July 30 and 31 - Dayton, Southern Illinois, and St. Louis

July 31 – Southern Illinois to St. Louis’ Gateway Arch
We started today with a 2-hour drive to St. Louis. We had reserved a slot to ascend the gateway arch at 3pm, so I wanted to arrive around 1pm to ensure I could park the RV somewhere. What a blessing to find a free parking area on the Mississippi River for RVs. Not only was it free, it was close to the Arch. The Arch is quite an impressive work of art and construction accomplishment. It stands about 630 feet high, and you ascend it in what feels like a space capsule. The Arch is actually called the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial as it houses a neat museum underground that explores the Louisiana purchase in 1803 by Thomas Jefferson and what developed from that time to 1900. I wish Brandon and Bailey had a little longer attention span because I’d like to read the exhibits, but I guess we will save that for some other day. Tomorrow we drive 4 hours to Kansas City. We have no intent to see sights in KC. Just passing through on our way to Nebraska, where Sheri’s great grandfather was a State Senator in the 1920s and 1930s.
July 30 – Air Force Museum in Dayton Ohio, then to Southern Illinois
Today we went to what I personally consider the best airplane museum in the nation. I’ve been to the new Udvar Hazy (Air and Space Museum) at Dulles Airport. While that is certainly impressive considering it houses a Space Shuttle, the Air Force Museum still has a more extensive collection. They have an F-22 (the newest fighter), an F-117 stealth fighter, B-2, B-1, and other recent airplanes as well as many other fighter planes and early aircraft. They also have huge superfortress bombers of WWII and Vietnam. The only bummer of the day was that they have a collection of old Air Force One planes that is in a hanger about 10 minutes from the museum. Only a select number of visitors can tour that and you have to reserve a spot as soon as you get to the museum. Unfortunately, we arrived too late such that our time slot would have been too late and we had a 4 hour drive to Southern Illinois.