St Louis Science Center

We went to the St Louis Science Center because  they declared.....'Walk in the footsteps of archaeologist Howard Carter and experience the tomb of  King Tutankhamun and all its treasure as they were at the moment of discovery. The special exhibition will feature a total of 1,000 breathtaking recreations that were scientifically and expertly hand-crafted over five years by leading Egyptian artisans." I was so excited to actually see and experiences something so fascinating and such a part of history....

NOT... we were very disappointed, not only was it in a very small room, with wall to wall people, there were no artifacts, no mummy's, no original anything, I was very disappointed.

But all things happen for a reason...I have always wanted to see and touch a dinosaur skeleton or a bone or something to do with dinosaurs, guess what they had at the center? If you said a dinosaur you would be right! They had a lot of bones and they had a triceratops skull. Triceratops were one of the last dinosaurs on earth. They were about 30 feet long and weighted up to 6 tons. It's head alone was almost 10 feet long. They had three sharp horns on its forehead and a large body shield that framed its face making it well equipped to defend itself, but despite its aggressive appearance they were peaceful, feeding on vegetation and wandering in herds. 

The St Louis Science Center opened in 1963, then in 1983 it was combined with the Museum of Science and Natural History. The Center boasts four levels, offering all sorts of interactive spaces where you can create, learn skills, dig for bones, or you can become a human battery in the hamster wheel, to power the Energizer Ball Machine, they have a planetarium and a Omnimax Theater. 

When you walk across the bridge over the highway you can watch the cars go by under your feet and use a Rader gun to clock how fast the cars are going! 

When you cross the highway bridge you enter into the Flight Gallery where you can ride flight simulators, control a mars rover, see a space capsule or just wander around and soak up the history of space travel. They had some memorabilia from the movie Mars Attacks and Pierre got such a kick out of the space men they had! 

They also opened a new Exploradome, named GROW, this is a one of a kind indoor outdoor gallery dedicated to teaching everyone when, how, why and the journey that our food and water takes from farm to family. They had some live chickens, you could milk a cow and watch how food travels thru a cow and pig.. hmmmm...fun was had by all!

St Louis Zoo... a great place to visit

The Saint Louis Zoological Park  is recognized as a leading zoo in animal management, research, conservation, and education, this zoo has been involved in saving endangered species and their habitats around the world for many years with alot of success. They have an impressive collection of about 18,700 animals but best of all the admission is free! We walked the whole zoo and I was so impressed with the animals and the condition in which they lived in. 

Black Rhinoceros 

 Bleeding heart dove

 Lions

 Jaguars

Took way too many pictures to post so I chose just a few!

Up up and away!

When we arrived at the Arch, I was so nervous...they make you stand in line, then you get a pass that tells you which door you get to go thru, we got door number 3, the doors are small and there are only 4 seats in the capsule that takes you up to the top. The structure is known as the "the Arch" and it is part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, the Gateway Arch stands as a monument to the west-ward expansion of the United States that occurred after Thomas Jefferson completed the Louisiana Purchase. It stands 630-feet high and 630-feet wide and the primary construction materials used to build it were steel and concrete and it is clad in stainless steel. The Gateway Arch rises high above the west bank of the Mississippi River and its both the tallest man made monument the United States and the tallest arch in the world. The view from the top is breathtaking! I highly recommend it..Lol..

After the arch we walked a couple of miles to the City Museum. It is located downtown and it is a playhouse consisting largely of repurposed architectural and industrial objects, it is a eclectic mixture of children's playground, funhouse, surrealistic pavilion, and architectural marvel.....what a place, its mostly for children, but with me being a kid at heart, Pierre had to drag me away after a couple of hours of climbing, playing, crawling thru mazes, sliding down slides, sitting in the bus which hangs out over the side of the building and riding the Farris wheel which is located on the roof. The City Museum has been named one of the great public spaces and has won other local and international awards as a must-see destination in St Louis. I think it was great!

Owensboro Kentucky then on to St Louis!

We flew thru Tennessee, only stopping at a rest area, so I have nothing to say about Tennessee this go around, I wanted to stop in Nashville, but we were kinda on a time crunch...so it off to Owensboro! We stayed in a very strange RV park called Windy Hollow. Now, there's not to many places to stay in Owensboro Kentucky. Windy Hollow was a pretty place to stay, there were 7 ponds so they have fishing and swimming. But no cell phone service nor WiFi....Pierre and I went walking around, not to many RV's or people!
In the morning we parted ways with Dick and Jane. They headed to visit family in Mattoon, Illinois so Pierre and I decided to go to St Louis. I found us a super sweet RV park in St Charles, its called Sundermeier RV Park. Its right next to the Missouri River, so you can walk along the levee and watch the river flow by.

St Charles is a suburb of St Louis. It is primarily French and was founded by a French man named Louis Blanchette, he called it Les Petites Cotes or The Little Hills.
We drove into St Louis to go to the arch and just poke around the city, oh what a day we had, so much fun. When we got to the Arch we found out you have to have reservations to go up in it, so we decided to go ahead and make them for the next day, on the walk back to the car we stopped to talk to a local man, he told us to go to Delmar Loop. Delmar Loop is a restaurant, entertainment and cultural district in University City. In 2007 it was named one of the 10 great streets in America. We had lunch in the duck room at Blueberry Hill, a restaurant and music club, Chuck Berry played there the third Wednesday of each month till 2014. After lunch we took a walk down the St Louis walk of fame, and met a wonderful man named Raven Wolf... he plays his sax on the sidewalk next to Blueberry hill. What a sweetheart! We spoke with him for awhile, he is headed to New Mexico next, he's a free spirit!

I was looking for some St Louis sticker so I went into a shop that sold t-shirts and such. Couldn't find any stickers anywhere so we drove over to Soulard Farmer Market... Pierre got a text (we are not sure from whom) that we really needed to see this farmers market....oh yea...

Walking back to the car I saw a small little local shop and went inside..still searching for stickers, no luck but the lady told me that there was a shop in Cherokee Landing called Stlye.
Now...Cherokee Landing is a hidden treasure in St Louis, spanning a couple miles down Cherokee Street there is antique, collectible and specialty shops, art galleries, restaurants and cafés. You can wander along the tree lined streets or visit the Lemp Mansion, 
home of the ill-fated beer barons and considered one of the most haunted houses in America.
We finally found Stlye (I got stickers!) and the owner told a little about Cherokee Landing , but he also gave a few more jems to visit in St Louis. 

Somewhere in the USofA

Traveling with my husband and our little cat 🐱 Navigator (Navi) is such fun! When we start off Navi runs the dash, protecting Esprit from all sorts of dangers (cat kind..of course) till he feels like the threat is over, then he falls asleep, all stretched out, up on the dashboard. 

We stopped in Montgomery Al. for the night and the trees were very close to the windshield and Navi could see the birds, they were mocking birds, now, size for size, I think these are the fiercest of all the small birds. They saw Navi in the window and preceded to fly from tree to tree teasing him, he ran the dash to and fro, chasing them...so 

Looking at the mocking birds

I put his harness on him and took him outside to extract his revenge! The park we stayed in was very clean and the landscaping was fantastic, talking to the owner we found 

out that he had a landscaping business before the RV park... mystery solved! Headed to Huntsville tomorrow to see the U.S. Space and Rocket Center. The center is a Smithsonian affiliated and the official visitor center for both NASA Marshall Space Fight Center and for the Tennessee Valley Authority

There is some neat stuff to see here in Huntsville, its a pretty cool city...we are staying up in the Monte Sano mountain, it is a State Park. I'm not so sure about all this, there are snakes, poison ivy, poison oak, and other such nasty stuff. I took Navi out for a walk and Dick came over 
and told me that he was playing in poison ivy, I ran him inside Esprit and washed him down...he sleeps with us...no poison ivy for me..Thank You! Pierre and I took a walk around the mountain on a trail 

This is the observation point

We found a path that pointed us to a Japanese Tea Garden. It was a wonderful walk around that!

The phone service up here is non existent..sketchy at best! We are going to spend a couple of days here because there's so much fun things to do and see around here!

We went to the Harmony Safari Park, you drive around and feed the animals from out the window...Jane almost made me pee my pants, I was laughing so hard at her....when an emu stuck his head in the window and Jane turned and was 
looking him in face...she nearly decapitated him trying to get the window up! Funny stuff peeps!

We are on the way to Owensboro Kentucky tomorrow!

Hitting the open road...

We are hitting the open road again... I am so excited because this is going to be the trip we planned when we bought Esprit. We have had some setbacks, but hopefully all the kinks have been worked out. We are driving up to South Bend, Indiana with our friends Dick and Jane... they have family there so Pierre and I are going to go to Chicago to the museums and see the sights and just hang around. This will be the furthest north I have ever traveled! I'm thrilled about it! We will meet back up the Dick and Jane, cross the boarder into Canada and drive all the way over to Nova Scotia, down the East coast and back to Georgia. From there we are planning to head to California, slowly, as to avoid the winter. When we get to California we are going to travel up the coast to Alaska! Wish us luck...will keep everyone posted.