Arthur and Aron had a quick breakfast at the hotel (I stayed in to work on photos with Photoshop). Then we left for The Point Of Departure state historical site on the River Dubois. They had an excellent exhibit, and a replica of Lewis' 55-foot keelboat, sliced bow to stern in half so you could see where they stored everything and all of the things they took.
Dear Journal,
Today we had breakfast and drove to a Lewis and Clark interpretive center. They had a keelboat replica with 1/2 of it missing and with some of the equipment inside and showing. Then we drove to the Melvin Price Lock and Dam #26 and ate lunch at their pavilion. After that, we went on a tour onto the dam. We got lucky enough to watch a group of 15 barges and a tugboat pass through! Then we drove to a museum with an audio exhibit about Lewis and Clark. It was really informative, and I learned a lot. After that, we had had dinner and fell asleep.
Aron
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Point of Departure state historical site on the river Dubois, MO: Arthur Luehrmann and Aron Cowen at a globe of the known world in 1800
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Point of Departure state historical site on the river Dubois, MO: Indian tribes and trade routes in 1800
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Point of Departure state historical site on the river Dubois, MO: Arthur Luehrmann and Aron Cowen at a cutaway of the L&C keelboat
Afterwards we went to see the Melvin Price Locks and Dam (the 26th lock on the Mississippi) because they were said to have a really interesting exhibit and Aron wanted to see boats go through the locks. The exhibit was indeed terrific - of the river and how the Army Corps of Engineers built the dam. We were in luck and a 16-barge flotilla was going upstream, so we saw it go through the locks.
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confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers, MO: Aron Cowen
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St. Louis, MO: Missouri History Museum: Thomas Jefferson
We then went to the Missouri History Museum and saw the exhibit that is going to travel to Philadelphia later this year. It was a fabulous exhibit - very extensive - and very well narrated on the accompanying audio tape. There were 89 exhibits with 89 tape segments, and each one was meaty and interesting. BUT it would have been nice if the exhibit numbers were vaguely in sequence so you could progress in order and not miss anything.
In a driving huge rain we went to our motel near 6 Flags and ate at a truly yucky China King restaurant. Never again. Our motel (a “Patel” - run by an Indian family who speak very little English) is pretty decrepit too. But it does boast of a lovely little bird's nest with four nestlings being fed by their parents.