Long, Strange Trip: Mad Dash Home Continued

8/6

We had time this morning but a long drive ahead of us so we planned on leaving at checkout. I woke up around 9:00 and we headed to breakfast at Panera Bread around 10:00. It was a short walk and it was nice to see some of St. Louis, breakfast was very good. Paul and I each got cinnamon rolls which were huge but to my surprise he ate all of his. The Arch, commonly referred to as the “Gateway to the West” was in a park right near our hotel. We took some pictures and marveled at the size of it. From the hotel it looked large but up close I struggled to imagine how builders could create such a giant structure. It was also plain. I wanted to find out whether it had been planned all along for it to become the unofficial “Gateway to the West” or if it just happened to be given that title. A long drive was ahead of us but first we would be making a short stop outside of Dale, Indiana, the site of Abraham Lincoln’s boyhood home. Lincoln’s family had moved here from Kentucky and Abe lived here from age 7 to age 21. He lived in a modest cabin on the 100 acre farm cleared by his father, Thomas. Lincoln lived a sad life and while he resided in Indiana, he outlived his older sister and mother who both died young. We visited the gravesite of his mother and the family cabin. The drive after that was longer than I think my parents expected but we had no specific destination in mind. We decided on a KOA campsite in West Virginia but arrived there around 9pm. 9pm dinners had begun to be the norm though and after a satisfying dinner of chicken chili and mashed potatoes with warmed up left over French fries, we headed to bed on the last night of camping on the trip. Hallelujah!!