Sunday, August 14

The last day of a trip is always sad.  No one wants to see it end but end it must.  We ate breakfast, packed up, and headed for the dump station.  Packing up a motorhome is so much easier than a trailer, pop-up or tents.  At this age we need easy!   We left the campground around 11:00 and arrived home at 2:00 p.m.  Kara had to work this weekend, so Jason came over to pick up the boys.  I think they had fun; at least, they said they did and wanted to know when we could go camping again.  It was a good weekend but one that is bittersweet for me because I will always remember it as the trip I lost my brother Larry.  I am now the matriarch of Bill and Rose Freeman's family.  That makes me feel OLD!

We have been out three weekends camping in the motorhome, trying to work out all the bugs,  The next time we head out, it will be for three weeks.  We are looking forward to that trip and many more.

Saturday, August 13

Today we planned to hike and see things in the Alton area.  We didn't hike because the heavy rains made the trails muddy.  We will do that another camping trip.  It was cooler and more pleasant.  We stopped by the Visitor's Center at the park.  It was very nice with interesting displays about the area's history.  This area is a Bald Eagle winter nesting site.  One display was a full-sized Eagle's Nest.  The nests can be up to six feet wide.  I had no idea their nests were so big.  To illustrate the size, I took this picture of the boys inside the nest.

Keegan is pretending to be a baby eagle waiting for mom/dad to feed.

The shoreline of the  Mississippi is beautiful.

We went here to take a tour of a lock on the Mississippi River.  Unfortunately the elevator which takes you to the lock was out of order so all we could do was look around the museum.  It had some interesting exhibits.  The boys enjoyed being able to guide a tow boat with barges up the river in a simulation exhibit.  We were told that the elevator had been inoperable since February of this year and that it was very expensive to repair.  With the financial woes of this state, who knows when it will be serviceable again!  The most exciting thing to happen was that I got two bee stings on my hand and arm.   It had been such a long time since I have been stung that I had forgotten had painful it was.  

We went to the Meeting of the Rivers Observation Tower.  From the top of the tower (approximately 150 feet) you could see where the Missouri River joins the Mississippi.   The water on the bottom of the picture is the Mississippi and the water at the top is the Missouri.  A few miles north of this spot, the Illinois River joins the Mississippi so by this point the Mississippi River contains the water of two additional rivers.

The three decks of the tower spaces 50 feet apart.

Keegan wanted to take a picture.  This is the one he took.  I think he did a great job!

When  Father Marquette first came to this region of the country, the Indians of the area had carved  into the stone of the cliffs a picture of an Indian legend.  Supposedly this creature protected the Indians by eating white people.  Fortunately the monster didn't do his job because white people stayed in the area and now the original carving has been weathered down to almost nothing.  This one has been painted on in recent years.

This cross on a cliff had been erected to honor Father Marquette.  He came here from France to bring Jesus to the Indians.  The state park is also named after him.   It is from this area that Lewis and Clark began their journey to explore the upper west, trying to find a good passage to the ocean.

A neat lighthouse along the Mississippi River.

We played a lot of Uno and other card games with Hunter.  It was a camping tradition for Carol and I to play Uno with Kara and John.  We spent many, many hours playing Uno.  Finally, Hunter has discovered the game.

We also played Slap Jack and War.  Hunter wanted this picture taken to prove he had won a game of Slap Jack.


It was a good day.  After we got back to camp, Keegan jumped on his bicycle and found his new friend.  Together, they found a mud puddle to ride their bikes through.  Eventually they abandoned their bikes and jumped in the mud puddle.  Both were a muddy, wet painr of boys but they had fun!

Friday, August 12

When we left for the weekend I knew that my brother Larry had a massive heart attack.  He lives in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee with his daughter.  He had been sent home from the hospital to "die at home."  When I woke up that morning, a text on my phone  told me that he had died a little after five that morning.  It was a sad way to begin a morning.  Sad in that I would miss his physical presence but happy for him that he was no longer suffering and his spirit was in heaven.  My brother has the same eye disease as Hunter so he was seeing heaven with 20/20 eyes. Larry was 6 years older than me so by the time I was in the 7th grade, he was off to college and then marriage.  One thing I can always be thankful for (sarcasm here)  was that he shattered my belief in Santa Claus by showing me where mom and dad had hidden my presents.  What a Grinch!   He would be cremated and a memorial graveside service would be held at a later date so we continued on with the weekend.

We had planned to take the boys to a restaurant recommended by my sister and then to the City Museum in St. Louis.

The Alton Bridge we used to cross the Mighty Mississippi River into Missouri.

First stop was Fitz's Restaurant and Bottling Company on Delmar Street in University City (suburb of St. Louis).  It was a neat place.  Large windows at the end of the dining area allowed us to see into the bottling area.  We could see the bottles filled, labeled, and capped.  The boys and us too, enjoyed watching the process.   There specialty is root beer but creme sodas are bottled also.

Hunter ordered a Root Beer Float.  He couldn't believe the size of it but he managed to eat/drink every bit.

Keegan ordered his favorite chocolate milk and he drank it all!  You can see the windows where you can watch the bottling process in the back of us.

 Our lunch...Keegan: cheeseburger with smiley face fries; Hunter: Mac and cheese (his review was that they were the best he had ever eaten); Me:  Chili mac; and Carol BBQ pulled pork, slaw and fries.  A first happened at this restaurant:  Carol could NOT eat all of his food and had a take home box.  That never happens.  We love the community that the restaurant is in.  Carol and I would like to come back alone and walk the streets and explore the neat shops but we will save that for another trip.

Next stop was the City Museum.  It was a neat place in which we spend over four hours.  The Museum is hard to describe.  It is four floors of slides, tunnels, mazes, and dark places,  A wonderful place for exploring but a scary place for grandparents who are responsible for grandkids.  At one point we did not know where Hunter and Keegan were.  We sat down and hoped they would run by us.  Thank heavens for cell phones.  The boys could not find us either but an employee saw them and asked if there was an adult with them.  They said yes but they did not know where we were.  The employee told them to call on their phone which they did. We were very happy to receive that phone call!  This is the one picture I took.  The boys took turns sitting in "Old Sparky" a replica of an electric chair.  Strange but interesting to kids.

A ball pit the boys enjoyed.  Can you find both of the boys in the picture below?

I can't pass the Arch without taking a picture.

Keegan was so warn out that he fell asleep.

We made it back to camp in time for a heavy rain so we stayed in, had supper, played cards and tried to stay dry.  Water did come into the camper through the new air conditioner that had been installed.  Looks like we will have another trip to Pontiac RV for repairs!  This rain is supposed to cool things down,  We look forward to that!

Pere Marquette Trip 2016 - Thursday, August 11

We had told Keegan and Hunter that we would take them on a weekend trip in the new motor home.  Finally, the last weekend before they both began school, we were able to get reservations at Pere Marquette State Park near Grafton, Illinois.  We left on Thursday, August 11 and it was very hot and humid but we knew that the air conditioning worked so at least we could get into some place cool when outside became unbearable.

Carol drove the motor home with the boys and I followed with the car so we would have transportation the 3-4 days we were going to be there. It is about 3 hours from Decatur to Grafton.The site had both good and bad points.  Bad...it was slightly sloped and very hard to level  and in fact never reached that goal.  The good...under shade trees, 50 amp service, and right across the road from the restrooms/showeres.

Getting set up on Site 12 Pere Marquette.

Keegan had just learned to ride a bicycle and Hunter had gotten a new one for his birthday.
Keegan spent many hours riding the paved roads of the campground.   On one of his many loops, he made a new friend and they rode together.

Keegan has told me he will stop sucking his thumb when he is six  (August 20).  We shall see!

As I have said, it was hot, very HOT so after supper, we stayed in and watched a DVD before going to bed