St. Louis or What?

Well, we did it. We boarded the bus at 7:00 am and returned 12.5 hours later. We had a great time. Nine parents, six teachers, and thirty one students went along. The children were unusually quiet on the bus and adults were delighted.

We stopped about 1.5 hours into the trip for breakfast. It was leisurely and probably too leisurely for the amount of time we had. The kids ate two boxes of donuts and chewed on frozen orange juice. Parents raided the coke and water cooler. The kids wanted to play on a playground, but we didn’t come to play at a rest stop, so get on the bus guys!

We arrived in St. Louis and the kids spotted the arch way before I did. They were really excited to see this monument. It was brilliant sun, so the arch gleamed. They enjoyed the truck traffic, and the busyness of the city.

The big city traffic and had to make a second loop to find the right place to unload – about 30 minutes all together. Cities are never really people friendly. Off to the bathrooms! The children had to be patted down before they could use the bathroom, and it was at least 20 minutes before they returned to lunch site.

One parent remarked that the windows seem so small from below, like specks, but when you get up there, they are huge. I remarked that it would be fun to take the kids up, but most of the adults cringed. The chaos would be incredible.

We lunched under the arch, which was absolutely beautiful on the crisp fabulous day right on the lawn. The kids were respectful about their garbage. It helped. We ate peanut butter, cheese, tuna, egg salad, ham and cheese, and chicken salad. We had carrots and dip, pickles, chips, home made chocolate chip cookies, apples and the rest of the cola and water. I was a little concerned that the kids weren’t eating as much as they usually did. It would be a long time before they would eat again. I urged them to eat, but they were too interested in the sights.

Then it was off to Grant’s Farm. It was really crowded that day because the zoo was closed for a black tie affair. The lines were very long, and we waited patiently on the bus about 45 minutes before we were able to enter the park.

The park was free and very well put together. It’s a gift from the Budweiser Beer people. We boarded a tram which is the only way to get from one end of the park to the other. The guides were spectacular and held two whole carts for our group so we could stay together. We engineered a plan that every adult was responsible for two children, and it worked splendidly. We got to see a lot of interesting animals and tour the park.

We saw Grant's cabin, which is the only log cabin we have that was built by an American president. U Grant was an exceptional man, a brilliant, good man who was devoted to his family and our nation at a terrible time of war. He was a model for his troops. My husband once said of him, "If I had known that such a man existed when I was a boy, he would have been my hero."

One really fun feature inside the amusement part of the park was the goat pen. We were able to buy baby bottles filled with milk to feed the tiny baby goats. Some of the children loved it and some of them were a little put off by bold goats looking to latch onto just about anything including shirts and shoes. It was all in fun and the kids enjoyed it. We got some spectacular pictures.

We had to wait in line for at least 45 minutes to board the tram again to leave the park. It seemed like ages that we stood in line, and by that time the kids were really tired.

We had a final treat on the bus, compliments of Morgan’s mom, and we had a juice bottle before we boarded the bus. It was really refreshing after all that sun and go.

Again we had to wait in traffic to leave the park. Then it was a mad dash out of Missouri, across the beautiful Mississippi, through the lovely green hills of southern Illinois for one more stop, and then home.

So if you add up all the waits, the lines, the traffic, you can see why we were 1.5 hours late coming home. All in all, it was a fabulous trip and the kids really enjoyed going. It’s the kind of thing our teachers will do for families because we know it’s important. Some of our kids won't travel at all as young children, and travel is something they love. So why not travel as a part of our school curriculum?

As I said to several of the parents, I want our kids to be able to say that they’ve been to all these places when they get to big school. “I know what the arch is; it’s a symbol of the gateway to the west. I know because I went there and had a picnic under it with my class.”

We live in Southwestern Indiana. The common statement is: you can drive two hours in any direction and be someplace. Isn’t that worth exploring?

Pictures will be available soon. We used the spectacular camera we won for being the highest donator school for Easter Seals, and the memory chip fits into my computer, so we can email pictures or print them out for parents still in the hard copy stage.