We started our day in Collinsville IL. We decided that since we were so close to St Louis that we really needed to see the St Louis Arch. We didn’t think that it would be a great place for pictures if we went into the Gateway Arch National Park. It was too close to the arch, and I could not imagine getting good photos of it. I did some googling and we found out that there was a park across the river called Malcolm Martin Memorial Park. It was only about 20 minutes from our hotel, so we headed over there after we checked out. It was the perfect spot for pictures of the Saint Louis Arch. They had a terraced walkway that went up and gave an overlook at about 30 or 40 feet in the air. Ronnie and I went to the top and were just amazed by the view. The St Louis Arch is very impressive. We really didn’t think that it would be that great before we got there. There was only one other couple there that we met on the way up and they were from North Dakota. I knew that because the only other car in the parking lot had North Dakota plates. We’ve stopped and talked for a while, and they were on a we don’t know where we’re going but we’re going on a trip for our 30th anniversary. We told them that we were going to be away `for a while and that we had done some pretty good pre-planning and they said they love not to pre-plan. That’s OK! Everybody has their way of doing things. We took several pictures from the overlook.
We also took the time to take a selfie with Malcolm Martin. He was very cool!
We came down off the overlook and started to drive around and I saw a train that I wanted to get pictures of. I am not a train person but my friend Jason who was one of the founders of the Jersey Droners is a train fanatic. I thought it would be cool to get some pictures for him.
While doing that I decided that this would be a good time to fly my drone and see if I could get a panorama of the Great Arch without the power lines in the picture and things like that. I flew for about 10 minutes and took some pictures and really had a good time.
After we left St Louis, it was just boring driving through the rest of Illinois. We hit rain for about an hour about an hour out of St Louis. We went around the outskirts of Kansas City MO.
We then headed cross country until we reached Topeka KS which would be our destination for the evening.
We checked into our hotel and then went for dinner at Texas Roadhouse. It was an excellent meal and then we headed back to our room for the evening. Tomorrow, we continue our trip across Kansas, and we have some interesting places that we’re going to stop at. You’ll find out all about that tomorrow. Ronnie can now say that she has never been west of Kansas.
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