it was time to head to the seats and get some lunch and rest our very tired feet.
Oct 24 Monday. The truck "service engine soon" light had come on when we were on our way down from Kentucky and This was the soonest we could get it into the shop, so here we are again. Danny takes the truck in and I am just going to hang around home and collect the laundry to get done. He comes back in about 1 hr and tells me they found the problem and ordered a new sensor, so he has to take it back at 1. That leaves me with plenty of time to head up to the laudramat. 2 hrs later all the cloths are folded and he is headed back to get the sensor replaced. Hopefully we will be ready to hit the road tomorrow.
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