St Louis

We spent the rest of the day/evening driving across the rest of Kansas and into Missouri, getting to the state line around four o'clock.  We made our way across the state and into St Louis.   It had been our hope to see the St Louis Gateway Arch in daylight, but it was after 8 pm and dark by the time we got there.  I tried to take some pictures, but they were just too dark to come out.  The Arch itself didn't seem to be in the best neighborhood, and it looked kind of dented and beat up?   In any event, we never got close enough to really get a good look at it.  Oh, well! 

We had another adventure in St Louis when we stopped for gas.  We had gotten off a random exit, and Dawn went inside for coffee while I pumped.

   I witnessed several apparent drug dealings in plain view across the street, and a scruffy homeless person came up and asked me for a quarter while I was pumping.  Dawn came out to say the restroom was out of order,  there were no stirrers for the coffee, and when she stirred it with her finger she saw it was cold...so she just left it on the counter and came back to the truck.   About this time, Tyler noticed on the floor of the truck a steak knife that we had lost a couple days earlier...he picked it up and handed it to me just as Dawn was climbing back in.  She laughed and asked if we were using it to defend ourselves from the old homeless lady!  No, but it was time to move on.  We got back on the highway and didn't stop again until we were well into Illinois!