Days 14 and 15 - St. Louis

Our last stop on the trip before heading home to Cleveland was St. Louis. We pulled out of Tulsa nice and early on Thursday morning and made our way across Missouri. About an hour or so into the drive we saw a sign that there was a Buc-ees up ahead. A Buc-ees?!? And right along the route we were traveling?!? You know we had to stop. If you aren't familiar with Buc-ees, they are a Texas-based gas station chain. But they are like gas stations on steroids. We first went to one in January of 2023 in Katy, TX when we were visiting Allyson's Aunt Maura and cousin Owen. This one in Springfield, MO was similar in size to the one in Katy, although I believe the one in Katy either is, or recently was, the biggest Buc-ees. The big Buc-ees have over 100 gas pumps. They also have gift shops, smoked meats, fudge, and other food. They are awesome. If you ever see one I highly recommend checking it out. We went in, loaded up on a bunch of food and other stuff, and then got back on the road. Everyone was very excited.

After Buc-ees we ended up making another stop in St. Robert, MO where there was a popular and highly rated place called Uranus Fudge Factory. Yes, you read that correctly and yes the play on words is intentional. This place was quite an attraction for good and bad reasons. The good is that they actually had amazing fudge and a playground for the kids. The bad was that we went in and checked out a random Circus Sideshow Museum on the property that was very odd and creepy. The connection of the various areas of the site was a bit odd, however I found the whole thing remarkable. The Uranus butt jokes obviously got old quickly, but the merchandise is what I found interesting. I didn't want to buy any of it, I was just shocked that a business would be based on the sale of shirts that said things like "had a great time eating chocolate in Uranus". Some of the stuff appeared to be good quality, so I found the notion of an actual apparel designer putting together butt joke clothing, and then some manager saying "yes, this looks good" humorous. The combination of gag gifts with legit fudge was unique.

Eventually we carried on to Eureka, MO which is the suburb of St. Louis where our campground was located. When we got into town we had to pick up a rental car for the next day, and then check-in to our campsite at the West St. Louis KOA. The campground wasn't anything special. It was a KOA "Holiday" so it had a pool and some other amenities. I believe it is popular because it is very close to a Six Flags in Eureka. Our campsite was a little crammed in with others on either side, but we were close to the pool which is what was important. The one thing I will note is that this KOA had exceptional customer service. We modified our reservation 2 or 3 times, moving it back and forth a day each time as we tweaked plans and they were very nice about it all. Then they did us a huge favor and picked me up from Enterprise when I needed to return the rental car, which saved us a bunch of money. Had they not done that we would have returned our car on our way out of town on Saturday. The office was closed on the weekend and our car wouldn't have been checked in until Monday, which would have cost us 3 more days on the rental. Little perks like that make a trip so much easier, so I highly recommend this campground. We set up the motorhome, ate dinner and then got over to the pool, where the kids spent a couple hours before we headed back and got ready for bed.

Friday morning we tried to soak in our last "regular" camping morning. By regular I mean a morning where we get to relax and cook a normal breakfast. We actually didn't get too many of these on this trip because we were often leaving early to drive to another location. On Saturday we would be getting up extra early to start the drive home, so we wanted to enjoy Friday morning.

After lunch we headed downtown to make our way to the Arch. We snapped some photos outside and then went through the museum. I thought the museum was excellent. First, the displays did a really good job of having content that was enough detail for adults, and also captured the attention of kids. It was top-notch. Second, I thought they did a really good job of conveying the good and bad aspects of Americans "laying claim" to the west. The incredible accomplishments of people like Lewis and Clark were balanced with the consequences of taking land from the Native Americans. Some of the other monuments we went to glossed over some of that, so I thought it was important to note that this one didn't.

The best part of the displays was that it showed how long it took to cover the distances out west, and the conditions people had to brave. This was a perfect opportunity to convey to the girls that they shouldn't bitch about having to play their Nintendo for 2 hours in an air-conditioned motorhome. Though I think that message fell on deaf ears.

The girls got their Junior Rager badges, checked out the displays, and then it was time to head up in the Arch. To go up in the Arch you have to ride in a little pod. Each pod has 5 seats, so we just barely fit with Sam and Nolan riding on laps. There are some info movies they play while you wait your turn, and then you load into your pod and take the four minute ride up.

The ride up is no picnic if you are not a fan of small spaces, which Natalie and I are not. If this pod gets stuck you are in for a long afternoon. But we made it up and got to look around from the windows at the top. The views are neat, particularly when you look West over downtown. Looking east is less impressive. I thought the whole experience of being up in the top of the Arch was cool enough. We all enjoyed it and then loaded back up to head down, which thankfully was a shorter trip.

After getting some food and checking out the gift shop we had spent about 3 hours at the National Park, so it was time to head back to the campground. We stocked up on some supplies at Wal-mart, got gas, and then pulled into the campground. I went and returned the rental car, and then we headed back to the pool.

Later in the evening things were a little bittersweet. We had a great day at the park, but we were all sad that it was our last major day of vacation. We had done so much in two weeks that the thought of only having a day of driving left seemed a bit empty. However, I think both the parents and the older kids were looking forward to getting back to our house. The idea of having space, and our regular beds was beginning to sound pretty good.

My only miscellaneous thought for this post is that I found St. Louis to be a bit underwhelming. I don't know why, but I always thought St. Louis was bigger than it actually is. St. Louis itself has less than 300,000 people and the Greater St. Louis population is a little over 2 million, which is about the size of Great Cleveland. I always thought it was bigger than that. Driving around St. Louis actually felt a lot like driving around Cleveland, so make what you will of that.

That's all for now. If you've made it this far, thanks for reading!