Our Trip to St. Louis

 Our vacation started in Ft. Worth at the Water Gardens. The train was 3 hours late so we went here,

 This is our compartement on the train. My seat is opposite. We had a good view.

 This shows the upper bed where Dad slept. The seats below made a bed I slept in. We really didn't sleep very well. The train moves alot and you feel the bumpy tracks under your bed.

 After we got our rental car in St. Louis, we headed up the Mississippi River to the winter encampment of Lewis and Clark. There was a great musuem there which included a replica of the keel boat they used to go up the Misssouri River.

 There were lots of things to see there, but I liked this example of the navigation tools they used. Now we just take our cell phones.

 We learaned that the men that went on this journey worked hard. loved the adventure and never complained. I found that amazing!

 This is an example of a boat made from a tree, just like Lewis and Clark would use.

 Here is a picture of the conflugent of the two rivers, the Mississip in the foreground and the Missouri in the background. I thought this was the coolest thing. We went up on a big tower to observe this. I liked the word conflugent, and I thought about examples of when two things merged together and form one new and bigger idea. Think about it.

 Next we went a little farther up the Mississippi to a museum dedicated to the history and use of the Mississippi River. We enjoyed learning about the use of big barges and tow boats. This is a picture of one of the locks that is used to raise or lower the river so the barges can continue up the river.

 If you look closely you can see the water line and numbers to show how the water in lifted and lowered. We didn't see any barges on the river here that day, but we did observed several later as we passed over the Mississippi several times. One barge compartment can hold as much as 200 train cars. There are usually 6-8 barges in group. That is alot of freight. We were told most of the freight is wheat and products that are being sent down the river to New Orleans, to be shipped out of the country.

 At the Gateway Park there is a large museum under the archway which includes the tram to take up inside the arch, a big museum about life in the west in 1800. Two movies, one about Lewis and Clark and one about how the arch was built. There is also an old fashioned store where you can buy things like carmel corn and toffee, which we bought and enjulged. The mural behind me shows the designers and builders of the arch. The arch was built to commerate the trip of Lewis and Clark and the opening of the expansion to the West.

 This is a view of the old riverfront area of the city with old cobblestone roads. St. Louis is a old city. The French were the first to explore and travet the Mississippe. Of course the Indians were here first.

 It was fun to drive in any direction and to be able to see the arch. It really is huge.

This is the St. Louis Temple. We found it on a Monday, so the gates were closed. It is about 40 minutes away from the center of St. Louis and sits right next to a big Baptist college. It looks alot like the Billings, Montana temple.