November 14: Fairview Heights, Illinois, to Jefferson City, Missouri

I spent most of the day sightseeing in St. Louis. I had seen pictures of the Gateway Arch for years but never thought much about it. Walking up to it, however, was wonderful. There is a park with walking paths surrounding it. The arch itself is much larger than I had realized and it is truly a work of art. Eero Saarinen was an architect, yes; but he was also an artist. I think this huge monument is the largest and most beautiful piece of outdoor sculpture that exists.

But its beauty is in contrast with what you see looking through the arch eastward across the Mississippi River: rusting railroad cars, decrepit grain elevators, industrial trash, rotting timbers, rickety piers in the river. Such a contrast. Of course the land across the river is in Illinois, so Missourians are not able to insist that it be cleaned up.

With the exception of the arch, and the downtown buildings the Missouri side of the Mississippi River is not much better.  There is a huge power plant that hasn't been painted or cleaned in at least 50 years as well as vacant lots with trash, railroad tracks, and other industrial debris.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if some day there was a project to beautify both banks of the Mississippi here?

Under the arch is a Museum of Westward Expansion that contains some very interesting exhibits. I especially enjoyed those related to the Lewis & Clark Expedition. What an adventure!!  Lewis was only 29 years old and Clark in his mid 30s when they followed the Missouri and the Columbia to the Pacific. The museum mixed quotes from the journals of the explorers with huge present day photos of the remote sites they mentioned.

From downtown I went to the St. Louis zoo. On a cool day in November there were very few visitors. Some of the warm weather animals (like the alligators) were not to be seen as they were "on vacation." This zoo does not have a huge diversity of animals, but many of the ones it does have are exhibited wonderfully, the elephants in particular. For me, however, the most fascinating exhibit was the 4 hippopotamuses(i?). Part of their area includes a pool that has a glass side for visitors just like an aquarium. You can watch these huge creatures up close, like 2 feet away, and can see their antics with each other under water. The huge pool also has fish who seem to know instinctively how not to be squashed underfoot of the behemoths.

From the zoo, I headed westward. At the town of Washington, I drove over a bridge to the north side of the Missouri River and then onto a small road (hardly 2 full lanes), Missouri Route 94, that parallels the river near the north bank. I say "near" because the river runs through a flat plain that is all farm fields about 1/2 mile on either side of the river. There are hills beyond those farm fields. In fact, after flat Indiana and Illinois, the roller coaster hills were fun to drive.  For the most part the farm houses have been smartly built 10 or 15 feet up the hill so they would be above floods. There are many small towns  along the way.(population 90, 160, 75, etc.)
There is also a 225 mile footpath/bikepath that is an old railroad bed. See http://www.bikekatytrail.com. There are lots of trailheads along the path, old railroad stations included, and it would make a good long distance walk some day. As a railroad bed along a river there are almost no hills to climb by definition!

The Missouri was running fast and when I got up close I could see huge logs from fallen trees floating their way downstream.

But I began to wonder about how much fun it might be to take a small boat with a cabin (kind of like a British canal houseboat) and go with the flow downstream. I tried to search the internet for places that might rent boats for that purpose, but found none. Such a beautiful river, at least here in mid-Missouri! In the 19th century it was such a thoroughfare for commerce and travel. Not today.