The Bunch Reach Civilazation and the KOA!!!

St Louis

The drive to our 3rd stop for this Midwest tour was not nearly as eventful as the last one and we really enjoyed that. Since we have to get up so early to walk the dog, we have been able to get around and be ready to leave pretty early in the morning. We left Withrow State Park by 8am and even after all our stops and an hour lunch we still made St. Louis by 3pm, which was fantastic and left us some time to do laundry before they closed. The girls were so excited to have cable here. We left them to binge watch the Hallmark channel and the Hallmark murder mystery channel while T played basketball and whined about not being able to use the pool. The pool was very green and cloudy. I am not sure if it was open for the season yet, but we were not swimming in it.

Love the KOA

Our spot wasn't too bad.

After a very relaxing evening of laundry and Hallmark, we were ready for our first adventure in St Louis. The first thing we wanted to do was visit the zoo. Several things in St Louis and Chicago are free, including the zoos, science centers, art centers, and a lot more. This of course DOES NOT include parking, but parking here was only $15 so it was still super cheap for a family of 5 to enjoy a few hours looking at the animals. Considering it was a free zoo, I didn't expect a whole a lot from it. Boy, was I wrong! This zoo is fantastic. They had a butterfly garden that had thousands of butterflies, a polar bear (who appeared to really not want to be outside) and our absolutely most favorite thing in any zoo ever.... penguins! Yes, I know several zoos have penguins (and Sea World too), but trust me when I say this zoo puts it on a whole other level! The penguin habitat is not behind a thick wall of glass; it is open, at least after about 4 ft tall, and you are eye level with penguins. In fact, they could peck your eye if they felt like it. It was so neat to be able to interact so much with them. I really had to fight the urge to just pick one up. They are literally that close and I probably would have been kicked out of the park if I did, but they were so cute. We actually visited this exhibit twice because we HAD to see it one more time before we left. The coolness (both literally and figuratively) of seeing them so close more than made up for the atrocious smell, which was a little over whelming when first entering the exhibit. We had such a fun time, but after about 4 hours we were ready to head back to the trailer and relax. We had walked over 6 miles while we were there and the girls wanted to watch some more Hallmark. T, D, and I had some lunch and then went to check out the Lewis and Clark National Historic Site. The history books always picture Lewis and Clark in this little canoe thing so I was surprised to learn that they actually had a fairly large schooner with all their supplies. This museum had a life size replica with replicas of their things and how it was stored. The building itself is shaped like a boat. It was pretty neat.

St Louis Zoo

Pretty neat scuplture

Aren't they cute?

Neat hiding spots throughout the zoo for kids to play in.

Evan Almighty?

Best Penguin Exhibit ever!

We had so much fun here! The smiles are real!

He just has to crawl and climb on EVERYTHING!

He has still got it.

Lewis and Clark had a way bigger boat than I thought.

And they filled it with a ton of stuff.

A partial packing list

T was the one who noticed the outside was shaped like a boat.

We encountered our first bit of severe weather later that evening and spent part of the evening hiding in the campground bathroom when there was a tornado warning for our immediate area. We met several other campers (and their dogs) while we were hiding. Fortunately, the tornado missed us, but it did touch down and cause damage a few miles away. The St Louis area has had quite a storm season and we were a little nervous about the weather forecast over the next couple of days.

We got the tornado warning and ran to the bathroom with the other campers.

Everyone made the best of it.

L being a glamour girl while hiding in the bathroom.

It poured buckets.

The next morning we decided to head to downtown and visit the Gateway Arch. I mean who can visit St Louis and not get the iconic arch shot? The park surrounding the National Park was really nice. It had a lot of green space that was well maintained and was just really relaxing in the hustle and bustle of the city. The museum was very informative, would have been better if the lights worked while we were there, but we enjoyed what we could see. We did not take the tram to the top because I am afraid of heights and the cars seemed really small. After the whole elevator thing at Baylor where the elevator crushed the nurse between floors, I don't think I will ever be able to get the kids on an elevator again anyways. The national park is also right next to the old courthouse that marked the beginning of slaves in Missouri becoming free. We toured that as well while we were there. It was a beautiful old building. However, protesters were setting up outside for a rally while we were there to protest the abortion bill that was passed. Luckily, we left before it got under way because on the news later it showed thousands of people there. I tend to be vocal (and hot headed) so they probably wouldn't have liked me telling them to shut up and quit being murderers. The best part of the day was after we left the courthouse, we walked to the downtown area and ate at this mediterrean restaurant called Crazy Bowls and Wraps. I highly recommend it. Everyone loved what they ordered and everything was super fresh and made to order. It wasn't fast, but it was really yummy! I would have loved to eat here again when drove back through on our way home, but alas that was not an option.
Next stop the Chicago area!