In a pickle......

8:21 am - Saturday - April 28th - St. Louis, MO - 48º F, 60% humidity, wind 11 mph out of the north......yup....can see the flags at the lodge flying......clear blue skies with a forecast high of 63º F......

As I mentioned at the end of my blog post yesterday we had a date to go hiking with Creig and Kay at a little place about 70 miles south of St. Louis called Pickle Springs.  It is a National Natural Landmark....the first one I have ever visited, but I get ahead of myself.

 Pickle Springs is a National Natural Landmark

We had agreed to meet up with Creig and Kay at a local Denny's around 10 am for a late breakfast, then head south to Pickle Springs to hike.  After a good breakfast and even better conversation we got in Creig and Kay's Ford Escape (leaving our VW behind) for the 70+ mile drive south, arriving at the Pickle Springs trailhead about 12:15 pm........

The obligatory pre-hike usie....

.....after a pre-hike 'usie' and examining the trail map we headed out on our hike.  Spring has not yet completely arrived at Pickle Springs, and the trees were still not sporting any leaves.....

......within minutes we arrived at the first interesting feature called the 'slot'.....

 

....next up was a water feature.......really just a trickle, but the layered limestone was everywhere......

......next up where the 'double arches''.....I say next up because it was here that we took a wrong turn inadvertently adding about .9 tenths of a mile to our original 2 mile hike.  Eventually we figured out our mistake and back tracked to the original water fall and soon found ourselves staring at the Double Arches.....

 ↑Double Arch....oh yeah, there's the sign↓

.....these stairs were provided to help us get safely down to view the Double Arch......

.....there were numerous bridges to aid the hiker in crossing the numerous clear water streams flowing across the trail.....

......then there was terrapin rock......yes, I have to admit it.....it does look like a giant turtle....

....as we neared the end of our hike we came upon the loveliest waterfall of them all gently flowing over a large ledge of limestone into a large pool full of small fingerling fish......

.....around 2:30 pm we arrived back at the parking lot after a 2.9 mile hike.  The is the first real hike I have taken since my stroke back in late December.....it was good to get my legs unlimbered!

A very relaxed 32 minutes a mile

Within minutes we were in the car headed back north to Arnold, MO where our VW was awaiting our arrival, but first we stopped off at a local BBQ place for an early dinner around 4:30......we had a lovely dinner talking non-stop about the day's adventure and our time with Creig and Kay.  By 5:30 we were back in the VW heading for the barn with big smiles of satisfaction pasted across our collective faces.

It has been a very enjoyable 3 days visiting with Creig, Kay and family with the highlight being our hike Friday.  It has also been nice sitting in one place for this time.  We'll be here in St. Louis for one more day before we pull anchor and continue our inevitable trek to Newe England for the summer.

Thanks for stopping by!

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The Arch....

7:04 am - Friday - April 27th - St. Louis, MO - 50º F, 87% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the west.....clear blue skies with a forecast high of 71º F.

First of all, it has been nice to be sitting still for a few days after moving daily for 9 straight days.  We are parked in beautiful surroundings.....

....it is quiet and almost pastoral here at the Oakville Elks Lodge.

We were here in St. Louis back in the mid 80's when we had just 3 children and visited the St. Louis Gateway Arch National Park at that time, but it has been over 30 years, and we thought it would be fun to visit again, and spend more time in and around this amazing structure, but I get ahead of myself.

It has been a while since I washed and detailed the Newell.  I think the last time was on our way to the Grand Canyon from Yellowstone at Downata Hot Springs in southern Idaho last October.....it was definitely due.  The weather was delightful so I spent about 2 hours washing and drying the exterior of the Newell, and it came out quite well......

......she's got a smile on her face again, and her ALCOA wheels have a sparkle to them once again!

We were off on our drive over to the Gateway Arch around 1 pm.  It takes a little over 30 minutes in traffic to get there, but visiting on a Wednesday meant it would not be crowded, and it was not.  We found a parking spot ($6) down by the waterfront and then walked up to the Visitor Center to buy our admission tickets ($20 with our National Park Pass).  The Gateway Arch was originally conceived in the early 40's, and finally completed in 1965.  Not one person lost their life in the construction.  There is a theater inside the Visitor Center (Tucker Theater) where you can watch a 30 minute movie (Monument to the Dream.....click on this YouTube link to view a portion of the movie) about the history, and construction of the Arch.....it is totally fascinating......

Very few cars in the riverside parking lot

......our tickets to ride to the top of the Arch were for 2:10 pm, so we walked around the arch for about 15 minutes before heading inside to get on the funky elevator.....

......we were assigned to elevator #5 (Ride to the Top....click on this YouTube link to view how the 'elevator' works).....they are quite small inside, and seat just 5 people each....

Our 'capsule'

......you can ride the elevator capsules up either the south, or north leg....we went up the north leg.  As the capsule ascends the leg, which is, obviously curved, the capsule periodically adjusts itself so it stays vertical to the ground.

The views from the viewing deck, 630' above the ground, are spectacular as one might imagine......

 The Cardinals were playing a 'day' game Thursday

 The old courthouse

 At the top

 The entire viewing area about 100' long, and you must lean over to look out the windows

 The Hyatt Regency hotel is to the right of the old courthouse

 

....by the time we finished with our tour it was closing in on 3 pm and we were both hungry so we stopped by a local Starbucks located in the Hyatt Regency hotel in the picture above.  We both got coffees, and a bagel for moi, and a scone for TLE.

After our coffee we spent some more time walking around the arch and capturing it from different angles......

 My favorite picture of the day

 Big barge being pushed up the Mississippi

.....we were back in the Beetle heading for home by 4:15 pm.  We had a dinner date with Creig and Kay's family at their home at 6 pm, so we were back on our way over to their home by 5:20, arriving there right at 6 pm (rush hour traffic slows things down a lot).  We spent a couple of hours with Creig, Kay, Jessica and Kaytlin (and their significant others....Zach and Steven).  It was such a perfect evening we sat outside eating until almost 8 pm before the evening chill chased us inside.

Left to right: Moi, Creig, Kay, Kaytlin, Zach, Steven, Jess and TLE

One of the benefits of our lifestyle is being able to visit with our relatives across the country on a more regular basis than we did when we were stuck in our workaday lives.  It was truly a pleasure to spend time with Creig and Kay's amazing daughters.

We were home just before 9 pm, and in bed by 10:30.....we'll be going hiking Friday with Creig and Kay.....looking forward to it!  Thanks for stopping by!

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9 in a row!

 7:59 am - Thursday - 04/26/2018 - St. Louis, MO - 48º F, 100% humidity....yes, that's right....100% humidity, wind 11 mph out of the south by southeast.......looking outside I see no evidence of any wind whatsoever.....seems totally CALM.

We began our 9th consecutive travel day with St. Louis just 157 miles away.  Yeah, I know, another 'strenuous' travel day, right?  Well, it is what it is.....you still have to drive the miles and arrive without incident....that is the trick.

Rain was forecast for our starting location, Lebanon, MO by mid morning, so we decided to roll our wheels by 7:50 am and arrive at our destination for the day before the rain caught up with us.  That's the thing about dry camping......all you have to do is turn the engine over and roll.....you don't have to roll up a water hose, disconnect an electric line, or finish dumping your tanks.....you just start the engine and go.

We were back on I-44 and rolling eastward within minutes.  The route this day was full of big rolling hills....up and down we would go over and over again.....300' up.....300' down for 150 miles until we finally began our descent to the Mississippi River at 450' elevation.  The interesting thing about St. Louis is that from here to New Orleans where this great river empties into the Gulf of Mexico you will only lose 450' in elevation over 658 miles.

We made just one stop with about 50 miles to go at a Rest Area for about 15 minutes to go to the bathroom, and stretch and then continued on to our destination.....the Oakville Elks Lodge on the east side of St. Louis.  They offer just 6 back in RV sites with 20 amp electrical....total cost for four days.....a minimum $15 donation!

Since we had an extremely early start with only one stop along the way, we arrived at the Elks Lodge in Oakville, about 300 yards from the Mississippi, around 11:38 am....the lodge does not open until 2 pm on Wednesdays so we went about parking, and hooking up to one of the 20 amp plugs provided.  TLE called her brother, Creig, about the time we arrived so while we waited for the lodge to open, and Creig to arrive I went about a few chores which included finally stowing the new hose I bought on Tuesday, and removing the brass male and female fittings from the old hose before discarding it into the Elks dumpster.  By the time I finished with that Creig had arrived and we sat talking until the lodge opened.  This is one of the most scenic Elks Lodges at which we have stayed on our journeys.....

There are some soccer fields immediately adjacent to the Lodge....I feel right at home

Once I had made my $15 donation (I actually donated $20) we got in Creig's Ford truck to drive over to his home in Fenton, MO (a suburb of St. Louis located to the southeast of St. Louis), which was only about 10 miles away.  We planned to go out for dinner with he and his wife Kay later in the evening, but first he needed us to help him move his 1996 C-4 Corvette back to his storage garage about 10 miles away......I got the assignment of driving it....I have never driven a Corvette of any vintage before, so I gladly accepted the assignment.....

 TLE took this short video of me driving the 'Vette

.....Creig stores his C-4 in his daughters garage across town when he is not using it.....his garage is full of Triumph TR-6's.....more on that another time.  We arrived at his daughter's garage about 20 minutes later where I backed the 'Vette into the driveway....

.....getting into this low slung beauty is much easier than getting out....at least for me!

Once we had the 'Vette tucked away we then headed back to Creig's home to await the return of his wife Kay who was out getting her hair done, and doing some light shopping.  She returned home about 5:30 pm at which time we headed into downtown St. Louis to a micro brewery called '4 Hands Brewing Company' for some brews and food......

Moi, TLE, Kay and Creig

.....for our first round (we weren't driving) of beers TLE and I ordered two 12 oz. La Belleza's (an Imperial stout brewed with cocoa, cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg, chilies, and ginger)....delicioso!  For our second round we chose their Zellige (Moroccan Coffee Stout brewed with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cardamon, black pepper and sea salt)......both were scrumptous!

Our two 12 oz La Belleza's 

The food menu

For us to give our top marks to any micro brewery the food must live up to the beer, and 4 Hands' food definitely rises to that level.  We ordered a Chopped salad, Smoked Brisket Nachos, and their Brisket Poor Boy sandwich to share.....OMG.....this place definitely lives up to its 4 star Yelp rating on 229 reviews!

Creig and Kay delivered us back to the Newell by 8:30....what a great day!  We arrived home in a light rainfall....the rain finally caught up with us! 

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which helps defer the costs of producing this blog each day.