A Story About Life and Living It

(Explanation: Mumbai is another name for the city of Bombay, India, which is an inside joke with my sister, Bailey. Unfortunately, neither "Bailey" nor "Bombay" starts with "M" or this would have made a lot more sense.)

After waking up at the Parks Bluff campground in unincorporated Lesterville, MO, we headed off toward the highest point in Missouri, Taum Sauk Mountain, at a staggering 1,772 feet above sea level. The trail is paved and the slope is so slight that the "summit" looks flat. Good thing there's a huge boulder for some relief:


No USGS marker, but there is a nice plaque:


After the highpoint we took the trail to Mina Sauk Falls. Actually, we just hiked to where the falls normally are but were disappointed to find no water there. Still a pretty sight though:



Neat panorama. Click to enlarge.


We had planned on meeting Bailey in St Louis in the early afternoon, but she wasn't available until later than originally expected, so to pass the time we followed some random signs from the interstate to the Missouri Mines State Historic Site. 


It turns out that 80% of the lead mined in the US comes from Missouri, which trades places with Australia every year for the title of world's largest lead producer. The museum is a run-down old mining facility built on top of 300 foot deep mines. 



Art, the museum director, knows just about everything there is to know about lead mining and happily showed us around:






Lead mining is actually much safer than you might think, so I'm sure OSHA would have been proud of their safety board:




















After this enlightening detour we headed off to meet my sister and get some Pi (pizza pie that is). According to Bailey, this is one of Obama's favorite restaurants. Two down, who knows how many to go on our Democratic Presidents' favorite restaurants tour.



We walked down to the river to go visit the arch:


To get you to the top they squish you into this tiny little car where you have to sit hunched over and play footsies with the other four people there. We were expressly forbidden from taking pictures of these cars, but that doesn't ever stop Lani:


The cramped ride was well worth it for the view from the top. The curving floor of the arch was kind of surreal and the viewing windows, given the triangular cross-section of the arch, are such that you can look down from either side and see the base of the arch touching the ground, giving you the sensation that you're falling, albeit slowly. Anyway, it's well worth the trip for the view of the Mississippi on one side and St Louis on the other. You can see very well despite the size of the windows:




At the base of the arch is the Museum of Westward Expansion, full of diary entries from the Lewis and Clark expedition as well as memorabilia from other famous western movements and settlers.


Quick! Do you best Thomas Jefferson impersonation!


Bailey and Lani took their fingers for a dive in the Mississippi River. Fortunately, both still have only five fingers. The bath in the stream at Hot Springs, AR must have protected Lani from whatever filth is floating down that river.


 Fortunately, Lani and Bailey were around to keep the arch from falling over:


The driver of this horse told us that he was trained to give kisses on demand. Bailey decided to test it out and got a face full of horse tongue. Unfortunately, the timing of the photograph didn't quite catch it.


The old courthouse was closed, but this is the famous site of the Dred Scott debates of American history that played an important role in the lead-up to the Civil War:


That evening Bailey came camping with us at Babler State Park. After we dropped her off in the morning and said our goodbyes we headed off to Illinois!