St. Louis, Missouri

As summer 2016 drew to a close, we made our final stop in St. Louis, Missouri, completing our five city tour of the Midwest for this year. We landed at the Casino Queen RV Park, actually located in East St. Louis, Illinois, just across the Mississippi River which marks the border between Missouri and Illinois. Utilizing the Eads Bridge, we were able to take several of our trips into St. Louis by foot, quite convenient, and much easier than taking our big truck into a congested downtown area. The state boundaries are depicted in stone midway across the bridge, so it is possible to stand over the Mississippi River with a foot hoovering over each of the states. We had four goals while here: Attend a Cardinal's game at Bush Stadium, visit the Gateway Arch, explore downtown St. Louis, and tour the Anheuser-Bush Brewery. I plan to split these visits into four separate posts, with this first post covering our walking tour of the downtown area.

Visiting only as much territory as we could cover on foot, our exploration of the downtown area was confined to the Gateway Arch, the surrounding high rise buildings, and the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Park. The Memorial Park is located near the starting point of the Lewis and Clark Expedition and was established to commemorate the Louisiana Purchase, the first civil government west of the Mississippi River, and the debate over slavery raised by the Dred Scott case. The memorial consists of a 91-acre park along the river and on the site of the earliest buildings of St. Louis, including the Old Courthouse, the Museum of Westward Expansion, and of course, most notably, the Gateway Arch.

Below are a few pictures of the downtown area of St. Louis.