Still not in Iowa

     The bad news is that we only got 100 miles closer to home today.  We did not have big winds over night and the morning was really calm, so we thought we had lucked out of the storm.  But by the time we got going the wind was brutal.  I had a couple of potential campgrounds chosen - one close by and one further north.  After driving 30 miles and working hard to stay on the road, we knew we should cut our driving day short.
    We drove to St. Charles, Missouri - the good news.  This is a small town just north of St. Louis, right on the Missouri River.  It was founded in 1769 as Les Petites Cotes ("The Little Hills") by French Canadian fur trader Louis Blanchette.  It was a busy river town and the main street became a place of shops and services.  Today a ten block section is a registered National Historic District and still has many pretty shops and restaurants in the restored old buildings.
   We stopped for lunch at a Soda Shop and sat at the counter and sipped milkshakes.  It has been a really long time since I had lunch at a "lunch counter."  It reminded me of the many milkshakes that I had downtown St. Paul with my friend, Beth Jorgens, on our way to our synchronized swimming club at the YWCA.  Rick and I had to walk up and down the ten blocks to work off some of the lunch. We enjoyed seeing all the beautiful old stone and brick buildings.
   Another claim to fame for St. Charles is that it was the jumping off spot for Lewis and Clark.  We have been to many other places along their route including Fort Clapsop in Oregon where they finally reached the Pacific Ocean.  A small museum along the river in St. Charles holds replicas of the boats they used to go upstream on the Missouri River.  The boats were huge, heavy, and wooden.  I can't imagine the effort it must have taken to move those boats against the current.   A National Geographic movie at the museum helped us recall the facts about this amazing trip.
    So it turned out to be a pretty good day, but we are still two days drive from Apple Valley and I would rather be home.  Sigh.