Day 27: October 28, 2024 To the Land of Lincoln Comment via blog

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The Lewis and Clark Boat House and Museum was rather close to where I spent the night in Saint Charles so it was easy to stop by on the way out of town. Saint Charles is the last place Lewis and Clark stopped on the way out of civilization. The museum is on the second floor and among its many displays are miniature versions of the big statue by the river and all three of the expedition's encampments (Camp River Dubois, Fort Clatsop, Fort Mandan) and a full size version of what a camp site might have looked like.

Full size replicas of two pirogues and a keel boat are in the boathouse below the museum. The boats are behind protective grates and not easy to photograph. These are photos of parts of the keel boat which just completed a lengthy cruis on the Missouri River as described here.

Here is the much-larger-than-life-sized version of that Lewis, Clark, and Seaman statue in the museum.

The symbolic, but not actual, start of the Boone's Lick Road is in front of the old Saint Charles County courthouse. It is on 2nd Street where many intersections are currently decorated with bright drawings. I stopped to photograph only one which happened to be backed by a restored Texaco station. It reads "WORLD WITHOUT CANCER"

In Saint Louis, I drive five very congested miles off of my route for what has become something of a ritual. There was no one in front of Ted Drewes when I arrived but as I parked a bus pulled up with this group of ladies on a mission. The people inside are used to handling much larger crowds than this and things moved surprisingly fast and I was in no rush anyway. It really wasn't very long before my concrete was in my hand.

The Illinois Madonna of the Trail monument is in front of the old state capitol in Vandalia and that's where I left the route to head to my motel. The two unique panels are here.

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