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St.Louis is like any other large US city, but we have only really seen a small portion of it, mainly hotel to the Arch, which we went up and viewed the city, very impressive structure (and we called the folks from the top at 4.30pm Central Time, so 10.30pm UK time).
We wandered around the city for a while after this (looked at the St.Louis Centre, which unfortunately resembles Bradford Kirgate on a Sunday), then we tried to find some grub, settling on KitchenK on Washington Ave. Lorna's food looked very nice and I am told tasted nice, mine looked lovely but cooking wouldn't have gone amiss. So in true US style I complained and the girl looked rather gone out that I complained. What was even better was hearing here curse when we didn't leave a tip for the less than average service. Recommendations, the Pork was nice but the duck sucked at Kitchenk and the waitress moans if you dont tip regardless of service.
So the night was finished off at the Holiday Inn with Chiken Dips at the bar whilst sipping coffee and tea.
Tomorrow we are off to see a big pair of Underpants at some museum (City Museum, oh god what next), then on a river boat Blues Cruise.
Pretty much winging it after that, but we will let everyone know where and when.
Afterwards it was a 150mile trip to Independence, just to the East of Kansas City.
Today we have a long drive ahead of us - we are travelling to St Louis where we plan to spend a few days (so about 250 miles to drive). We have booked ourselves on a Blues Cruise tommorrow night on a replica steam paddler down the Mississippi River which sounds like fun (plus obligatory bottle of cheap champagne - well actually I think its fizzy pop by the price quoted!).
We are going to go up into the Arch, visit some wierd sounding museum that has a maze that you get totally lost in and a huge pair of underpants, have a wander around a few shops, visit some bars and generally chill with no driving for 2 days.
So, with all that in mind, we are off to hit the road...
If you've been to St Louis and there's something we should not miss let us know.
We stopped the night in Strong City (In the middle of a Scenic byeway on US177) and its a tiny. Today we visited the Tall Grass Prairie (which is exactly what it says on the tin).
We visited Cottonwood Falls on a Monday, early afternoon and the place was dead, so what do you do, find alcohol (oh yes 5 glasses of wine between us, well Craig had 3 actually). The food, average and totally void of any vegetables unless you pay extra for them, strange culture (but you can buy drugs galore at drive through pharmacies to relieve any disease known to man and if you dont have enough cash, then just pull into the drive through ATM).
Nice scenery in Kansas(where it doesn't resemble Norfolk flatlands that is). We stopped the night at the Prairie Fire Inn, nice couple that run it, although it was a little basic (dripping taps all night and a toilet you need to take apart to stop it running), cant moan too much at 50USD per night (30GBP).
Petrol oh yes, 2.19USD per gallon, oh my god, like we have ever seen prices this low in the UK (and they moan that the price is too high here).
So tonight, Kansas City and another Holiday Inn (only because there are no campsites in the area). The score so far Hotels 26, Campsites 17.
We are over halfway through the journey and over halfway across the US (covered 4,198 so far with 2,030 left to cover).
Off for a spot of lunch now before finishing the 150mile journey today.
Today we are getting back on course (Hutchinson was a slight diversion) and heading up to Cottonwood falls - about 80 miles from here, so we'll figure out where to stay when we get there. It is a historic small town and apparently part of a scenic drive comprising of flint hills (not sure what that will look like in a place as flat as Kansas).
After today we will spend the next 300 miles in tiny towns and cutting through little backwaters until we hit Kansas City, so it should be a few days of gentle driving on quiet roads. Most towns here seem exceptionally quiet, including the shopping Malls.
Halloween is also nearly upon us, and every house we pass has their front porch filled with pumpkins, costumed ghouls, banners and lots of other decorations. It really is a big celebration here. Rather intriguing given the visibly religous overtones present across Kansas that they would choose to celebrate a pagan festival. You would not believe the number of roadside "pro life" posters, billboards etc that we have seen.
So, that's my journal for today. So far we have been here for 43 days, done close to 4,000 miles and only spent just under $600 on petrol.
There were some interesting things to see and maybe it is better in the summer time when the fake gunfights are on and most of the replica stores are open, but on the whole not really worth a visit (we managed 30 minutes before getting bored).
We did stand on the Santa Fe trail, which Lorna tells me is impressive, but in my usual Neandethal man impression I just looked and said "mmmm, really nice, I'll be in the car".
Applebys restaurant is a definite winner in our books especially with the beaker of alcohol each.
So where next, we dont know really, may take a detour to visit the Yellow Brick Road or even the Little House on the Prairie, we haven't decided yet.
Its 8.45pm here, we have had a nice swim and food for the day, so time to veg a little and then off to bed ready for a nice early start.
That's it for today.
We drove from La Junta across to Garden City and stopped the night in a freebie Holiday Inn (yeh!!), the drive was uneventful, 3 hours of nothing but flat land, no hill, no clouds a few cars and loads of trucks that seem to believe that the speed limit doesn't exist. We hit roadworks on the US50 (just after Las Animas) and came across the most ineffective traffic control systems for one way traffic in roadworks, a woman holding a stop/ go lollipop and a radio linked to another woman some miles away doing the same. Problem here seems to be that the radios were inaudible so no-one knew if cars could go or not and to top that, if a truck decides that it doesn't fancy waiting at the stop sign, then it wont, hence the reason we had to stop 3 times with 10 ton trucks bearing down on us. Way to go US drivers!!!
So we went to see Old Bents Fort (mmmmm, a bloke in a costume asking us if we had fur to trade greeted us at the entrance), not bad apart from the few "other visitors" who maybe needed their hearing aid adjusted or even some batteries putting in.
So today we head off to Dodge City and yet more museums and other stuff.
Thanks to the folks (you can see their pictures on the about us page, along with their theme tune) on recommending The Hutchinson Cosmosphere Space Centre in Hutchinson.
La Junta is a small town (calls itself a city) right on the Sante Fe trail and is quite pretty with lots of local little shops. Later I'm dragging Craig to see Bent's Old Fort (well actually a rebuilt version of) which was the major stopping point for the pligrims crossing the Sante Fe trail in the 1800s. There are apparently around here the original wagon tracks in the fields from the pilgrim wagons. Tonight we are going to enjoy a little luxury - managed to get a free night at the Holiday Inn in Garden City, so a splash in the pool will be in order.
Seems also to be a very religious area - loads of churches of every possible denomination (and lots I;ve never even heard of). All the buildings we've seen so far on the US50 (which by the way is NOT the loneliest road and is quite busy) looks like they are straight out of Little House on the Prairie. So, off now for about a 3 hr drive to Garden City. If you are keeping up with our progress, send us an email and let us know what you think so far, or if you have any suggestions for us to visit/try/do...
Today we headed to Colorado Springs and the Seven Falls (www.sevenfalls.com), which is a rather interesting (can you guess, yep 7 waterfalls, it doesn't get much easier does it). We climbed the 244 steps to the top (nice views) and then followed the trail to the memorial of some dead woman (Oooo I get all the fun things to do), some old dear called Helen Hunt Jackson (who wrote what appears to be an early Mills and Boon novel), the view from the look out is quite spectacular as are the Bear warnings (dont fret, I made Lorna walk point, just in case).
Now we are in downtown (old town) Colorado Springs, on our way to check in to a motel for a couple of nights (with its own jacuzzi, hooo yaaaa).
There are threats of snow on Weds, so lets hope (snowball fight in the offing). What's for the rest of the week, well we are going to the North Pole (in America of course, as is everything, looks like they moved it), then Pike's Peak (14,000ft above sea level) with a knackered out Thomas the Tank Engine train (probably pulled up by Donkeys).
So this is Craig typing (hence the wit) and Lorna whittering in the background (oh no, I dont want to see anymore Indian ruins or Museums).
Ta Ta for now (P.S hi to Alan, Bel and Hazel keep coming back).
From Gunnison we drove to an elevation of 11,312ft up through Monarch Pass and to the Continental Divide (look it up!). We stopped off at at Salida and dipped into a Hot Spring we hired a private hot bath and bathed for an hour in total privacy in a mineral bath heated to 99 degrees - lovely....
Today we visited Canon City and rode the Royal Gorge Route Railroad (think of the Pickering railway) which rides a narrow gorge following the route of the Arkansas river. we opted to be a little decadent and booked 1st class with lunch - free glass of champagne and a 3 course meal - yummy. We met Charlie and Karen from Colorado on the train celebrating their 35th Wedding Anniversary tommorrow in Colorado Springs (Congratulations and have a great day!). We also went up to the Royal Gorge suspension bridge, the highest in the world allegedly and looked down into the gorge where the railway runs - wow what a view, and all from standing on wooden beams across the bridge that cars can also drive across (1032ft above the gorge).
So, here we are now at the Pueblo KOA, kindly using the owners PC, shortly it's off to relax in our Kabin and have a beer...
Tommorrow, Colorado Springs and a change of hire car because this one now needs a service - and no, its not our driving.