Wednesday, 4 Apr 2012 - St Louis, Missouri



The Missouri Welcome Centre had a mock Route 66 Street. The picnic tables were inside building made to look like those that would have been seen driving through towns on Route 66. Amazing!

It's been a long, wet day and we were glad to pull into our hotel tonight. Except for a short period when the sun managed to get through the clouds, it was overcast and at some points, we had heavy downpours.

We stayed on Interstate 44 right through Missouri, which is the old Route 66. We did get off for a short time to go into the Meramac State Park to see the Dogwood trees, which are in full bloom. It stopped raining long enough to take a few pictures but it was pretty dark sometimes. Missouri is beautiful!! The more time we spend here the more I would like to see of the central states. We are always in a rush to get home so don't get to see a whole lot of the areas we drive through...but I always like to think of these places as 'come-back' destinations, and they eventually are places we re-visit.

One thing Oklahoma and it's border Missouri towns have are Casinos! They are big, lavish, and have top entertainers (like Sting) coming in the next month. Some of them are on Indian reservations but the big glitzy ones definitely are not. The strange thing is that most of the surrounding area is just small towns so I'm not sure where the people come from...I suspect it's where the city folk go for a weekend. The other thing I've noticed about these States is that they love to buy, sell, collect, and restore antique cars. We've passed so many cars towing a trailer with an old rusted car on the back or seen fields with old chassis lined up for sale. One of the things I do like about Americans is their love of restoration...whether it's century homes, historic towns, or old cars.

Just had an e-mail from a fellow who turns out to be a 3rd or 4th cousin. He does genealogy and found my family tree on Ancestry.ca...so it works. Our gr-grandmothers were sisters and he has lots of photos and information. I'm so excited as it is part of the family that moved to the US--he lives in Minnesota.

That's our day...I'm pooped and looking forward to a good night's sleep...despite the thunder and lightening outside. Hope all is well, until next time, love and hugs to all.