Brian and Barbara RV'ing: St Louis and north.

We decided to stay a couple of days after the rally so we can explore Sedalia and see the Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival and the Truck and Tractor Pulling. Should be more fun.

Several artist were performing live Scott Joplin recitals in the street.

The Scott Joplin Festival was fun, and Sedalia was a very interesting place with all the old buildings preserved so well. There were 6 of us from Chapter 25 Marty, Peggy, Rey, Loretta, Barbara and I after the majority rally goers left, we went to the local Mexican restaurant for a very enjoyable meal. That and a few drinks made me sleepy enough we didn't bother with the tractor pull. We watched a DVD then settled in for an early night.

Nice well preserved building downtown Sedalia

Very atmospheric

After a week in one place the old “Hitch Itch” was getting bad and we happily drove to Kansas City to see the National World War 1 Museum. The Blue Springs Elks welcomed us warmly to their excellent lodge and camping area.

Elks camping.

Funnily enough we pulled in and another rig pulled in seconds later. They were the couple who had been parked directly across from us at the Rally! That started a chain of coincidence.

L to R Me, Barbara, Jeanette and John

One of the Lodge members introduced us to John who's wife Jeanette was from our home town in UK! The next night she came to the lodge and we all talked for hours about home, they in turn introduced us to another John who as a Marine was attached to the US Embassy in London and met a girl who was also from our area. He told us he'd been to visit her family in Upton. We all laughed when we told him that our daughter is the mailman for Upton.

The World War 1 Museum is under the Liberty Tower

Truman Presidential Library

Looking at the garden where the Trumans' are buried

We walked for hours during our stay, finding more and more amazing places. The World War 1 museum took 5 hours and I'm not sue we saw everything. Then the Harry S Truman Presidential Library and home the next day was 6 hours. Finally the Steamboat Arabia Museum which took a meager 2 hours!!

The Arabia sank with a complete load of supplies for the frontier towns

Everything from Boots to Bullets and more

The old Courthouse Dome scene of the Dred Scott trial.

Our friends from our very first days of full timing Scott and Suzanne called, they were staying with their daughter 50 miles away and we all had dinner at the lodge. Our new friends John and Jeanette were there too and a good time was had by all.

We finally managed to drag ourselves away and next morning headed for St Louis to see the Arch. Unusually we decided to just get on I70 and head straight there, so it was just another amazing coincidence when an RV went the other way towing a jeep just like John and Debbies! Barbara grabbed for her phone and it rang before she even dialed the number. It was Debbie asking of we were going east on I70!!

Rainy day at the "Arch" St Louis

A dull rainy look down at the city from the top of the arch.

St Louis was OK, the arch was good even if the weather wasn't, hot and rainy doesn't make us happy. I'm not sure why we keep coming back to cities like this, we don't like the traffic and searching for parking spaces. We haven't got out of “Tourist Mode” even after 3 years!!

Davenport Iowa was next simply because it was about 200 miles from St Louis heading North. We found a nice route up Illinois 67, very little traffic and 4 lanes for many miles. Lots to see, with some awesome old farms and barns.

If you've seen the show you know what this place is.

I love the motorcycles.

It's construction season in Illinois and it's hard to understand why they have to close of sections of road completely instead of going from 4 lanes to 2. It seemed everywhere we went a road was closed and we got diverted. They are building a new bridge over the Mississippi too and that's got to be nightmare in rush hour.

Casino camping on the banks of the Mississippi

We stayed at the Isle Casino 2 nights for free and got 2 breakfast buffets for $5 total using the 50+ offer and the free point we got when we joined their “Player Club”.