Saturday 4-8 Site Seeing

 

Happy Day

We started the day off by driving to St. Louis. We drove over a bridge that took us near the Arch National Monument. We have gone up in it before so we decided not to stop but I did take a picture of it while driving by. We thought the traffic was going to be heavy but it wasn’t.

The Arch National Monument in St. Louis

The first site we stopped at was the Lewis & Clark State Historic Site. We walked around the museum and learned about the Lewis & Clark expedition on the Mississippi River. The museum had a lot of displays about getting ready for the expedition, what supplies they had and who was on the expedition. There was a nice display of a 55-foot keelboat. We watched a movie about the expedition. One of the volunteers took us to a cabin, that was built to show how people lived in the 1800’s. While at the cabin he talked about the history of the cabin. He was very good. We had a nice visit learning more about Lewis & Clark. As we were leaving the volunteer told us about a park a mile down the road where the Mississippi River and Missouri River join together. It wasn’t that impressive but it made a nice place to have lunch.

Lewis and Clark State Historic Site

55 foot keelboat                             Lewis and Clark

Next we stopped at the Melvin Price Locks & Dam where you can take a tour of the locks and dam. We were about a half hour early so it gave us a chance to walk around the museum. While doing this they had a simulation game where you get to be a tugboat captain and you guide a barge into the lock. Larry and I played the game. It was fun even though I didn’t get it in the lock, it was really hard. When we started the tour there was a boat in the lock and another getting ready to go in the lock so the lady doing the tour decided to skip the introduction and she walked us to the elevator to go up to the third floor so we could see how the lock works. It was very interesting to watch. The Corps of Engineers controls the locks. There is a gate at one end that swings open so boats can enter the lock, once the gate is open a horn goes off twice to let the captain know they can proceed into the lock. Once the boat is in they close the gate so they can increase or decrease the amount of water in the locks. When they have the level correct they open the exit gate, sound a horn to let the captain and his crew know they can exit the lock. It was fascinating to watch this process. While watching the process the tour guide talked about how the locks work and why they use locks for the boats. She was very well informed. The tour lasted about an hour. We had a great time.

 

Melvin Price Locks and Dam

      One barge leaving                                     The lock gate closing

Another barge entering the lock

The final stop was at Alton, Illinois. On the way there we took a beautiful highway that went right by the Mississippi River. It looked like we were driving along the coastline. This was the best view we have had of the Mississippi River so far. When we got to Alton we pulled into the back of the Argosy Casino parking lot. The casino parking lot was right next to Alton City Park. After dinner Larry and I walked to the casino. It is a small non-smoking casino. The cool thing about the casino was that it was floating on the river. We walked around the casino and found the penny slots I like to play on, then Larry said good-bye. I sat down at a slot machine and started to play, I went through $10.00 dollars within five minutes so I stopped and was on the way out when I found four slot machines you could do 1 penny at a time. Everyone thinks I’m crazy just playing one at a time. But I tell them the money last a lot longer. After giving the casino $12.00 I decided to call it day. I was back at the Minnie within a half hour. Larry offered to move to another casino but I said it was ok. I walked around the park three times to get some of my steps in. Then we spent the rest of the evening reading, Larry ended up finishing another book. We had a very good day.    

 

A marina on the Mississippi River         The amptheater at Alton City Park