Sunday 27 – St Louis, IL – Casino Queen RV Park

Sun streamed in at 7.30am and it was warm this morning so we are up early.  Decide we will go south to St Louis and stay one night at the Casino and do some sightseeing during the afternoon.  Although apart from the Arch there doesn’t seem to be overly much for us to do there.

Had a good trip down on the I55, route 66 run alongside us for a while.  There were some Route 66 highlights on the way, obviously we couldn’t do the drive-in at Litchfield but we did see the Pink Elephant Antique Mall with the rather obvious pink elephant out front.  Antiques are obviously big business here, we often see whole malls dedicated to antiques.  Another stop we should have made (will put it on the list for next time) was the Country Classic Cars sales yard at Staunton. Got a blurry photo as we motored passed it.

First glimpse of the Arch driving toward St Louis

We got to the Casino Queen in East St Louis which is just a mile off the I55 and easy to find, except for the road works and checked in.  Rather expensive at $53/night - with the Good Sam discount, for a no frills park, no picnic table, no shady trees nor ambience but we do have 50 amp, water and sewer so the AC can run all day and night - it is 33.7C outside!  Of the 132 sites we are allocated 513, a big pull through site. 

I raid the brochures stand at the RV Park Mini Mart and pick the assistant’s brains on how to catch to metro etc. and we are off.  The casino shuttle takes us to the Metro station just on the other side of the casino.  We buy a couple of two hours passes and get on the right platform for the westbound train.  Immediately we cross over the Mississippi so I guess we are now technically in Missouri.  The third stop at 8^th and Pine is the one closest to the Arch so we get off and walk a few blocks to see it.  Very impressive! It is huge at 630 feet high and easily the tallest monument in America.

Gateway Arch, St Louis, MO

Then we get on the Downtown Trolley and for $2 we can ride all day.  We do about half the trolley route and get off at the City Museum but it seems pretty much an amusement park for kids so have a quick look around and catch the trolley again.  It runs every 20 minutes or so.  We try to find the Route 66 Walk of Fame and Chuck Berry’s statue on Delmar Blvd but Kim has had enough walking already so we catch the trolley again and see the sights all the way to Union Station where we abandon the trolley in favour of the Metro to head back over the river to Illinois and the coach.  The first Metro stop is right at Busch Stadium and the Cardinals have just finished a game, the platform was a sea of red tee shirts!

Busch Stadium, home to the St Louis Cardinals, major league Baseball

Scottrade Centre, home of the St Louis Blues, professional  Ice Hockey team

We got back to the Casino in no time at all and wandered around inside sussing out options for dinner tonight.  Being a Sunday there is limited choice, the Market Street Buffet finished at 2pm and the Prime Steakhouse is closed tonight but the Roast Prime Rib of Beef and Salad at Sevens for a very reasonable $14.95 beckons Kim.  But that’s for later!

Time first to put our feet up, have a cold drink and research where to next.

Watching the news on the catastrophic flooding in Houston – unbelievable how much water they are having to deal with – 50 inches!   Our friend Andrew who looks after our coach while it is in storage hasn't been affected luckily but the UHaul where we store it appears to be under water!  Heart goes out to all those affected!  

Now this is interesting, on Wednesday night the largest ever US Lottery Jackpot of $758.7 million (NZ$1 billion) lottery was won by a single ticket and we saw the TV interview with the 53 year old Massachusetts women winner.   She could have taken the jackpot as a $758.7 million prize paid in 30 installments over 29 years, but instead Mavis chose to take a lump sum payment of $480 million, which works out to $336 million after initial taxes are withheld by the lottery!!  In many USA states (except for 6) it is law that the winner must do some PR stuff??  On the same news channel they report that at least one previous winner was murdered because it was well known who he was and where to find him.  That's just crazy!!