October 13 - 205.2 miles - 34.8mpg
Left hotel at 8:30 - low 30's - no wind -partly cloudy skies
We drove 1/2 hr to Jefferson City, the state capital. Construction everywhere - we could see the Capitol but couldn't get there...kept running into detour signs that led nowhere. As you can see, we persevered and finally got back on the freeway and entered the city from the other direction.
Claim to fame at the Jefferson City Capitol is a masterpiece by American painter, Thomas Hart Benton. Every wall of the House Lounge, hidden onobstrusively away on the 3rd floor, is covered with his massive mural depicting Missouri life, warts and all. Completed in 1936, the Great Depression heavily influenced its perspective.
We opted to pay $10 each for an expanded tour instead of taking the freebie with the unwashed masses.
We chose this tour today:
St. Louis was the jumping off point for "The Corps of Discovery", aka the Lewis and Clark expedition.
The fountains must look beautiful filled with water! This man-beast is straight out of a fountain to be found anywhere in Europe. Definitely not a cowboy motif.
Another fabulous rotunda in another American cathedral to Democracy. Great stuff and no need to abase yourself upon entering.
Pretty fancy drinking fountain.
A couple of hours later...we reached the St Louis Arch: Great set for a sci-fi movie.
Every square foot of land under and around the Arch is under complete renovation. That includes the store/exhibit hall located underground under the Arch. But the Arch itself stood there gleaming and pristine, having only recently itself undergone major refurbishment.
Notice the chain link fencing? Except for the designated walkway, one big hard hat area.
Quick - which way? And this was at the same time that the GPS was having a nervous breakdown because of all the detours. Just stop, exit the car, sit down in the street and gently sob.
Guess where we went next? If you guessed the largest brewery in the world, right!
Let's party like it's 1988!
Even more massive close up. Next stop is the stables.
The horse stables were beautiful. The chandelier was from an old world's fair that once hung in the France pavilion.
This solid brass chandelier came from one of the exhibition halls in a 19th century world's fair. Now in a stable??
Cricket and this Dalmatian we're having a stare-down!
All the horses have their own custom fit saddle and tack hanging in the stalls. It takes 5 hours to fully rig one team and hitch it to a wagon.
When prohibition ended, the beer was delivered by the clydesdales across the country.
All that beechwood aging gives Bud the taste everyone loves. To all of those craft brew startups, making beer in a bathtub, eat your hearts out. The vast output of this facility, the mind boggling numbers, hard to get in perspective. And it's virtually all automated. Sorry folks, no jobs today.
We walked so far that a bus was needed to haul our weary butts back to the beer garden for a free brew of our choice.
The flowers and grounds are beautiful - they must have the same gardeners are Disneyland.
This Bud's for you!!
Before this road trip began the Trumps vowed that this time they would travel light. The kitchen sink is in there somewhere!
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