Day 1 – June 19, 2005
Day 1
The music of a highly tuned boxer engine started up early Sunday morning. The big hand on the clock pointed down, but the little hand just laughed. It pointed somewhat lazily at the big number 2. It sure would have been easy to go back to bed, but this trip was something I have been looking forward to for well over a year. With many sleepy passengers all packed in snugly we started off. The bus was very loaded down, and showed it on the hills as we drove on Hwy 49 towards Clarksville. All of this was expected as I have gone over this route before. As we reached I-24 all seemed to be well. I held a steady pace of about 62mph and all was good. We reached I-64 and progressed west towards St. Louis. A few stops and the gateway to the west came into our sight.
We pulled into St. Louis and headed for the Arch. There really is a lot more there than I thought. We considered taking a river boat cruise, but opted for the movie about Louis & Clark. I must have paid some attention in history class, lots of the information was a repeat, but I certainly learned something from the nicely produced movie. Not too bad since I had Olivia duty. We laughed, we cried, we crawled on the flow. Alright, that was Olivia, but it was still a decent movie. After the movie we had a ticket to ride the lift to the top of the arch. The view up there is really spectacular. You can see for miles and miles. I looked for the bus, and took a few photos. We stayed up there for a little bit, then back down the lift. Stryder’s biggest concern was the pods tipping over. As you ascend the arch it tips over a few degrees every little bit, to keep the passengers from ending up sideways at the top.
We finished our trip to the arch with a quick visit to the candy store for some good taffy. Steph mailed our postcards and we were off. We had decided that we would stay at “Injun Joes” campground. Our RV book listed it with some decent marks so we decided to give it a shot. We were pleasantly surprised with a nice pool and game room. Our site was right next to the pavilion so that we had a lot of covered area as well as a place to pull power from. The rest of the night was spent swimming for a bit, before dinner. Everyone retired to sleep around 9:30. Naturally Chloe could not sleep. I think this might be a trend with her. The boys slept in the tent and eventually drifted off to sleep. Steph and I were going to take a look at the maps and get some idea where we were going to stop the next day at. Olivia didn’t like her bed because of the proximity of a lot of neat stuff she could pull down and play with. I put her in the car seat and just rocked her to sleep, which didn’t really take long. Put her down for the night and got ready for some time as a couple. Unfortunately since it’s not winter the beetles really like the lights, and off doesn’t work. We retired after she got a hot shower to feel better. The last thing I remember seeing was the stars through the pop-top, although the bright nearly full moon was pretty much overshadowing most but the brightest stars.
Bus ran well this leg. We logged 466 miles today. Much of it over slower roads. I checked the valves, and found most to be just a tad loose. I did not adjust them this stop, but should at the next stop of too. I did add about half a quart of oil and took one spacer out of the fan belt pulley. The engine makes some strange noise, but I can’t pin point it down, and it doesn’t’ seem to be a problem noise. All seem well.
