4 September 2020 The Good Old Homestead

 We hit the road early for the 2.5 hour drive to Homestead National Monument of America. The NM is located just outside Beatrice Nebraska, on the land that was the first application for a homestead. The application was submitted by Daniel Freeman on 1 Jan 1863. The story told is that he convinced the county clerk to open the office at Midnight on 1 Jan 1863 so he could submit his claim. The Homestead Act was passed in 1862. Under the act, an applicant could receive the Patent (deed) to 160 acres after they occupied the land for 5 years, farmed the land for that period and built a house on the land. Over 270 million acres of public lands were applied for under the act. Applicants included single women, immigrants from many countries, former slaves and many soldiers following the Civil War. Roughly %60 of the applicants lasted the five years to receive their land patient. The last application for homestead land was in 1974. The Homestead act was repealed in 1976 for the lower 48 states and in 1986 for Alaska. The visitor center was open and we were able to take turns viewing the exhibits and watching the movie (while the other stayed in the truck with Etta). David got our passport stamp and Leslie bought her post cards. Beyond the visitor center, there is a research center where you can look up ancestors that might have homestead. But neither one of us have ancestors that homesteaded. Those folks lived a very hard life. Roughly a third of the homesteads are still in the hands of the original families that received their Homestead Patient. Many have grown into large family owned/run farms across the Midwest. On the way back we stopped off in St. Joseph at a brewery that would accept dogs, The Angry Swede. We also ordered some dinner from a nearby restaurant, Marco Polo, that delivered to the brewery. The beer was good, but the food was not. So a bit of a mixed bag.

Entrance Sign

Visitor Center

3 September 2020 Where’s the Beef?

David finished working a bit earlier than we expected, so we took advantage of the extra time to complete one of our must do’s, a steak dinner in Kansas City. After looking over the ratings, we choose to go to the 801 Chop House in downtown. Being a bit leery of downtown areas due to the nation wide riots, we made plans to be out of downtown before dusk. We picked wisely. The steak dinners we got at 801 Chop House were AWESOME!! Definitely worth the nearly $400 cost (With a really nice bottle of Jordan Cabernet (2016)). David got the KC Strip and Leslie the Tenderloin Medallions. Even the sides were great (scalloped Potatoes and Brussels Sprouts). Our Waiter, Sean, did a great job and was very friendly. The downtown area of KC was really quite nice and very quiet. It reminded us a lot of downtown Fort Worth.

We found the Beef!

A wonderful Dinner

 

31 August 2020 St. Charles to Kansas City

 The drive from St. Charles was only four hours. We ran into heavy rain and wind outside Columbia that slowed us down a bit from an abundance of caution. We are staying at Basswood RV Resort ($44 per night, no discount) in Platte, which is about 20 minutes north of Kansas City Missouri. We’re planning to visit Homestead National Monument in southeast Nebraska. Also the Stage Coach Museum in St. Joseph. Of course we also intend to get a great steak and some KC BBQ! Check in was unusual in that there was no Plexiglas barrier, which has become the norm. We were escorted to our site only to find it already occupied. So they changed us to another open site which actually had more room for our big rig. 

29 August 2020 Friends, Wine, and Stories

 Our friends Jerry and Janette live west of St. Louis. We arranged to meet up with them at their house near Defiance. The area south of their home is riddled with wineries, so we talked them to going to one of the wineries for some sampling of Missouri wine. They took us to Balducci Vineyard near the Missouri River. There friend Mary, and later her husband Bruce, joined us as well. We bought a bottle of Norton Reserve which was made with locally grown Norton grapes. It was a very good wine with a nice smooth finish. One we would definitely do again. There are at least 10 vineyards/wineries in the area. So we may have to return to sample a few more. After the vineyard, we went back to Jerry and Janette’s house. They took us for a ride around the private lake in the subdivision before serving all of us a wonderful salmon dinner. It was with reluctance that we had to leave around 10 to get back to poor Etta. Monday we pull out for Kansas City. 

Captain Janette and First Mate Jerry

Leslie, Mary and Bruce 

Sunset on the lake

28 August 2020 RV Life

 David ended up working a lot Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. After he wrapped up Friday, he was walking Etta when a couple, Tom and Sarah, came up to him and asked if they could ask him some questions about the Wanderer. Turns out they were on their way to the New Horizons factory in Junction City. David invited them in and we gave them a tour of the Wanderer and filled their heads with ideas and lessons learned. Another New Horizons had pulled in to the RV park on Wednesday. They had just come back from the factory after having some repairs made on a used 2014 they just bought. While we were walking that evening, the other New Horizon owners, John and Anita, were sitting outside so we walked up to say hello, then their neighbors (who had been full time RVing for 21 years) came over, and then the future New Horizon owners stopped in and we sat around talking about our RVing experiences, apps that we use, and maintenance issues we had encountered until the mosquitoes drove us home. 

 

24 August 2020 Gateway Arch National Park.

 The park staff provided us some directions to Gateway Arch NP, which lies on the edge of the Mississippi River downtown St. Louis. We had to drive through the downtown area to get to the NP. There were a lot of boarded up windows and they had the downtown streets blocked off to single lanes with concrete barriers. We decided then that we were not going to stay long. We found a place to park the Behemoth and walked to the entrance to the Arch. It was a bit surprising that there were so few people. We had to get tickets to enter even thought they are not charging for them at the moment. Then we had to go through security before entering the Museum under the Arch. The trams up to the top of the Arch were closed due to the COVID. But the museum under the arch was very interesting. We picked up our Park Stamp and 

visited the park store to get David’s hat and Leslie’s post cards. We walked around the NP Grounds and took pictures of the Arch. We learned something new in the process. Turns out there was a Revolutionary War battle fought in St. Louis. The British and their Indian allies attempted to capture Fort San Carlos in 1780, which was the center of fur trade in the western territories. 300 Town folks, consisting of Spanish Soldiers, French settlers, free men and slaves, fought off a force twice their number along what is now 4^thstreet preventing the British from taking control of the Mississippi River.

 

We decided on the way back to the Wanderer to explore old town St. Charles. St. Charles was established in the early 1800s. Many of the buildings in the Old Town district date back to the mid 1800s. Another part of town, called French Town, contains some beautiful examples of French Colonial Architecture from the French Settlers to the area in the 1800s. We walked the old town district. Some of the stores were open but nothing peaked our interest. We finally ended up at the Schlafly brewery. The beers were really good and so was the food. So much so we went back later in the week.

Entrance Sign

Arch from the river front

Entrance to the Park

Arch from the North base

Arch from the South base

From the shadow

Old Town St. Charles

Schafly Brewery sign

23 August 2020 Michigan City, Indiana to St. Charles, Missouri

 The drive to St. Charles was 346 miles which was a 7.5 hour drive. Right at our established limit. So it was a long drive through hundreds of miles of corn fields. We are staying at Sundermeirer RV Park ($52 per night, no discounts) just north of the old town of St. Charles where Louis and Clark left on their expedition to map the Northwest territory. Our plan is to visit Gateway Arch NP and visit friends in the area.