As we entered into the true Ozark Mountains, it was an interesting change of scenery. Still so incredibly green with lots of trees, but a lot less conifers and more natural looking grasslands. Cahokia is on the eastern side of the Mississippi River, while St. Louis is on the western side. Cahokia is in Illinois while St. Louis is in Missouri. We decided not to take a detour into Indiana because it was quite a long day getting to Cahokia as is. Another state not on our map.
There are a lot more, bigger rivers in this part of the country. We’ve seen the Congaree and Green Rivers, and of course, New River, but here we have the Ohio River, Tennessee, Cumberland, Missouri, and of course, the Mississippi. And they snake back and forth many times and are very wide. So there are a lot of bridges, and barges on the rivers etc. The Ozarks are gently rolling hills also- not as tall as the Smoky Mountains or as pointy as the Appalachia mountains. And we thought there were a lot of churches in the Carolinas! Tons of fairly small churches in every little town. And finally, some actual Catholic Churches!
Cahokia is a factory town for sure. All kinds of industrial buildings and that weird furnace kind of smell in the air. The showers smelled slightly of sulfur too. We didn’t spend much time there luckily. We crossed over to Missouri each day! We even went to St. Louis for “America’s best ribs” at Pappy’s BBQ. Very, very good!
The Arch is amazing. And so is the phenomenal visitor’s center, which is underground! It is all relatively new and the acreage is pretty small. But the Arch is the highest National Monument and just stands out against the sky – you see if from quite a distance away. It is along the river and right by downtown. The Old Courthouse and the Old Cathedral of Saint Louis are right there also.
We also stopped by the Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site just outside of town; we never knew much about him at all. We was quite the forward thinker of his time; for example he fought against the Spanish but worried that Texans just wanted to own slaves (against Spanish law) and then won several key battles for the Union in the Civil War. He was an amazing war planner and seemed to understand how to manage people well. However, his presidential time was overshadowed by his lack of understanding how manipulative politicians can be. He was considered so honest that he couldn’t fathom how dishonest other people could be and so he got ripped off (lost the family money) and his term was marked by many of his cabinet advisors abusing their power. Interesting to read all about him.
So overall, another great place that I am happy we stopped to investigate. Thought about Dave Thompson every time we passed Busch Stadium where his cardinals played. A little more city than we are used to but we learned quite a bit about this part of the country. As usual, click on Dave’s Pictures to see the better camera shots!