Last night, after the rental car fiasco, we found some dinner, and then went on to our hotel in downtown St Louis. The only thing I can say is that I wish had taken pictures. But when you are trying to process so much visual information, capturing it doesn't occur to you at first. And even when it does later, your brain is still in slow motion. The first thing I saw was the horse with the feathered hat. Followed by the bedraggled Santa. And the woman holding a book called "Potions and Encantations". And ripped fishnets as far as the eye could see. There were so many people that we could hardly drive into the hotel driveway. Once we made it through, we sat in the car and willed the valet to see us. Because we weren't getting out!!! Turns out we rolled into town on day four of the largest Halloween Industry and Attraction convention in the US. Sounds pretty niche, yes? Costumes, gore, and everything strange in between! Honestly never seen anything like it!
This morning (late morning, ha!), we headed out to see the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. On the way we stopped in Grafton to ride the SkyTour at Aerie's Resort. I think I've said all the right words. This was a chair lift, with promised views of the Mississippi. Why not? Thelma and Louise travel with a loose agenda, because the best adventures are often stumbled upon. As was today's lunch! There was a whole "winery" at the top of the chair lift. You and I would call it a "restaurant", but regardless, there was live music and delicious food. And, apparently, the "best view in the midwest"!
Also in Grafton, we stopped to see the lighthouse. I mean, technically, it IS a lighthouse, but technically it is also not a lighthouse. It is more a symbol of light and hope than it is a navigation tool. More on the flood of 1993 later. For now, this was a good photo op. ;)
Then we headed to Alton to see the National Great Rivers Museum. There we learned an awful lot about the Mississippi River. I guess one thing I didn't know about the Mississippi is that it is generally thought of as a very clear, pristine river, until is joins with the Missouri. It's the Missouri that has the nickname "The Big Muddy". I don't think I thought of them as different, except in terms of the history I do know, like Lewis & Clark and Mark Twain.
After Alton we headed to Confluence Park to see these two mighty rivers combine. All day we had read this and that about the flood of 1993. There was a line on a silo in Alton to show the river level, the lighthouse mentioned above was part of the rebuild...there were many mentions, but it sort of flitted out of our minds.
The path from the parking lot is paved, for a minute. And then there are several choices. We chose dirt instead of grass, and that was correct! What we didn't realize at the time was that we were walking through flood debris.
When we arrived at the park, there was a pole showing the height of the flood waters. Flag pole. Way above our heads, and way above the "heads" of many of the trees. On our way back, looking at the landscape with new eyes, it was difficult not to see the mounds of debris and impact of that flood, even almost 30 years later.
Though the rivers have reportedly moved over the last 100+ years, we imagined that this convergence must have looked similar to when Lewis & Clark were loading their pirogues and keelboat to set off on their adventure of discovery. (Lewis & Clark aficionados, did you notice my en pointe vocab there? 😉)
I have announced many times today how incredibly brown it is here. Spring has not yet sprung. And so I've taken many photos in black and white, because the beauty is more readily available to me that way. Looking back on the day, there were some quite beautiful moments.
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