Saturday August 22, 2020 St. Louis Arch, Temple and more Mounds

 Happy Saturday!!!!  We found ourselves in the middle of such eloquent peace and beauty today.  Missouri is green and lush right now with plenty of bugs!!  Scotty and I started out the day with some exercise out on the trials at the Route 66 State Park.  Then we packed up the kids and left for St. Louis to see the Gateway Arch.  St. Louis was not too busy.  Driving in was easy and finding parking was just as easy.  We brought our bikes and scooters to get around the city.  

 Here is the Gateway Arch!!!  It is magnificent.  We were able to go into the museum and gift store.  Graham is learning why the arch was built and how it was built. I just love homeschooling.  How cool is our nation.  

 After we were done in St. Louis, we wanted to go see some mounds that were across the Mississippi in Illinois.  These mounds were not burial mounds.  They were built up in the middle of a fort.  The Indians more than likely put their sacred buildings on top of the mound and built their own separate homes around the floor of the mound.  This mound is the largest one that they have found here in Northern America.  We were able to climb to the top and see the view that the Indians had.  I'm sure they used the high ground to help them see when enemies were coming.  As of right now mosquitoes are inhabiting the place :)))

We could see the Arch from the top of the mound.

These are walls that modern men built using the footings that they found in the ground from the Indians.  These walls are likely what the Indians built for protection.  

We crossed a really cool bridge to head back to St. Louis.  Hunger had set in  at this point.  Scotty and I found a large park where we could eat and play.  

This was a moment of very little "brotherly love".  These two were bickering more than normal.  They argue daily but this moment was a bit tense.  Someone popped one of the bike tires and no one would fess us so Scotty had them both fix it.  They argued the whole time. Silly boys.  Finally they were done and we moved on:))

Our next stop was at the St. Louis LDS Temple.  It was closed so we walked around the grounds.  All the temples are so beautiful and bright.  I can't wait for the temples to open again so we can go in:)))

 We had a fun and full day. Back at the trailer the weather was so beautiful so we opened up all the patios.  I love my RV. We hit all the points of interest that were on our list for the day so we all sat outside on the side patio and watched a few episodes of Psych!!!!  What a great day!!