September 15 Disaster Strikes

And I thought yesterday was bad, not even close.

Lewis & Clark State Memorial

Oldest guard still on duty

The day started off OK. I made bacon, fruit and pancakes for breakfast and then we went to an RV place and got the patch kit for the roof. Then we decided to take in the tourist places from furtherest out to in. We really enjoyed the Lewis & Clark State Memorial just north of St Louis in Hartford, IL. They have a nice movie and an awesome exhibit inside of a keel boat loaded for the trip. Then outside is a replica of the camp they built in the area called Camp Dubois River. It’s where Clark stayed for the winter with the men selected to make the “Discovery” until final preparations were done and the Corps had permission from the Spanish Governor who still had jurisdiction over the Louisiana Territory until the French completed the deal with the US. I was able to get a National stamp as it was part of the National Trail.

Confluence Tower
We went to the top platform

From there we drove down a small road to the memorial stone and could see a little of confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. We got a much better view a mile up the road at the newly completed Confluence Tower at 150 feet up. It just opened in May and the elevators stop 3 times, 50 ft, 100 ft and 150. You get a great view of the rivers meeting and also of the levee and the huge flood plain. They guide gives you lots of into about flooding in the area and how the rivers are maintained. We could also see a huge oil refinery and learned that soon they would be refinery low grade crude coming from Canada via a just complete pipeline.

Bridge has a 22 degree curve and is a
mile across

There’s a bridge called the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge that was the only way to cross the Mississippi. It was in use from 1935 to 1965. The bridge was the Route 66 route through St Louis. You can see down river to St Louis and see the Arch. Well, we really enjoyed walking out a way, (it’s a mile across) and taking some photos. Then we headed back to the truck. As we got to the edge of the bridge we could see a white car pull in behind our truck and thought it was another tourist going to the bridge. Well a black kid went to the truck and was looking in and Bill started hollering at him to get away. We both then realized what was happening and started running and we were at least 50 yards from the car. It was along a pretty busy street and went we parked there was a semi in front of us and we had only been gone 15 – 20 minutes. Well, the little SOB broke out the back passenger window and crawled in and took my purse. Luckily Bill’s bag was left on the back seat with his phone and wallet, but he got everything of mine but a bundle of restaurant gift cards that fell out. OK, I was a basket case. So much was going through my mind of what I needed to do and what all had been taken. It was only about $50 in cash but all of my personal credit cards and my company credit cards and a card of Kerry’s and mine, my license (with the best photo I’ve ever had taken), insurance cards, my day planner with all of my phone numbers, dates, medical history, our other set of truck and RV keys, and the list goes on. I first called 911 and told them where we were and what happened and they were super. Two cars came, one unmarked and one marked. We gave the best description we could. Then I got on the phone to Kerry to call my main bank and cancel all those cards and then I called the others. Kerry called Discover for me and found it had been used for gas but so far that’s the only one. I hope the little SOB got cut up getting in and out so fast as Bill cut his hand trying to clear away the glass and he was being careful.

I’m really angry at myself because I has considered not taking my purse today, just my fanny pack since we’d be walking and taking photos. I just didn’t want to take the time as we were leaving to make the switch, then I would only have lost my wallet. Oh well, it’s a lesson learned. We called the insurance and have arrangements for a glass company to come out in the morning to replace the glass in our “ghetto” truck. We currently have plastic taped over it! We had tickets to see the Cardinals tonight but couldn’t go park in the city with a plastic window or we’d likely come back to no truck. Bill was rather disappointed at that. He wanted to see the stadium. Once we got most things in some kind of order we went to AT&T and I got a new phone. It was after 7 and Bill and not eaten since lunch and I had a small peanut butter sandwich, so we stopped at a Quoda, it’s like Chipolte, and had dinner. I didn’t think I was hungry or could eat but once we sat down I realized I needed some reviving. The couple of glasses of Bailey’s at the RV did not do the trick! We came home and took Xena for a long walk and Bill watched some TV while I checked our accounts on line and did my daily expense log and of course, wrote my journal. Bill said at least it can’t get much worse than today, so that means we should have a great trip from here on out! It’s raining out now and I’m really winding down so maybe I can get a good night’s sleep.