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             St. Louis

    St. Louis was one of our most memorable stops, for reasons we'd rather not have experienced.

    We arrived early in the evening of the 6th and went to try to find the St. Louis Temple.  We had used some mapping software to help us find many of the places we would be visiting along the way and most of the time it was accurate.  This time it was not.  We drove around for quite some time and were just about to give up when there it was!  And what a beautiful site it was!   We stopped and spent some enjoyable time visiting the temple grounds.  Laurisa found a giant daddy-long-leg on the steps leading up to the temple.  She named it "Templet". 
    We then decided that we needed a good meal (we had mostly been eating 'cooler' food) so we stopped at Applebee's and has a delicious meal.  We then made our way to the St. Louis Hilton Hotel (for $35.00 a night!).
    The next morning is when the fun began.  Brian went out to the car to get something and he found that the drivers' side wing window had been broken out.   He immediately checked to see if anything had been taken from the car and was very relieved to find that nothing had been taken.  Not even the TV/VCR!  He assumed that whoever it was must have been scared off.
    When the police came to investigate, the officer immediately found why nothing was taken.  Brian had not noticed that the steering column had been broken into in attempt to disable the locking mechanism and to hot wire the car.  They wanted the whole car, not just what was in it.  Apparently, when they could not disable the locking mechanism, the left.  Thank goodness!  What a terrible thing that would have been to lose our car only 4 days into out trip!
    After a few phone calls to dealers in the area, we were able to find one who could help us on an emergency basis.  But what would we do until it was fixed?  Enter Diana, the hotel gift shop lady.  Her help in a difficult situation proved to be priceless.  She told us that just across the freeway at the airport we could board the light rail, go into town, and return.  This turned out be much better than what we had planned (driving in).
    We first visited Union Station where we had lunch and watched some 'singing fudge makers' make some incredibly delicious fudge.  Becky, MaryLayne and Jordan also took some paddle boats out and had a great time.  Laurisa found another friend, a peg-legged (only one foot) pigeon she named "Peggy".  We were fascinated by its tenacity to survive and get what it wanted.
    We then went on to visit the Gateway Arch.  What an incredible structure that is.  It's HUGE.  Made completely from stainless steel.  It was am impressive site.  We decided, and later regretted, that it was too expensive to ride the elevator up to the top.  We spent some time visiting the Museum of Western Expansion which is underground under the arch. 
    Our next stop was to be a river boat ride but, once again we were disappointed.  They cancelled the last scheduled trip, apparently so a large private group could go then, so we were not able to go.  We spent some time just hanging around the water front and then headed back to the hotel.
    The next day we packed up and waited for the car to be ready.  As soon as it was, we picked it up and headed out on our marathon drive for Washington D.C.