Woke up early (6:30) in the cold next to the roaring creek. The air was moist so there was no chance for a fire; no chance for breakfast. We worked much faster to pack up camp.

The morning mist floating above the creek

Our campsite for the night

Packing up

We traveled to Ironton, MO and pulled in to the Subway for a bite for breakfast. I used my electric kettle and french press to make coffee. We stopped by Arcadia Sporting Goods and strolled around the front of the store for forty minutes until the gun shop upened at 9:00. The gang enjoyed holding the guns and we had an excellent salesman who was very infomative and friendly.

On the way back to Fredricktown, we passed our campsite again. It had warmed up a bit and I urged the group to at least go and look at the swimming hole. The obliged and after getting an upclose look at the clear water, we decided to take a quick dip.

We didn’t last long

After the dip, we walked around a bit and discoverd this guy:

After drying off, we packed ourselves back in the car and drove back towards Fredricktown, then to Farmington, then to St. Louis to see The Gateway Arch.

I had been to the top of The Arch nearly a decade ago. They were renevating the landscape at the base of The Arch to make a park. Lots of it was off-limits but it was very beautiful. Much better than how I remembered it.

New pathway to the right side away from The Mississippi

We walked around the arch. There was a huge line to go inside. Instead we plotted course for the Missouri Botanical Gardens. It was SUPER crowded on this Mother’s Day weekend. We were a bit put off by the $12 entry fee but decided to take a chance. We were not disappointed. After the first few exibits, we all felt we got our money’s worth.

Amazing shot by Nina

Plants from all around the world

My favorite succulent

This HUGE greenhouse!

We could have spent hours there but we needed to hit the raod and we were getting hungry. We drove the car a few blocks to a BBQ place and enjoyed filling up on overpriced sandwiches.

Next, we hit the road only stopping for gas. Searching for a campsite along the way we settled for Pawnee Campgound in Lincoln, Nebraska. We arrived very late in the night. We were all getting loopy from tiredness and spent WAY too long trying to find the actual campground in the unlit wilderness. At last, after some useless directions from a more than likely stoned local, we found the campsite and set up in the light of the car’s headlights once again.

We immediately hit the hay. I woke up with a very sore back.