Day 10- On to St Louis, Change of plans #4

We were peacefully slumbering when promptly at 6 am this morning, the Wal Mart grounds crew decided it was time to mow and weed wack the laws around the parking lot.  End of sleeping for the night.

Benefit to that was we got an early start to head on up the road about 89 miles to our planned stop over, Wal Mart in Chesterfield Missouri, where we used to live.  The original plan was to stop at Wal Mart, unhook the car and check out
The Dr Edmund A Babler State park campground, #3 on the map above. 

We got to Wal Mart about 9 or so, then headed the 7 miles up the road to the State Park- it was full, with no electric sites available.  So no brainer, we are at Camp Wal Mart again.  We're well off the Interstate, should be a quiet night.  We've managed to become quite expert at this Wal Mart style of camping, and it certainly is doable- and is of course totally free.  Tonight, there is the added benefit of us being located in a super major shopping area, with about 30 chain restaurants and 50 big box stores within a mile and a half, and Michaels just across the lot from us. 

After we got permission to stay at Wal mart and got halfway settled in, and walked the dog, we headed off to down town St Louis.  

First objective was the Ulysses S Grant National Historic Site, a revisit for me.

This is the "homeplace" of President Grant, or actually I think it is the homeplace of his wife's folks, passed down.  Grant split his time after the Presidency between here and New York City, which I guess explains why he is buried there,
but loved this place also.  I got two stamps here. 

I also got two pins here, these will go in the "non specific National Parks" category, I almost have enough of these now to do a seperate shadow box of them. 

From there, we headed downtown to the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, or as every one knows it, the St Louis Arch.  Got 5 stamps here, and one new pin.  In addition to the arch, there is the Old Court  House across the street which is also part of the park, but I didn't know that all the time we lived in St Louis, nor on my previous visits to the park....

You clearly see the Court House in the arch,, duh!!!

The top two were at the arch proper, and I missed the 25th Anniversary stamp, because I misread the master list, and didn't know the stamp was at the bookstore rather than the information desk where I got the two top stamps.  Oh well, get it next time when we visit maybe in August.  The bottom three were at the Old Court House, and feature the Lewis and Clark Trail and Underground Railroad stamps. 

Here's the pin I added for the Old Courthouse part of the Monument:

Had trouble shooting the pin, the top inscription is Gateway Arch, the bottom says Old Courthouse. 

Then, about 2 hours later, we headed on over to my sister's dear friends the Herringtons retail book store in the Grand Boulevard section of town.  They purchased the store, called Dunaway Books, about a year ago, and have been dillegently at work reshelving and classifying their books.  They have two and a half floors!  Practically all of their stacks are on line also, at
http://www.dunawaybooks.com/

We were able to talk Debs into joining us for lunch at St Louis Bread Company across the street and made a tentative date for lunch Monday.  Peter is one of our favorite folks too! 

After browsing the store for a bit, and collecting a 10- dollar parking ticket, thanks Bette, we headed downtown to Busch stadium to pick up a Cardinals Ball and pin that I missed when Brandon and I went to a game there 3 years ago. So that gets added to the major league baseball shadow box. 

We got back to the Wal Mart at about 330 or so, Bette crashed for a nap, then woke up and we went to Best Buy to see about truck GPS's- They didn't have any. 

We made dinner in the mirco, and will probably be asleep early. 

Tomorrow is an open day.  I have to rethink some more sections of the trip now, what to do tomorrow, if anything, then things to do on our way over to Kansas City/Independence, and then also plan the details of the 4 days were are set to be there. 

Also, now, we may come back down to St Louis from Chicago after we drop Brandon off, and spend a day or so with Sherry and Fred and the Herringtons, since we missed Sherry and Fred on the way out.  That's not terribly far out of the way, and thankfully, we are kind of loosey goosey on anything from August on, with no reservations yet, but a general idea of what we were thinking of doing.   Love to plan anyway. 

So, tomorrow, maybe the Busch tour, maybe a drive over to Alton to antique, St Charles to antique, or nothing, have to wait and see.