Missouri - Week 20

As soon as we passed into Missouri we could tell it was different.  The vegetation is thick and lush.  There are openly gay people on the street.  One can get a well made cappuccino and some educational wooden children's toys on the same block.  We decided to slow our pace and enjoy this state.  And so we spent almost ten days crossing Missouri from Kansas City to St Louis.

Kansas City covers two states, but the Missouri side is way better.  We stayed at a campground on a lake not far from the city.  It was one of the best places we've stayed so far.  The symphony of insect and frog noises at night were much better than our sound machine.  It was a little unnerving when the raccoons were climbing up the ladder to our roof and scrabbling around up there.  But they did no damage and only ran the circuit a few times before settling down.

Lake Jacomo is one of three lakes in the park system.  It was a huge park that included a cross country course, model airplane flying area, native hoofstock enclosure, swimming beaches and several marinas.  I'm a big fan of lake swimming, so we did that a couple times.  It is great swimming entertainment to watch deer grazing on the other side of the lake, or watch great blue herons fishing.

We spent an afternoon exploring Kansas City and had to check out their "hippest" neighborhood, Brookside.  It was surprisingly reminiscent of Brooklyn's Park Slope, with awesome coffee and super cute high end kid's stores.  The best place was the Reading Reptile, a children's library, book store, play space and cupcake shop.

The Reading Reptile, home of Le Petit Rouge

Le Petit Rouge

While in town we visited the Toy and Miniatures Museum on the campus of University of Missouri.  We thought it would be a good place for Lukas to play, but turns out they don't allow touching, or even pictures.  The miniatures were so finely detailed, like a three foot Victorian doll house with all kinds of accessories inside.  My favorite was the inch long violins that actually play music.  Brian liked the Star Wars room.  Lukas pointed at the miniatures and said "so tiny!" in a high voice with his fingers pinched together.

On Friday night we went to the Hot Air Balloon Festival, held in the Great Mall of the Great Plains, on the Kansas side of Kansas City.  The breeze that night was too strong for most of the balloons to take off, but three test balloons ascended and flew a short distance.  The rest inflated for a "glow" at dusk when they all blew air into the balloons at once.  We also saw Lonnie McFadden, a jazz musician and tap dancer with whom Lukas was entranced.

On Saturday Lukas and I went to Kansas City Zoo while Brian went golfing.  It was super hot, so we rode on every possible mode of transportation: train, tram, carousel, sky ride.  Thankfully the zoo and the rides were cheap, and Lukas is still under three so he was free.  The front part of KC Zoo is fairly standard, not great but not terrible.  We checked out a sea lion training, and the two yearling females were rescues from Marine Mammal Center in Marin.  

The real jewel of KC Zoo is the Africa section.  It takes up two-thirds of the park and is comprised of a lake you can explore by boat, a savannah area you can see from the sky ride, and a heavily wooded section you visit via winding trails and bridges.  The chimpanzee enclosure was impressive, with a huge amount of space including trees eighty feet tall.  As for the gorillas, the resident silverback was being introduced to two new females.  It was clear that he had been breeding with one of the females, and the other female was also soliciting the male.  There was a lot of competition happening between the females, but no overt aggression.  I wish we had spent more time in the African section, but we had used up most of our energy in the front of the zoo.

We probably left Kansas City too soon.  There was more to see and a great campsite to stay at.  But we were used to being on the move so did our thing and moved.  After a full day of zoo and golf, we drove two hours to the outskirts of Columbia, Missouri, and checked into a partly flooded campsite covered with mosquitos.  

I chose the campground because it was on the Missouri River and supposedly very quiet.  Well, the Missouri river had flooded the soybean fields next to the campground so the farmer was running a generator 24/7 to try and pump out the water.  And all that soggy ground made for a lot of hungry mosquitos.  Oh well, we made it a short stop and moved to a different campground early the next day.

River through flooded soybean field

After moving a mere twenty miles to a new RV park the plan was to regroup: go shopping, do laundry, things like that.  But there was a stifling heat wave happening and our car was reading 115 degrees, making it very difficult to motivate and do anything.  There were no shade trees at our new RV park.  But there was a pool.  And a nearby winery.  Thus the chores had to wait while we joined the permanent RV residents in a pool party then moved on to the winery.

Locals told us that Les Bourgeois winery had some tasty wines called Riverboat Red and Riverboat White.  At the tasting room we found out that these are super sweet wines, and that most folks in Missouri like their wines sweet, like dessert sweet, and think the other stuff is crap.  I liked the wine made from local Norton grapes, a mellow red that in comparison makes the big Californian wines seem overly fruity and bold.  We retired from the tasting room to their cafe overlooking the Missouri River, drank more wine, and chatted with some Californians who had relocated to Kansas City.  Back at the RV park, we joined up with the pool party once again.  Not bad for a hundred degree Sunday.

On Monday we sucked it up and got our errands done, then returned to the air conditioning to plan our move east to St Louis.  Brian did some golfing early in the morning, and around dusk we barbecued.  Nothing like humidity to clear the pores!

The drive to St Louis took us at least an hour longer than expected due to a navigation fail and a closed road due to flooding.  Finally we hit our destination and barely got the utilities hooked up before a thunderstorm arrived to cool things down.

We spent our first day in St Louis exploring the tourist sights.  The Gateway Arch was pretty spectacular from the ground and from the top.  To ascend inside the arch you get into a four foot tall pod that takes four minutes to rise the 630 feet to a viewing area.  Back on the ground, we walked down to the Mississippi River for a boat ride. I wouldn't recommend the riverboat tour because the shore is mostly industrial and the historical narrative about the downfall of the region is fairly depressing.  Next we walked to City Garden, an art garden and play space where all the fountains are meant to be used.  There was an old fire engine selling lemonade and ice cream.  Lukas jumped in the fountain pool, Brian and I drank fresh lemonade, and I was just loving the vibe of this city.  

It was getting late, but I dragged the boys to a free evening concert at the Botanical Gardens.  Wow.  The gardens were freaking amazing.  The special exhibit was ground level houses made out of living trees, all of which you could explore.  There was an incredible kids garden with a splash area, slides, forts, music area, and arts and crafts center.  And as for drinks... vodka Sno Cones!  We were getting hungry and it was started to rain, so we skipped the music and instead went to Central West End, the happening part of town, for a St Louis style pizza.  It was super thin crust and kinda tasted like it was made on matzah bread.  Not my favorite.  But the area was great and even had a Chess Club all done up like a fancy lounge.  Oh, and the rainbow flags were flying high and proud.  Who knew Missouri was so great?

Day two in St Louis Brian went golfing at Pevely Golf course, a beautiful course near our campground, and Lukas and I hit up St Louis Zoo.  We were pretty wiped out after all of the excitement the day before and not really up for the zoo.  Especially since the zoo is free, and anyone who works at a zoo knows what that means.  Too many people.  The Zoo was nice.  It was huge.  I had to wait in line to park, then pay $11 for the privilege.  Everything inside the zoo had an extra fee or was more than normal, because they have to make up for the free entrance in some way.  Lukas almost fell asleep on me during the train ride.  We saw the apes, ate lunch, and got going.  All the animal areas looked nice but nothing stood out to me.  The animals seemed to be very well cared for.  It was a place I would not want to work, mostly because of the free factor.  Take St Louis off our short list of possible places to live.

Our last day in Missouri we went to Grant's Farm, home of the Anheuser-Busch Clydesdales.  The horses were beautiful and happy to accept a scratch on the back.  Then we took a tram ride to see the grounds and had an unexpected tour of the Busch family's menagerie.  They had bison, cattle from around the world, ostriches, koi, geese, goats, sheep, and even elephants!  Inside the Bauernhof everyone was allowed two free 8 oz samples of beer.  Sweet!  I guzzled mine down then rode the carousel with Lukas.  I finished Brian's beer samples then got on the tram for the ride back home.  Oh, and the whole thing was free!  If we hadn't bought food or taken a carousel ride it would have been a free family friendly afternoon with complementary beer.  I'll toast a Shock Top to that.

RV PARK REVIEWS

Lake Jacomo Campground, Lee's Summit, Missouri: A+

Beautiful area, large RV spots with plenty of space, wildlife, playground.  Would be perfect if it had laundry.

Katfish Katy Campground, Columbia, Missouri: C

Next to the Katy hike/bike trail that runs for 200 miles, flooded, only a few sites with utilities, lots of mosquitos.

Cottonwood RV Park, Columbia, Missouri: B-

Standard RV park, friendly residents, well maintained, no shade trees.

Historic Route 66 KOA, Eureka, Missouri: A+

Beautiful area, backs up to old cemetery, next to creek, pool, playground, laundry, super friendly staff.