Westward HO!

Finally headed back to our home range.

I know we are missing some fun times, and I will get to them, but we all know somewhere we feel the best. My happy place seems to be west of the Mississippi River. I know, you could say that I am a little biased in my choice of stomping grounds, but you wouldn’t be quite correct in that assumption. You see, I was a child of a rambling family. Dad worked all over the U.S. and drug us along. We were never in one place longer than three years, and a fair portion of that was spent east of that mighty river. Grand places like Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Michigan. Each was pretty but I was pretty young and was heavily influenced by a three year stint in Wyoming, where I turned nine, had my own horse and was allowed to ramble the country of authors Louis L’Amour, Zane Grey, and Max Brand and famous (infamous?) Mountain Men, Jim Bridger, Hugh Glass, and Jeremiah Johnson.

We start our journey where so very many in the 1800 expansion westward started; St. Louis, Missouri. We stopped at our Harvest Host (if you are RVing check out HH, there are some fabulous places to stay with great hosts) location in Lebanon and dropped off the wagon while we headed into town to see the big city sights before heading westward. A quick 30 minutes into the City and we are parking on the Levee below the Saint Louis Arch on the Mississippi river bank. As we look out onto the “Big Muddy” you can almost hear the echoes of the past when there were hundreds of steamboats pulled up to the shore, loading and unloading their cargoes, thousands of men talking and yelling as they go about there business. The faded sounds of the steam engines and the horses and mules hauling cargo from the muddy riverbank to the various businesses in town. The smell of the river itself permeates all with its wet odor, tugging at you to take an adventure along this famous and fabled waterway.

We climb up from the river and walk across the beautiful landscaping of the Gateway Arch and enter into a beautiful visitors center. The Arch is a National Park and is very inexpensive and well worth the trip. Plan your trip here: https://www.gatewayarch.com/plan-your-visit/. You enter into a very comprehensive museum of the history of the westward expansion and Saint Louis itself as well as the construction of the Arch. There is a tram ride to the top of the 630 foot arch. This tram ride is reminiscent of being locked inside a large soccer ball with seating for 5 on historic seats that were new when the tramway was installed in 1965. There are 5 seats but only about three can be comfortable in the tram without having to have intimate knowledge of each others anatomy. We got lucky and just the two of us were locked in for the duration of the ride. Just an FYI; The NPS is not being discriminatory, the is no ADA compliance for this ride. The diving bell like capsules have no room for wheel chairs and there is no way to accommodate for limited mobility at the top of the arch. Once we reached top of the arch, we were treated to almost infinite views both east and west of the river. Below is Cardinal stadium and the river with the city stretching out towards the westward horizon where we are headed. A couple of warnings outside the non-ADA tram ride; This is not a ride for the timid, claustrophobic, or acrophobic person, you are in a small capsule that rises 630 feet in the sky on a bumpy ride to deposit you in a metal cylinder with windows.

Our afternoon done, we headed back to the wagon for some dinner on our griddle and watched a beautiful storm in the distance. Visions of tornado movies in the back of our minds while completely surrounded by corn fields and dark clouds.

Like our predecessors leaving this area, we packed up the wagon and hooked up our modern beast of burden and with a final adieu to our hosts, pointed our little train westward. Interestingly, in less than half an hour, we travel what would have been two days journey for those predecessors. Unlike our predecessors, our trip can be leisurely. We don’t have to beat the snow in the mountains or the scorching hot plains so we decided to take this trip more leisurely than our trip to Alabama. We have two more overnights at harvest host locations and then a couple nights in Kearney and more leisure time in Scottsbluff before moving on to Wyoming.

We spent a couple of days near old Fort Kearney (pronounced Carney), in Nebraska. Here we found a nicely done tribute to the fort and the area. This also included the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument. This arch spans the breadth of Interstate 80 and chronicles the passage of everyone using the Platte River as a guide to go west from the Natives and mountain men through the railroad and primitive roadways to today’s modern Interstate. This is a private museum and does charge a fee but we found it to be a well organized and perfect way to learn about the area and the westward migration.

https://archway.org/ for more information about the arch. https://outdoornebraska.gov/location/fort-kearny-shp/ for more about Fort Kearney.

Keeping with our wagon train theme, we continued along the North Platte River all the way to Gering, Nebraska.

Join us next time for more westing.

Jeff

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