It was very hot in Kansas City!
For the next few days we will be staying at the Draft Kings at Casino Queen Campground which is located in East St. Louis, IL directly across the Mississippi River from the Gateway to the West. Basically, a very nice parking lot with a few amenities but we have electric, water and sewer. There is a foot bridge that crosses the river but with forecasted daytime high temperatures over 100 degrees it is safe to say if it isn’t air conditioned we probably won’t be doing it!
The time specific elevator ride to the top of the arch was unique! Each car only held five people but with Covid guidelines they limited each car to only members of one family group. Time at the top was limited to about ten minutes which gave you enough time to feel the arch sway and take some photographs. The ride up and then back down allowed you to see some of the inner structure of the Arch, the electrician in me found this to be very interesting. Included in the price of admission you could tour the museum the area beneath the arch. Remember I said it was very hot outside, so we did not expect it to be too much cooler inside, boy we were wrong! It was very uncomfortable that day, but we survived. The museum was so interesting, and it depicted so much of the western expansion. I understand that in order to preserve the displays in the museum it is necessary to limit the light pollution, but I wish it would have been possible to take a few photos that actually showed some of the displays. On a lighter note, I need to remember to never wear a green shirt to an exhibit such as this. I wore a green shirt on this day and when we got to the booth to review the photographs that were taken as we entered the museum all there was of me in the shot was a head and two arms! We should have bought the photos but at the moment it didn’t seem to be worth it.
A boat ride on the Mississippi River was included in our ticket package. During the ride they gave us some history about the city and the importance of the river both for commerce and recreation. It was interesting how high above the river some of the facilities were. I guess it is better to build up high instead of getting flooded out more often.
When we returned to the dock we got to talking to the crew about flooding and we were told that just three weeks earlier the entire levi area was under water. I tried to gauge how high that would have been, and I would say it was at least 10 feet higher!
We only have a few days here and to be honest it is almost too hot so we didn’t do much more in the area. Our next stop will be north of here and back into Iowa. We forgot about the upcoming Labor Day Weekend so we are scrambling to find some place to park. We actually wanted to go into Wisconsin but it didn’t happen.