Check out time is noon so we had enough time to visit the Saturday Soulard Farmers Market before we departed St. Louis. Unlike most farmers markets, the prices were not unreasonably high. We bought some cherries, blueberries and an almond croissant at bargain rates. Then we hit the road toward Memphis. We arrived at the Graceland RV Park (fhu 50 amp pull through). Dinner was leftover ribs from Pappy’s which reheated very well.
Day 158, September 6, 2019, Friday. St. Louis, MO
We began with a visit to the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, a Romanesque structure built from 1907 to 1914. The interior is a series of domes and arches with every surface covered in intricate mosaics. The mosaics took 75 years to complete and are spectacular. Next we visited the St. Louis Museum of Art which happened to be free Friday. A special exhibit on Paul Gauguin included some of his early works in addition to his later Tahiti paintings. Many other artists were included in the museum’s collection. After a picnic lunch in the park in front of the museum, we spent more time at the museum but we left early afternoon as we had a 3:00 tour of the Frank Lloyd Wright House in Ebsworth Park. The house is unique as it contains all of the original Wright designed furniture. Unfortunately, no interior photos were allowed so we could not take a photo of the parallelogram bed once our laughter died down. The house is built into the side of a hill so the exterior does not photograph well. Dinner at Pappy’s BBQ where the Food Network voted them the best ribs in the country. We each ordered a full slab with the intention of having leftovers for the next night. The Food Network may be right as the ribs were delicious. Even Rosemary enjoyed them and that’s saying something. Stopping before I ate the entire slab also fit into our plans for more Ted Drewes Custard. This time we arrived at Ted Drewes during daylight hours and only then realized that it is located on US Highway Route 66. So I had to try the Route 66 flavor - root beer and malt. It was good but I think the pistachio was better. Another fun and filling day in St. Louis!
Day 157, September 5, 2019, Thursday. St. Louis, MO
Our campground is fairly close to downtown which is where we headed first. We visited the Gateway Arch National Park which includes a museum, the arch and the old courthouse. The museum is underground and presents the history of St. Louis and the U.S. expansion to the west. The arch commemorates St. Louis’s role in the westward expansion of the U.S. in the 1800's. We had 11:00 tickets to go up the arch. We entered the tram which seats five in very tight quarters. The entrance into the tram is only four feet high which prepares you for the cramped tram. Four minutes to the top, and although a relatively flat floor greets you at the top, to look out the small windows requires you to lean your body across about a 45 degree slant. Amazingly, the view is more than just straight down as you can clearly see the entire two legs at the base. A pretty adrenalin rushing position to be in. The view in the distance is fantastic. You can see the entire city of St. Louis to the west and the Mighty Mississippi and Illinois to the east. We had a clear day and supposedly you can see for 35 miles. The trip up the arch is a MUST DO. A really thrilling adventure. The tram ride down is only 3 minutes. We then walked around the base of the arch and saw the movie on the construction of the arch. Begun in 1963 and completed in 1965, a truly amazing feat of engineering. Each leg was built separately to a height of 630 feet. They had to meet at the top within a tolerance of 1/64th of an inch. The legs had to support not only their own weight, but the weight of scaffolding which housed a crane as ground based cranes were not tall enough to build the arch. The scaffolding had to be extended along with the leg itself and each crane moved up along the scaffolding. At a height of about 500 feet, a brace was needed to tie the two legs together for support. When the last four foot piece was to be installed at the top of the arch, the legs had to be jacked apart for the piece to fit in place. Projections at the beginning were that 13 men would lose their life during construction but not one died in the process. Even more amazing when watching the film and seeing the position the workers had to be in during construction. The Old Courthouse was built from 1839 to 1845 in the Italian Renaissance style and was the site of the Dred Scott trial. Although the jury found that the Scotts should be free, the U.S. Supreme Court in one of its more horrendous decisions reversed the jury in 1857 on the basis that slaves were considered personal property and not citizens and thus, not protected by the Constitution. Thus, the Court sanctioned slavery with this decision. The reaction of opponents to slavery helped move the country toward civil war. We visited the Old Church downtown which with the Old Courthouse are the two remaining buildings dating from the early 1800's. We had lunch at Imo’s Pizza and had another of St. Louis’s specialties, a cracker thin crust and Provel cheese (a blend of cheddar, Swiss and provolone). The pizza is cut into squares. I think I’ll stick with NY or Chicago style. A walk around downtown lead us into Park Avenue Coffee for a piece of mama’s original gooey butter cake, another St. Louis specialty. Delicious but very rich and sweet. A final stop at Foundry Bakery, a bit of a drive from downtown, for bubble teas. I had a taro milk tea and surprisingly, it was made with fresh taro, not the taro powder like all others I have had. Interesting but I’m not sure about the consistency which basically had bits of taro to chew in every sip. Another full and fun day.
Day 156, September 4, 2019, Wednesday. St. Louis, MO (256 miles)
We departed Kansas City and continued eastward and arrived about 4:30 pm and checked into the St. Louis RV Park (fhu 50 amp). We then went to the Hill area which is contains “Little Italy” and had dinner at Favazza’s. One of St. Louis’s specialties is toasted ravioli which is lighly breaded meat ravioli, deep fried and served with a side of marinara. So we had the “T-Ravs” as an appetizer and they were very good. Rosemary’s main course was chicken parm and I had the eggplant parm. With the appetizer and large portions, we had enough for another meal to take home. After dinner, we went to Ted Drewes Frozen Custard for dessert. The place was mobbed but with about nine different lines it moved fast once we figured out what we wanted. We shared a pistachio concrete, which is basically thick custard in a cup supposedly with the consistency of concrete. It was not quite that thick but it was delicious with whole pistachios In every bite.
We planned on a morning visit to the Harley Davidson Kansas City plant but when I called for tour times we discovered it had been closed and consolidated with the York, PA, plant which we had visited a few years ago. So we went to Independence, MO, to visit the Truman Presidential Museum and Library. At the visitor center, we found out the museum was closed for renovations. However, we could visit the Truman House and we had a tour of the interior. The house was built by Bess’s grandfather in 1867 and Bess lived there from 1904 until her death in 1982 except for about 8 years when she lived in that big White House in Washington, DC. The house is as the Trumans left it, very modest as was their reputation. Across the street is the Noland House, relatives of Harry. In 1910, Harry eagerly returned from the Noland House a borrowed cake plate to Bess’s house which event took over two hours. Bess coming from a family of means was initially not interested in Harry, being a poor farm boy. However, Harry was persistent and won her over after nine years! Harry and Bess were married in 1919 and Harry moved into the house. He lived there until his death in 1972, also except for those 8 years. The Noland House is open and contains a small museum on the lives of the Trumans. We spent the afternoon in downtown Kansas City. We parked at Union Station and rode the free street car to the City Market. We found bubble teas at half price Tuesdays at Dragonfly Teazone and we ordered large ones to counter the hot, sunny day. We also walked around downtown a bit but it was too hot so we walked around Crown Center, a three story indoor shopping area next to Union Station. We visited the Shang Tea shop and were treated to four different teas gaiwan style with the owner, Zehua Shang. We purchased golden needle, a black tea, and were more than sufficiently wired after all that tea. We also purchased two moon cakes, one red bean and chocolate and one lotus seed. We then visited the “Plaza” an upscale shopping area and purchased a bottle of wine at Vom Fass, a favorite store of ours. Back at the coach, left over bbq for dinner and moon cakes for dessert topped off a very pleasant day.
Having seen the one and only site in Abilene (the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum), we departed and headed east to Topeka, KS, to visit the State Capitol. Alas, it was closed for the Labor Day holiday. We did get to walk around the building. Next we visited the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site in Topeka. We thought we would just see the Monroe Elementary School, one of the segregated schools that was the subject of the lawsuit. However, inside the school is a museum of not only the lawsuit, but the entire history of the black peoples struggle for freedom and equality in the USA. Very well done but that opinion may be slanted by this lawyer’s interest in the history of the applicable laws. We then continued our drive east to Kansas City, MO, but our campground, Walnut Grove RV Park (fhu 50 amp), was located in Kansas, about 15 minutes from downtown Kansas City. It being about dinner time, we drove to Joe’s Kansas City BBQ in its original gas station location but alas, it was closed for Labor Day. We called a second choice but it was also closed. We ended up at Jack Stack BBQ Freight House and were seated within 15 minutes after our call ahead. I had the 3 meat combo with pulled pork, brisket and pork spare ribs. The ribs were very good although nowhere near the ribs at Salt Lick in Austin. The other meats were good but not the best. Rosemary had both the pork and beef burnt ends and after a complaint about too much fat received another portion of lean meat (enough to take home for another meal - goody!) The beans and coleslaw were great! After dinner, we visited the sculpture garden at the Museum of Art. We did not go to the museum as it is closed Mondays and Tuesdays.
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