Crossing Illinois to Missouri

 May 30 2023

We drove across Illinois today, staying mostly on state road 50. The part of Illinois we drove through was mostly forested or cultivated with a few pastures mixed in. The drive from Vincennes Indiana to St Peters in Missouri was only about 180 miles and with the time change to central time we arrived at lunchtime. 

The trip so far.

The campground which is owned and operated by the city of St. Peters looks brand new, has paved streets concrete pull thru site with full Hookups. About all it needs are some shade trees. One point of interest is the campground is on the river side of a large high dike. The electrical transformers are post posts about twenty feet in the air. I don’t think I would stay here if there was high water rolling down the Mississippi. Note my friend Bill told me it looks new because they had to rebuild it after the last flood.

transformers mounted above flood stage.

On the river side of the levee.

We took advantage of the new laundry facility here at the campground and did our laundry. My friend and military comrade Bill Crosby stopped by in the afternoon. We cross paths from time to time at the Special Operations Association Reunion in Las Vegas and it is always good to see him. He lives in nearby St Charles and that’s the reason we are here. We will go to lunch with him and his wife tomorrow. 

Bill and Larry Vietnam 1970

I speed walked about 1.5 miles on the lakeside trail this afternoon, followed by my step climbing exercise. I am still training for a step challenge later in the trip. Around dusk Millie and I walked at a more casual along the lake. We had a fresh breeze which made it nice, but I was thinking if this stops we become Mosquito food.

Wednesday May 31, 2023

Bill and his Wife Bev took us on a tour of old St Charles. It was the state capital when Missouri joined the union so it dates back a ways. The main street through the historic district is lined with period houses and commercial store fronts that have been expertly restored. The business health seemed very vibrant with almost no empty stores.

Old St. Charles Missouri.

 

We enjoyed lunch and much conversation at a BBQ place in the historic downtown. Sorry I forgot its name Somehow I also forgot to have the waitress take our picture, this was probably because we never ran out of material to talk about. Bill and I serviced together in Vietnam, so of course our conversation included updates on who was sick and who had died from our old unit.

Bill and Larry, Missouri 2023

At the Special Operations Association Reunion this fall, our aviation company in Vietnam (195th Assault Helicopter Company) is going to be the subject of the Air Symposium. After the horrible flights to SOAR we had last year I had said I would not be flying commercially for a while. Now that it has been announced that the air symposium will be about us, I’m having second thoughts about not going, Bill said he’s going, I’ll have to ponder this for a bit.

Millie and Larry at Lakeside Park, St. Peters, Missouri

Millie and I took the truck out for fuel and stopped at a small grocery store for a few items. As the sun was setting we went for a walk along the lake, it was too hot earlier in the day to do anything outside. It was ten degrees hotter here than it was at home in Myrtle Beach.

Site 108 at Lakeside Park

Tomorrow, we go north to the home of Mark Twain and his fictitious book characters, Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn and Becky Thatcher. This may be foreign to most kids today, but in my youth me and all my friends envied the free spirited adventurous life they lived in Hannibal Missouri along the mighty Mississippi River.

PS: I almost forgot my cereal box project. My prototype remote holder will be reproduced in wood when we get home.

My prototype remote holder