Show Me

I had the pleasure of a little road trip to the Show Me State (and just beyond) last week, and saw some cool stuff and some family members I hadn’t caught up with since getting home. Most of the time was spent in and around St. Louis, which I had never really gotten a chance to get to know, other than on I-70 at speed. Downtown held the famous Arch and the old courthouse where the Dred Scott case was tried.


Directly adjacent to the Arch is the Mississippi River, which was at a pretty elevated level. The Lewis and Clark statue was barely visible, though I think “George W. Bush Emerging from the Waters” would be a more apt name, at least with what was visible.

Off to the west a bit I visited Laumeier Sculpture Park, which had some interesting installation. One was a real eye full…


Across the river in Illinois, we visited the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site. There you can see the remains of a culture that built numerous earthen mounds, including the huge Monks Mound. They did a pretty impressive job for folks without the wheel or the horse. A big city of 20,000 people here north of Mexico definitely jars with the preconceptions a lot of us probably have grown up with. National Geographic had a good article on Cahokia back in their January 2011 issue.


Going and coming, I got to drive with my lovely grandmother, which was fun. It’s quite something having a conversation with somebody who still remembers when Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic the first time.

I also saw the movie "THOR" and continued to be unemployed, neither of which are all that exciting.

“A round man cannot be expected to fit in a square hole right away. He must have time to modify his shape.”
~Mark Twain