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A GATEWAY TO THE WEST

MONDAY

TRAVEL DAY
YEAR #2 - STOP #54

Today was a relatively short travel day, just 73 miles due west from our previous campsite. We are camped here at the Casino Queen RV Park for two nights for just one reason, and it's not to gamble in the casino, although I did donate $100 by way of a blackjack dealer.

We are just outside of St. Louis, MO on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River. From here we plan to spend all day tomorrow exploring one of the newest National Parks, The Gateway Arch. Up until February of 2018 the arch was known as the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial.

TUESDAY - Today we have reservations to visit Gateway Arch National Park in St. Louis, MO. Our tickets include a 30-minute documentary film explaining how the Arch was constructed back in the 1960s. Also included are a tram ride up to the top of the Arch and a short riverboat tour on the Mississippi River.

It was interesting watching the 1960's footage of the construction. Workers with no apparent safety harness or tethers working that high up off the ground and still being able to smoke a cigarette. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) wasn't formed until December of 1970 and after viewing this film I can understand why. When construction was begun it was estimated that 13 workers would die building this arch and yet not a single life was lost when it was completed.

The tram ride up to the top was very interesting! Five passengers at as time were jammed through a 4-foot high door into this very compact egg-shaped pod. Then you begin a four minute ride up to the top. It feels like a ferris wheel ride because the pod keeps shifting to adjust for the curvature of the arch's leg. You can see the infrastructure of the arch through the glass door during the entire ride. We were lucky! They weren't that busy and we had a pod all to ourselves for the ride up.

We weren't quite as lucky for the ride down. We were assigned to a pod with three strangers and sat shoulder to shoulder for the three minute return trip back down to the base of the arch. After the tram ride we had plenty of time to get lunch in the cafe and explore the museum before our scheduled riverboat ride.

When we arrived at the riverboat dock we were surprised when the couple we had shared the tram ride down with walked up behind us to wait in line. We nodded hello and I joked that they were following us. After the riverboat ride we walked several blocks to the truck, got in and started driving towards a famous frozen custard stand some ten miles away.

About four blocks from the riverboat, just before we were about to get on the Interstate we caught a red light downtown. Who walks up to the nearly empty intersection to cross in front of us? The same couple from before. I rolled down my drivers side window and yelled across the street, NOW I KNOW YOU'RE FOLLOWING US. The guy looked very startled and pulled his wife one step backwards before I saw on his face that he recognized who we were. Then with a big smile on his face he shook a fist in our direction before we pulled away.

St. Louis's waterfront district is known to be a high crime area. After the light turned green and I pulled away I thought, for many reasons, maybe yelling from a truck, at a nearly complete stranger, might have not been such a great idea.

Anyway we found our frozen custard stand and made it safely back home. Here are a few photos from yesterday and today's explorations.

GATEWAY ARCH NATIONAL PARK

The park next to the casino had a tiered observation platform (as seen of the left).
View from the fist level of the platform.
View from the second level of the platform.
Finally a view from the top level of the platform.
Later that night from the same top level view.
Next day...our view from where we parked ROVER next to the Mississippi River.
Walking towards the base of the Gateway Arch.
That's where we are headed! The views must be wonderful from up there.
Closer to the base of the Arch now.
Oh good, we'll have views out both sides of the Arch.
The new Busch Stadium opened in 2006.
As you can see there's no ballgame being played today.
The Old Courthouse and the circular object in the foreground is the underground Visitor Center for the Arch.
A view from the riverboat.
The Historic Eads Bridge (built 1874) is the oldest bridge that crosses the Mississippi River.
can you spot ROVER parked on the bank of the Mississippi River?
Time to leave Casino Queen in Illinois for more adventures in Missouri!


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HARVEST MOON OVER ILLINOIS

FRIDAY

TRAVEL DAY
YEAR #2 - STOP #53

"Land of Lincoln"
is our 24th visited state

Nothing unusual about today's long moving day, other than the fact it was on a Friday the 13th. We seldom move on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday, if we can avoid it. We don't like arriving on the same day that all of the weekend campers do. By doing this we can avoid the long check-in lines at the ranger station.

The first 160 miles today was due west on Interstate 64 and then 26 miles due north on a two lane County Road through the small town of Carlyle, IL (population 3300). We arrived a little before 2:00PM and luckily there was no check-in station, just drive to your reserved campsite and setup.

“Groundhog”
WELCOME to Hazlet Sate Park!

There was a Welcoming Committee (of one) waiting for us at our campsite! This huge groundhog was patrolling the back of our campsite where it meets the shoreline of Lake Carlyle. He stood there sniffing the air for a few moments and then scurried down the bank and disappeared into a hole.

Another aspect to our Illinois welcoming was being treated to a Harvest Moon on our first night here. All photos below were taken on our campsite.

“Moonrise”
Our home for the next ten days!

“Moonrise”
It was still a little bright out when the moon first came over the horizon...

“Moonrise”
... but it quickly became dark enough to see the moon beams over the lake.

SATURDAY - Today we are visiting our sixth of twenty four World Heritage Sites here in the United States. The Cahokia Mounds were constructed over a 300 year period more than 600 years ago. We held off our visit here until the weekend because their activities calendar showed there would be a small group of Chickasaw Indians giving a live presentation on Native Storytelling and Stomp Dancing. It was interesting to listen and watch their demonstrations.

In addition to the live demonstrations there was a theatre with a 20 minute documentary film explaining the location of the mounds and the history of the people who inhabited this city. It was pointed out that at the height of population here in the 1200's that it had more people living within this city than did London, England at the time.

Inside the Visitor Center was a very large and informative museum, with dioramas and artifacts to show what life at Cahokia could have been like. We could have spent hours inside the museum and not seen it all. The gift shop held authentic arts and crafts, jewelery and reference books on Mississippian Indian culture.

CAHOKIA MOUNDS

The view of Monks Mound from across the street at the Visitor Center.
Looking back down the 154 steps we took to reach the top.
The flat top of Monks Mound where the chief's home would have been.
Looks like someone is having a picnic down there...
... nope. Another dig is going on to find more clues to the past life here at Cahokia.


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IS MY GPS BROKEN, OR WHAT?

MONDAY

TRAVEL DAY
YEAR #2 - STOP #52

Today's travels are a relatively short 50+ miles. The first 45 miles are due south and the last 5 are westerly. When we begin our towing days one of the first things I do is mount our GPS and THE POD's backup camera monitors on the dashboard.

Imagine my surprise when our GPS estimated our arrival time at the next campground to take only 10 minutes? I thought great, one more thing to try and get figured out. It got even a little more confusing when 15 minutes into our move the GPS told me I arrived 5 minutes ago?

With our route today being primarily south, and we weren't crossing any state lines, it never occurred to me that we could possibly be crossing into the Central Time Zone. But that's exactly what happened! It seems the northwest and southwest corners of Indiana are indeed in a different time zone. That's where we are this week, in the southwest corner of Indiana.


Map is courtesy of Wikipedia

 Why aren't time zone lines straight up and down on the map? Anyone?
• • • PLEASE USE THE COMMENT SECTION BELOW IF YOU KNOW THE ANSWER! • • •

TUESDAY - Today we saw our first hummingbird of the year! We haven't seen one since last August when we were visiting Delaware.

We were sitting inside THE POD with the windows open, working at the dinette, when we heard this flutter of activity outside. A hummingbird was there, two feet outside our rear window, just hovering and looking in at us. He seemed to be wondering why we didn't have our feeder out for him to get a drink.

Well Tricia immediately had me get our feeder out from he back of ROVER and she got started mixing up a batch of sugar water. Thirty minutes later we were all set up and then we waited. It didn't take long, thirty minutes later he was back and took a long drink. This guy quickly became pretty comfortable with our feeder because now he doesn't even continue flying while getting his drink. He lands with both feet on the edge of the feeder and takes longer drinks each time.

For the rest of Tuesday, all day Wednesday and most of Thursday (when we were around to watch) he was back to get a drink about every thirty minutes before flying off to who knows where.

We know there is a least one other hummingbird around because occasionally he gets chased off the feeder by another bird. They come and go so fast we never get to see them both at the same time. If they are both getting a drink they must be identical twins because we can't tell them apart.

THURSDAY - Since we arrived here in the Hoosier National Forest the temperatures have been in the low 90s each afternoon. We have been running our A/C each day and then turning it off again when going to bed. The forecast for today is once again in the low 90s so today we are going to escape the heat by visiting a pair of caves. Located just outside of the forest and just 100 feet below ground the constant temperature in the caves is in the mid-50s.

Marengo Cave and Squire Boone Caverns are very similar in size and the quantities of formations there are on display. Most of our photos are from Marengo Cave because they have illuminated it with a few more lights and it makes it easier to photograph. While Squire Boone Caverns lighting is a little more subdued, therefore less photographable, I felt it made for a better cave experience because well, it just felt like you were actually in a deep dark underground cave.

Including our two cave tours today it brings our total number of visits to sixteen. It is also the third time we have visited two caves in the same day. Stay tuned if you enjoy caving because we have several more planned before this year is done. Two of those are included in everyone's Top Ten List of caves to visit in the United States.

ENJOY THE PHOTOS!


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INDIANA CAVING

WEDNESDAY

TRAVEL DAY
YEAR #2 - STOP #51

"The Hoosier State"
is our 23rd visited state

With today being a longer than normal drive we scheduled a rest stop before leaving the state of Ohio. Just outside of Cincinnati you will find one of the two Jungle Jim's International Market locations. With over 200,000 square feet of market space, if you can eat it or drink it, chances are you can find it here.

Just for example, being from South Florida we love Mojo Marinade. You can find it in just about every grocery store back home, even the 7-Elevens have it on the shelf. We haven't seen any over the last four months we spent in the Northeast United States, believe me we looked! At Jungle Jim's we found four different varieties of Mojo from three different countries. We went with 2 bottles of Badia's Mojo Marinade, our favorite from back home.

Most local supermarkets dedicate only one side of one aisle for all their ethnic food offerings. At Jungle Jim's there is an entire aisle for each and every country or region. We spent two hours shopping here and it could have been longer, except when you come in the front door they hand you a printed aisle map of the entire store.

In addition to having everything you could want to eat, you'll find beer and wine from all over the world. This section alone could fill your neighborhood grocery store.

Another unique aspect of Jungle Jim's are all the larger than life decorations, both inside and outside the store, that give you the feeling of being at DisneyWorld. Here are just a few photos we took while visiting today.

JUNGLE JIM'S INTERNATIONAL MARKET

Ready to get back on the road!

FRIDAY - At 7:00PM the park offered a guided nature walk to familiarize people with the trails that are located inside the park. We did a small sample of four different trails on this 1-3/4 mile nature walk which was lead by a park volunteer.

We had a very small turnout for the walk which made it nice. Turns out the only other participants on the hike were the volunteer's sister, brother-in-law and 89 year old father. That's right, 89 year old dad was doing well keeping up with the small group for the first mile and a half. Then he ran out of steam with only a quarter mile to go. We found him a bench to relax on next to the roadway and he sat out the last quarter mile of the hike. I can only hope to be half that active if I reach that age.

“Nature
A scene from our nature walk tonight!

• • • 100 MILE • • •
HIKING CHALLENGE
34.25 MILES
UNDER OUR BOOTS

A guided 1-3/4 mile nature hike through the park
brings our annual total up to 34.25 miles.

SUNDAY - We were up early this morning because we have plans to visit not one, but two caves today. Twin Caves is first and is located right here in the State Park. For a small $3 fee you get a short non-motorized boat ride 500 feet deep into the cave. The first tour is at 9:30 AM and of course we were on it. They take in two boats loads of up to eight people on each tour.

“Twin
Our boats are ready! We are ready! Where are the drivers?

“Twin
The very short cave entrance.

“Twin
Deep inside the cave.

The next cave tour is about a 20 mile drive from the park. Bluesprings Cavern is a privately owned cave and was much larger. This cave tour is also a boat ride and in very similar boats as were we in for the State Park tour. The big difference were these boats had a small electric trolling motors and electric underwater lights.

The underwater lights made it a lot easier to spot the small eyeless cavefish and crayfish that live deep inside the cave. They have no eyes because they exist in a world where there is zero light and have no use for eyes. They simply evolved to fit their natural habitat.

Unfortunately it is near impossible to photograph anything underwater without actually being underwater, so all our photos didn't make the cut!

“Bluespring
A very steep walk down to the cave entrance.

“Bluespring
Once again our transportation awaits.

“Bluespring
A fine example of flowstone on the side of the cave.

“Bluespring
We had to watch our heads so as not to bump them on this large stalactite.

STAY TUNED!
OUR NEXT STOP HAS EVEN MORE CAVE TOURS.


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