We arrived in St. Louis in the early evening and drove straight to the Old Courthouse. This building once housed the Missouri Supreme Court, where Dred Scott sued for the freedom of himself, his wife, Harriet, and their daughters, Eliza and Lizzie. After an eleven-year ordeal, the United States Supreme Court ruled that Scott, and anyone else of African descent, possessed none of the rights and privileges guaranteed by the Constitution. After the ruling his owners freed him in the Old Courthouse, where the original case began, but Scott died less than a year later. One museum commentator said, “The Scotts were two ordinary people who were willing to sacrifice themselves for the sake of others.”

Next we walked over to Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, or the Gateway Arch, which turns 50 this year. Whoa. I was in Lewis and Clark mode; all the kids are deep in stories about the explorers, or Sacajawea, or Seaman, the dog on the expedition. Instead, we quickly tossed on our math hats and got our eyes all crossed trying to understand the advanced math required to grasp the Arch. (Only Brandon and Jane could even remotely follow the explanation.) The architects got the formula for it SORT OF like you would for a hanging chain or a parabola, but not exactly, more like a catenary, but not really, more like a modified catenary, or maybe a weighted catenary. Huh? Anyway, it’s a huge marvel, that only worked because the engineers didn’t get it wrong by even one-sixty-fourth of an inch. And nobody died, even though I didn’t see any safety measures, other than hold-on-tight, being taken by the workers. Try to youtube a video on the construction, if you’ve never been in the monument. We rode up to the top in a tiny little car, and we sort of fell in love with St. Louis, the rest of our visit further confirming the feeling.

We slept at the Casino Queen RV Park across the river in East St. Louis with all the gamblers and Cardinals fans. It seemed like a promising locale in terms of ambiance, but the other campers were disappointingly quiet and well-behaved. The early risers in our group, Peter, Nan, Georgia, and me, are often obliged to keep silent for two hours until the rest of our party awakes; we were counting on a rowdy populace to blame for getting our day started earlier. Early morning is when all the laundry, blogging, and cereal-eating gets done. Sometimes there is not even a Cheerio left. Early bird, y’all…

Brandon needed to work, so he dropped us off in Forest Park, site of the 1904 World’s Fair. We’d watched Meet Me in St. Louis on the road, so we (the girls) sang all of our favorite songs as we drove in circles looking for the Zoo entrance. It’s free! And we could practically pet the penguins. Over the hill, we found the art museum, also free! Out front were gorgeous rolling lawns (we rolled), a reflecting pool, fountains, and Louis IX, St. Louis’s namesake.

Our favorite animal at the zoo and the inspiration for days of “ass” jokes.

Cradling Wheat by Thomas Hart Benton, one of my favorite American muralists and the artist responsible for The Yankee Driver on the cover of this blog.

Eventually, Brandon picked us up, but his work was interrupted by a small electrical fire (!) in the RV caused by an errant water jug that crashed into something…electrical? He’s a Boy Scout; he took care of it.

At supper, we met our old friend, Jennifer Wainscott, for burgers at Bailey’s Range. My burger had a mac-n-cheese patty on it. Jennifer was a student at Texas Tech and a member of our church when we first moved back to Lubbock. We’ve tracked her progress from RUF intern at Appalachian State to graduate school at Covenant Seminary. For someone like me, who has spent her life moving, it is salve to the soul to enjoy a reunion, especially when you find yourself taking up just where you left off years before.

We burned off our burgers until midnight at The City Museum, a playground made of architectural salvage. It’s unlike any place I’ve ever seen. At night, it’s a little bit eery, but we still had so much fun that we were proudly comparing our bruises, blisters, and crushed appendages the next morning.

Jennifer said we shouldn’t leave town without visiting the St Louis Cathedral Basilica, and I’m glad we didn’t. It houses the largest collection of mosaic art in the world. Started in 1907, the building was complete by 1914, but the mosaics weren’t finished until the 1980s. I heard a tour guide remind his audience that the Catholics of St. Louis did not pour all of their money into the cathedral during construction, which you might legitimately guess looking around. He chanted off a long list of schools, hospitals, and charitable services correspondingly supported.

Louis IX of France is known as a model Christian king, and his rule is called “the golden age of St. Louis.” He lived in the 1200s, and he spent his reign campaigning against blasphemy, gambling, interest-bearing loans, and prostitution. He banned trials by ordeal, and brought presumption of innocence to criminal procedure. He was a patron of Gothic art and architecture, building Sainte-Chapelle in Paris.

This is the guy who showed up late for doughnuts at John’s Donuts. Fortunately for us, we arrived bright and early and set out for Chicago on a sugar high.