Gateway and Long Drives

From Springfield we drove over to a campground on the SW side of St. Louis, Mo. We set up and ran into town to view the Gateway Arch. It sits right on the Mississippi River and is a remarkable structure. You can take a tram to the top, but the day was so hazy we didn't go up. It's constructed of triangular stainless steel pieces of diminishing size. Quite a site. When we returned, Jeff Meshach (for non family, Jeff is the son of my cousin Marilyn and Ernie Meshach, which is a cousin once removed?) met us and we followed him out to his home. Jeff and Katrina, along with their children, McCoy and Marilyn, live on the top of a ridge on 30 acres in the town of Pacific. It's a long trail off the road to their home. It had been an A frame type home until just recently when, as Katrina says, they added a house to the A frame. It was designed by Katrina and built by a contractor friend of theirs. It came out great and probably tripled the size of the house. They served a dinner of bar-b-q venison, St. Louis style, with asperagus and potato salad, all of which was delicious. McCoy is 10 and Marilyn 8, so Jeff and Katrina are running with activities of the ages, and loving it. Jeff gets his deer right on his own property for the most part. We had a great visit with them and are happy we were able to connect.
Friday, June 1, and we headed out on the longest drive of the voyage. We drove from St. Louis across mid Illinois to Terre Haute, Indiana. The scale of agriculture is amazing. We drove back roads and every ten or fifteen miles there was a small town with a grainery. Large graineries. Miles of farmland, and in this area, little sign of dairy or horses. We crossed into Indiana and jogged north and east all the way up through South Bend, Ind., and into southern Michigan. We stayed at a campground in Niles, Mich. We covered about 470 miles.
Sat., June 2, we headed north up Rt. 31, which follows the east shore of Lake Michigan. We didn't see the lake until we got up to Traverse City. Rt. 31 was another close to vacated highway for most of the way. It's a big orchard and vineyard area. Peaches, apples and cherries galore. Traverse City looks like a huge resort area, similar to shore spots. It must not be their busy season yet. Most of the hotels and motels along the water were only partially filled. North and east of Traverse, the scenery improved with rolling ground and lake views. The Macinaw Bridge is spectacular. It connects the mainland to the upper pennisula and Lake Michigan and Lake Huron meet beneath it. We drove just under 400 miles for the day. We are staying right on Lake Michigan at an RV park in the town of St. Ignace. It has a walkway to the shore, from whence was observed a spectacular sunset last night. We chatted with another Bruce who has been on the road for 19 months and was a commercial photographer. At first he allowed the sunset was pretty good, but as time passed, it became prettier and prettier. When we were chased in by mosquitoes, he stayed shooting pictures and slapping mosquitoes away. We also took a bunch of shots and hope to get some posted.