We’ve settled into our little “tin can with wheels” and we’re having a ball.  Wednesday we made it to the St Louis Gateway Arch—as fantastic as advertised!  We spent the afternoon and rode to the top in a TINY elevator car with three visitors from Osaka.  It felt like a space capsule with 5 bitty chairs, ratcheting up the incline and swinging to level off every so often.  Really pretty cool. 

On one side, the view from the top was the overflowing Mighty Mississippi—the parking lot along the river was completely submerged. Streets were blocked with standing water and LOTS of mud.  (Now I understand where the Mississippi Mud Pie gets its name….)  This part of the country has really gotten hammered but people seem to take it in stride…the park ranger just shrugged and said “It’s spring.  The river does what it wants and you work around it.”  Guess it’s a pretty good philosophy if you don’t have to wade through your living room.

In the other direction was the beautiful Old Court house, set like a crown jewel on top of the green tree-lined horizontal Gateway Arch Park along the river.

Today we made it to Abilene—we plan to hit the Eisenhower museum tomorrow.

On the way, I made another step toward RV driver semi-competence.  My leg behind the wheel was in the rain.  It’s amazing how the slick road increases the push and pull from passing trucks.  Then, as the piece de resistance, through Kansas City we hit construction so I was coaxing the beast through narrow single lanes with jersey walls on both sides.  YEEHAA!  (Not the words I was thinking at the time…)  So, survived one more test.  I can’t wait to see what’s next.