April 29 – May 2, 2022
After leaving Minneapolis, we headed down through Iowa towards St Louis. It was too far to drive in one day so we stopped for the night in Keokuk, a small city in Iowa where the river is the boundary to three states (Iowa, Illinois and Missouri).
We then travelled onto St Louis and stayed with my (Jo’s) second cousin, Charles.
It was great to see him and to meet his two lovely cats (though it did mean for a wheezy couple of days for Richard).
In the afternoon, we went to the National Blues Museum which gave us a good introduction to the history and social context for the music we were hoping to experience on our southern road trip over the next few weeks when we would travel down the Natchez Trace Parkway from Nashville down to New Orleans.
We then took a wander around the famous St Louis Gateway Arch and took a boat trip so we could view it from all angles.
The next day we explored a local sculpture park (we love a sculpture park and this was another good one).
We then explored the Historic Faust Village which contains restored homes and structures from the 1840s to early 20th century. There was an open day where local volunteers were on hand to show you round the buildings and explain how people lived in those times.
We ended the day with an early evening visit to Lone Elk Park where we saw some elk, deer and a cheeky racoon.
The next day we went to the famous St Louis Zoo. At the zoo, we saw a majestic polar bear whose was far too big for the small area he lived in….
And then it was time to move on. We packed up, said goodbye to Charles and drove for about 3 hours to Paducah in Kentucky where we stopped for the night.