After our couple of days camping at Blue Spring we returned home via Ginger’s parents farm and took a day for R&R (Rest and Restocking). We asked Mick what he wanted to do next, and decided to go to St Louis check out the Arch, Courthouse and whatever else took our fancy, plus we, ‘we’ being Mick and I, had designs on the Museum of Transportation at St Louis. Knowing how much Mick liked his traction engines I had a suspicion this might just be a popular destination for him.
Having previously found campsites along the I-44 corridor, we decided to break the trip up and take in Dillard Mill stopping for the night at Red Bluff campground. Hopefully there’d be a free slot at the wonderful Pines Overlook, and we were now in possession of a huge can of waspy thing killer should the area still be home to the aforementioned nasty waspy things.
Somehow we got off to a slow start, I’m sure Mick’s passion for drinking scotch must have had something to do with it, but I honestly can’t remember, which is probably indicative in itself. The result of this was that we arrived at Dillard Mill just after four pm as the staff were leaving for the day. We made the best of it we could, scouting around the outside, taking pictures, and reading the display boards. In the process I discovered that the Ozarkian pronunciation of what I thought was the rather British named Huzzah Creek, was ‘Hoozer Crick’. Oh well.
Mick checking out the photo opportunities at Dillard Mill
Dillard Mill, Huzzah Creek, Missouri
By six pm (If the camera’s date and time information is to be believed) we’d travelled the few miles down the road to Davisville and on to the Red Bluff Campground. Much to our surprise we discovered that the Pines Overlook was completely empty, so we picked the best campsite and set up camp on the edge of the one-hundred-and-forty foot high bluff overlooking Hoozer Huzzah Creek. Once the tents were up we took Mick down to the main Red Bluff Campground to see Red Bluff and also cool off in Huzzah Creek. We met a couple of guys Kayaking down the creek – it was a lot higher than our last visit, and in fact it looked like the lower campground had been flooded out recently. Had we been staying longer we might of taken them up on their offer to let us borrow their kayaks. Ginger and I are thinking about getting our own kayaks or a canoe, so the chance to try out a kayak was very tempting.
Mick admiring the view of Red Bluff, Missouri
Huzzah Creek and Red Bluff, Red Bluff Campground, Missouri
Gary in typical pose taking pictures at Red Bluff - Photo Mick Felton
Getting back to the Pines Overlook Ginger spotted a wonderful Luna Moth.
Luna Moth
We had a great evening with a roaring fire courtesy of Mick, and spent our time sipping scotch and soaking up the fantastic view.
Pines Overlook Campsite, Red Bluff Campground, Missouri
Ginger enjoying the view at Pines Overlook Campsite
Pines Overlook Campsite at night
The next morning we awoke fairly early and ventured out to take a few pictures in the early morning light. Most of my earlier shots were miserable failures as I hadn’t got my glasses on and I missed that my camera wasn’t focusing as it should (operator error I should add, I turned the autofocus off the night before). The temptation to just sit and look at the view while we were drinking our morning coffee was too great, and we got away a bit late.
Pines Overlook Campsite at daybreak - blurry version
Pines Overlook Campsite at daybreak (plus a bit)
Fungi at Pines Overlook Campsite
We decided to cut across country and then head North up to St Louis. We covered a lot of new ground and saw a lot of places we’d like to visit in the future, but the result was we arrived in St Louis and at the Arch quite late in the day. Mick had a great time at the Arch, going through the museum, watching the ‘building of..’ video, and we all took a trip to the top. I’ve so many pictures of the Arch that I didn’t take any. I probably should have taken one of Mick there at least.
After the Arch we went to the old Courthouse and looked around. Once done, we debated what to do next, Ginger was keen on the Botanical Garden and the Art Museum, Mick and I were keen on the Museum of Transportation. Whatever we were to do we needed to stay in St Louis. It seems there were no camping grounds so we headed out down the I-44 towards the Museum of Transportation and stopped overnight at a fairly seedy motel. We’d run out of scotch, so we had an interesting drive around the ‘more interesting’ part of St Louis looking for a reasonable liquor store. Surprisingly we found one.
Tug Boat and C-47, Museum of Transportation, St Louis, Missouri
The next day braving temperatures in the high nineties we went to the Museum of Transportation, which had an astounding number of steam locomotives. Mick was in his element, climbing in the cabs, ringing bells, and getting very excited about a Santa Fe line locomotive. The engines were very big, okay huge, and very impressive, but I was surprised at their lack of conservation. In the UK a lot of the surviving steam locomotives have been restored to concourse condition, the best you could say for the engines and rolling stock here is that they were preserved. Certainly not in working order.
Mick 'Cassey Jones' Felton at the controls of a 4-8-8-4 'Big Boy' locomotive
Union Pacific 4-8-8-4 'Big Boy' locomotive
Mick and #5011
With the impending onset of heatstroke we got ourselves some refreshments and went to see the the museum’s Route 66 exhibition. It was somewhat lacking in exhibits, but it was very interesting to read up on the history behind Route 66, and its presence explains to a certain degree the number of large campsites we’ve been discovering. Many are a throwback to the time when the only practical way to travel across the country was by car and not everyone could afford Motels, and the hotel chains hadn’t taken off.
Chrysler gas turbine car
Route 66 Exhibition, Museum of Transportation, St Louis
Finally it was back to the air conditioned comfort of the van and destination Springfield. We stopped a couple of times along the way. Once for ice cream at Rubies in St James, and then later to have a look around a couple of flea markets.
