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Published: August 26th 2009
Saturday , We packed up and headed north for St Louis. Along the way we stopped at a Cafe that the lady from Michigan had told us about. Lamberts, Well what a place.The line was standing outside where you take a number. We only waited about 1/4 hr before getting a table. They had a piano playing and its all set in an old barn, with number plates from all over America on the walls. We ordered our drinks and from them we should have known what was coming. I got a bucket of coke, Kids got huge hot chocolates. A guy walks around throwing fresh hot rolls to everyone who wants one, sometimes from the other side of the room. One stray throw landed on our table. We ordered our meals and when they came they were huge !! My ham steak filled up the whole pan it came in. It would have fed all of us. Josh got thru about 1/3 of his chicken pieces, Tori shared mine and Kylie got a doggy back for hers too. By the time we rolled out of there, we couldn't eat another thing. We got to St Louis alright, found our campground
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Lunch at Lamberts.and set up. Kids went for a swim after a day of sitting in the car.
Sunday Josh and I bowled over to the office and bought 500 rounds of paintballs. They have their own paintball course on the campground. So we headed over there, picked our weapons, got the usual speel and off we went. Kylie didn't want to watch her little boy get shot at. So I went to the far end of the course and it was all on. We had plywood nailed to trees to hide behind, after a couple of minutes of shooting at each other, I poked my head around the corner and got a paintball in the face. The little bugger got me, so I had to surrender and go out to clean my goggles and reload. We played for about 3/4 hr sneaking around the forest shooting at each other. I got him a beauty in the arm which left a nice little welt on his arm, Final score 4 for me , 1 for him and a whole lot of sweat !! After a shower and some lunch we headed into St Louis to have a look around. 1st stop the
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My ham steak, corn and chips. We had the rest of it for tea the next night. budweiser brewery (Anheuser-Busch Brewery) , there are 12 around the country. We took a tour around, they showed us were the Clydesdales live, there are about 250 of them all over America doing advertising for Budweiser. The stable they are housed in is a historic building, what an amazing stable. Ive never seen a stable so clean in my life !!. Ive seen some production lines in my time, but this has to be the cleanest and tidiest ive ever seen. The buildings are incredible, The archetecture in them and the paintings and hanging light fittings are what you would see in estate houses , not a factory making beer !! At the end of the tour we were allowed our 2 free beers of our choice while the kids helped themselves to the soda dispenser. Fancy that we had to run the gauntlet thru the giftshop again, Once again it cost me to go on a free tour of something !!. St Louis was built right next to the Mississippi river as a port to the west. Downtown around by the river is alot of the old historic area. They bowled 40 acres of it in the 60's and
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Trailers loaded with Water Melon. Theyre huge. built a 630 ft high stainless steel Arch. So we walked around it and then went underneath it where we caught a cable car thing ride up the center of it. The windows are pretty small but what a view from up there. We could see right across the city and across the river into Illinois. They have a museum underneath the ground under the Arch as well, so we went for a walk around that too. It tells of the wild west from the Indians to the settlers than came along next and the worked the land into what it is today.
When we got back to the campground I lit the fire , not because it was cold just because it was such a nice night to sit outside with the fire going as alot of other people in the camp were doing. We had marshmellows and Kylie had a I had a bottle of wine she found over at the office, very nice too.
Monday, We headed down to the local RV place and ordered new parts for the awning, should be here wednesday. Then headed off into town again, this time with the bikes on the
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The Clydesdale stalls, not quite like the Claridge barn ive seen. look how high the straw is. back. We went to Forest park where the art museum and the zoo is. We rode around the park for awhile, It was all paved bike tracks, we came across the science museum. So parked up our bikes and went for a look around there for awhile. Quite interesting. After there we went to the Botanical gardens, also known as the 'Shaw Gardens'. Took a trolley ride around the park and then walked back to some of the parts we liked, Ran out of time there as it closed at 5pm. We drove to Ted Drewes frozen custard place next, World famous as it used to be along the old Route 66 sine 1929. We got " Concrete shakes " , famous for being served to you upside down across the counter, Very nice, doubt if they were Gluten free thou. Came home for tea went and bought some more wood, $10 for about 8 pieces of wood !! I found some real nice french onion dip that were allowed, so it was just like being at home with chips and dip.
Tuesday , While I was over at the office the night before talking to the guy. I asked
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The wrought iron and magnificant tiling inside the bud factory. about Route 66. Your'e on it he said. A stretch of it runs about 5 miles south and about 7 miles north of our campsite, but its called ' AT' on our map, so I didn't realise. So today we drove over into Illinois and found the old Route 66 bridge across the Mississippi and walked over it. Its a very narrow 2 way road bridge about a mile long and the new one is only a couple of hundred meters down the river from it. Its pretty run down and its only good for walking or biking over nowadays.Then we drove down the road a bit to 'Cahokia' Its an ancient Indian city. At its peak there were 20,000 people living there. They have these huge mounds , the kings one is called ' Monks Mount', where he lived and sort guidance from the Gods as he was closest to them. They are just grass hills now but at the visitor center we watched a film on how they became to be where they are. About 1200 years ago the Village was established due to the ideal growing conditions of corn, For which they set up farms and grew
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Chandelair inside the Budweiser brewery hanging down over three floors of plant. so much corn that they were able to sell the surplus to buy meat and metal for tools. After there we drove back into St Louis where we went to the Union station, In its day it was the hub of the railway system in the North west. Alot of people came up the Mississippi river to St Louis and then headed west from there, to make a new life for themselves. The last train pulled out of there in 1978, from then it was let go abit, then it was decided to turn it into Hotels, function centre and shops. Drove around town to look at the sights, the Cardinals baseball team was playing tonight in the Busch stdium.On the way out there was a massive traffic jam going into town as there was a truck burn't out on the interstate, what a mess. We stopped at the Laumeier Sculpture Park, different !! 105 acres with over 80 works of contemporary scuptures. Some were huge, looked like Jurassic park lego gone wrong. Some are just weird but I guess thats art. Back home for tea and another installment of Dukes of Hazzard, Its like watching Friday night TV when
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Kids waiting outside Budweiser brewery for their mother to finish her free samples. LOL I was a kid. The kids think theyre great, like I did at their age.
Wednesday, Today were just having a catch up day. Josh cooked us Pancakes for breakfast, Kylie is making some bread, Kids catching up on their books. Its just getting up into the 80's now , so theyve gone for a swim. Weve just been working out where to head to next. Looks like were in for a big drive ,900 miles to Rapid city, South Dakota. Those Nintendos might come in handy for killing some time.
Chow, The Wandering Kiwi's.
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cam
non-member comment
disgusting
Hi Uncle Paul, I think your food looks disgusting. I wouldn't eat that. T and J email me again please. Love Cam