Cahokia, Illinois

We are parked across the river and a short distance south of St. Louis, Missouri. After arriving at camp on Mon., Oct. 1, we had dinner at The Sawmill Restaurant, which is located within the campground. The place is not very big so we had to split up into two groups to eat dinner. The food was really good, we had a buffet of turkey, pork and beef brisket, with their own BBQ sauce, potato salad, cole slaw. After every one ate, the owner came over to our leaders and asked if we wanted the rest of the food, cause they would just throw it all out. We took the food and split it out between all 26 trailers, that just tells you how much food was left over.



On Tuesday, we had a bus tour through St. Louis, our tour guide was great, telling us about all building, gardens, fountains, and each section of the city. We got dropped off at the arch and had two hours to spend going thru the museum, watching movies, and going up to the top of the arch.


Gateway Arch


St. Louis seen from top of Arch


Busch stadium


Top of Arch


For lunch, we stopped at The Spaghetti Factory, great food, salad, spaghetti with meat balls and homemade ice cream for dessert. When we entered the building we had to go downstairs. The fixtures were great, they had used old heads of beds as benches, this was once an old hotel and this was a way to use some of the furniture let behind. There was also a trolley down there where you could also sit inside to eat.





We also had time to get out of the bus to go into The Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis. The construction of the Cathedral began in 1907, with granite walls, rose windows and two massive towers. Entering through the massive oak doors, you see soaring domes, soffits, arches, pendentives and lunettes which are paved with brilliant mosaics. There are 83,000 square feet of mosaic art created by twenty artists and installed over a period of seventy-five years.












On Wednesday, we carpooled to Budweiser Brewery for a tour. It was in 1852 when entrepreneur Eberhard Busch and Adolphus Busch, started a small local brewery here, soon to be called Anheuser-Busch. Since then it has grown to be a thriving global beer company offering a variety of quality beer brands. On the tour we experienced the history and saw the brewing and packaging process first hand. We also saw the Budweiser Clydesdale Stable, lager cellar, and brew house. You just can't image how massive this whole place is, it was a great tour and we recommend if you come to St. Louis, to take the tour, best thing, it's free.
























In the afternoon, we carpooled to Cahokia Mounds, this is a National Historic Landmark. This is the largest prehistoric Indian site north of Mexico, covering about 4000 acres and include at least 120 mounds. The first settlements at Cahokia were around AD 700 by Late Woodland Indians. From AD 800-1000, the Mississippian culture began as highly structured communities, they grew corn, squash, and seed bearing plants. After AD 1050, it became a regional center, and it peaked from AD 1050-1200, sprawling over six square miles with the population of 10-20,000 people, making it the largest community north of Mexico. By the late 1300's the area was completely abandoned, where they went or what tribes they became remain unanswered questions.








This picture is of St. Louis seen from on top of the largest mound.

On Thursday, we carpooled to Alton, IL., to Lock & Dam #26. This Lock is the newest lock along the Mississippi River, was moved downstream from the former lock. It is also one of the longest locks, there is only 27 lock & dams along the Mississippi. We got to have a tour of the lock and was lucky enough to watch a 16 barge and tug going through the lock. We also got to watch a movie and visit the interpreter center.








This is the barge that went through the lock while we were on top of the dam, and a new bridge in Alton.

After the lock, we had visited the Lewis & Clark Confluence Tower, this is where you can see where the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers join.



Next we visited the Louis & Clark Interpretive Center, watched a movie and walked through the museum, where you could envision their journey around this area. Outside they have a full scale replica of the 1803-04 camp, you can experience the tiny area in which these men lived for 5 months.






After returning back at camp, we had a drivers meeting and a social dessert. They had changed our drivers meeting for this night because they where calling for rain and colder weather for Friday.

Well it is raining, and has got colder, only 46 degrees, today. Ken and I went for a drive, we went and found Cahokia Church of the Holy Family, it is said to be the oldest church in Illinois, a 1699 stone and wood building.



We had also found Jarrot Mansion, which was completed in 1810 and is one of the oldest brick building in the mid-Mississippi River Valley.



We also saw Cahokia Courthouse, put didn't get a picture, too many trees. This building was built in 1740 and is a unique remnant of the French in Illinois. We had driven toward St. Louis, stopping at a couple pawn shops, after getting into town, we got fuel, $3.79 per gallon, and then went to Soulard Farmers Market. The market is open Wed.-Fri. and Sat., they say best to visit on Sat., put we won't be here tomorrow. This market has been in business since 1779, shaped like a huge H, it has stall after stall of produce, butchers, bakers and vendors. Some of the prices were great and then some were high, bananas .69-.75 cents per pound, pineapples 75 cents. St. Louis is not really easy to get around, too many highways going every which way, they are building a new bridge, which Ken thinks High Steel is send some work here, which we found and looked at. Hopefully tomorrow it's not raining, they say it is to stay cold, for the next couple of days.

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