Wednesday: Hannibal, Mo to St. Louis, Mo.

 

 

 

Our route today was an easy 3 hour drive on mostly two lane roads along the shoreline of the Mississippi River.  The map shows Rt 61, but we changed plans and took Rt 79, the thin line between 61 and the river.  We cruised at 55-60 all the way down to Interstate 70 for the final 27 miles into St. Louis.  Route 79 had many interesting "twisty bits" as the English call them.  Gentle rolling curves left and right and left again.  Fun in a little sports car, at least for the driver.  The passengers get a bit skittish sometimes.

But before todays story, some old news.  Art Kampschafer suffered a blow-out on his car yesterday driving from LaClaire to Hannibal, the penalty for driving with very old tires.  Those are not shadows on the tire sidewall... those are holes.  He promised to buy new tires today, all around.

And the group photo from the dinner cruise - thanks to Missy McKenna.

The morning was promising sunshine and cool temps today, a welcome after yesterday's rainy start.  But today we were greeted with dust.... from road construction on the street in front of the hotel.  They were grinding up the pavement preparing to lay new asphalt.  And the dust went everywhere.

The sticky dust really stuck to the cars. 

Ron Davis joined the pub crawl for a couple of days but sadly must head back home, and leaves us today.  Thanks Ron for being part of the 2015 Morgan Pub Crawl.

 

 

 We had a chance to see more of Hannibal this morning when we drove out of town, around the road construction.  Here's the Big Muddy BBQ. 

Another glimpse of the Mississippi

It was a nice drive on smooth and interesting roads, then the last 30 miles were on the interstate.  Not our favorite kind of road.

And an unusual bridge entering the St. Louis metro on I-70

We arrived at the Hampton Inn about 12:30 hungry for lunch, but not so hungry as to let one of the hotel receptionists sit in a Morgan -- Reg offered to share his car.   She was thrilled, as are we every time we do the same.

 

The McKennas, Millers and Campbells with a nice lunch outside at the Sundecker.

 

 

Almost directly across the street from our hotel is the famous Arch, Gateway to the West.

 

Most of us wandered over to the arch after lunch, but only a couple actually went up into it.

Here are the McKennas at ground level.

 

And here is a shot taken by either Myron or his daughter Susanna, from the top of the arch.

The view from our hotel room, pretty neat eh?

We really got a quick taste of St. Louis today and wished we had more time.  Maybe next time we will plan an extra day here.



Several couples and cars from the tour will be leaving in the morning.  The Kampschafers and Boyles from Texas are heading back to Dallas, the Clarks racing back to North Carolina.  The rest of us will continue on to Nashville Indiana tomorrow.

So tonight we decided to have our "official" farewells.  The Morgan Brewery, two blocks from our hotel seemed appropriate.

After a nice pub related gathering we moved outside for a group photo, then inside for more refreshments and cheers for Charlie and Beth who assembled this entire tour.  Thanks Charlie and Beth, and a toast to you both.

 

It's a long haul to Nashville, Indiana tomorrow and we lose an hour, so it is an up and out and hammer east across Illinois and half of Indiana. 

 

More about that tomorrow.