We left Indianapolis a little later than usual because the day’s trip was only 4 1/2 hours. Feeling rested and raring to go we set off with the weather forecast for our next stop showing sun! If accurate it would be the first day in about a week that we would get to see that beautiful orb. The roads at the start were back to cement roads with lots of asphalt patches which brings me to a question I’ve had for years. If even new cement roads are rougher, need to be grooved since they are dangerously slippery when wet or icy, and are repaired with asphalt why not just pave the roads to start with. The patches are never level with the road and are incredibly bouncy particularly when the patches have a repetitive pattern that makes my truck and trailer start to porpoise (up and down swaying). Would love to know why cement roads are still being made especially in northern climates. Anyone know?
Well eventually the roads returned to more asphalt roads and the bouncing and road noise settled down and we got to look at the scenery as the rain slowly decreased. One of the crops I noticed was short corn. I wondered if the farmer forgot to fertilize or had a bad growing year. And then we would see fields with healthy tall corn just a short way done the road. Well we had heard from neighbors from Florida that they were back home in Illinois and planning to be in St. Louis while we were there and we arranged to have dinner tonight. They are very nice people and we always find plenty to talk about (and they are great card players too…..sweeeep). I mentioned my allergies were going crazy and they said many of the farms were harvesting crops so there would be a lot of allergens in the air. They mentioned that one of the crops was sorghum and described it as a crop looking alot like corn but shorter. Sooo not a defective crop that I had seen but a healthy sorghum crop. Sorghum is a member of the grass family believed to have originated in Africa and migrated with ships to Australia and Asia and to Latin America as food on slave trade ships. It is a crop than grows well in harsh drought prone soil and doesnt require fertilizer. I suspect here it is a good animal feed crop but is also used as human food in porridge and flatbreads. In the Midwest apparently it is used to make the ethanol in our gasoline. And it is gluten free with all of you that have a gluten free diet!
We arrived at our campground on time and found our first pull through site easily. This campground was not a destination campground but a parking place to explore from. Lots of cement and close together but clean and safe.
We had a day to explore and having driven by St Louis on our last cross country I planned this trip to have time to stop and go up in the arch. The trip up the arch involved going up in one of 8 cars on each side of the arch (North and South. The cars held 5 people but we were fortunate to ride up with another couple headed back to their farm in California after 2 months on the road. The have over 200 acres of nut and citrus trees. When i asked about any issues with the warmer weather and climate change she opened up saying they are seeing insects they have never seen before and instead of spraying monthly now have to alternate sprays every week. I hope we can through conservation and renewables decrease our impact on the environment and frankly save money with decreased energy cost through less wasted energy and decreased CO2 production. We will always have some impact no matter renewables etc but less would be good.
The arch view was nice but even more fascinating was the museum. The design was picked from 5 finalists that had different water features and structures Washington monument like in some cases. Third place actually went to three college students. The arch itself was not just a design unlike others but was an engineering marvel that only took 2.5 years to build in large part due to less regulation. We dont need no stinking OSHA lol. None of the workers had harnesses despite being as high as the arch at 630 feet. They had a net halfway down! The underwriters thought 13 workers would die but not one person died! Cost was 13 million and was built 1963 February to Oct 1965. It is the tallest monument in the US. The two legs of the arch were built separately and had they been off by 1/64 inch the could not have been joined. The tram we rode up in was designed by a college drop out with no formal engineering training Dick Bowser who worked at an elevator company. And he did it in 2 weeks. I only learned this after I rode up. And the arch is as wide 630 feet as it is tall despite it not looking that way. It was built to honor Thomas Jefferson and his promoting western exploration. I could go on but wont. Definitely check it out if you are in the area.
This has been a longish blog so I will wrap it up but not before sharing that we had a wonderful dinner with good friends that live across the street from us in Naples in the winter and live in Peoria in the summer. We were able to get our schedules to match and had a great dinner and catch up. Thanks Tom and Sheryl for reaching out and making this happen.
We are so blessed in so many ways. Next stop Topeka, Kansas.
Bill and Jo’s Road Trip 