Keeping with the photo theme: (not my pictures)
Pretty fall colors along the Great River Road:
Keeping with the European theme, if you'd headed in the opposite direction, you'd have seen Ste. Genevieve, Mo, a well preserved old French settlement and town. "Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.
We decided to refinish our hardwood floors and thought getting out of the house for three days would be a good idea. I have read a LOT about the Arch and have even discussed its designer (Saarinen) with some Finnish friends who are architecture fans (maybe everyone in Finland knows a LOT about architecture--the sentiment seems to be that designing the Arch was pretty easy but building it was difficult.) But, I had never seen the Arch. It was even more impressive in person than I expected.
As someone who has lived in three Mississippi River towns (St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Red Wing Minnesota) I had some idea what to expect of the drive. The bluffs are much higher and the river and flood plains are much narrower in the north, but the Mississippi still dominates everything. Our color peak is around October 10th.
I also noticed that we seem to have many more successful preservation efforts in our river towns. We wandered around Quincy IL for an hour looking at a map showing historical neighborhoods and didn't see ANY careful preservations. Got home to read the Strib's architecture critic write about the importance of our presevation efforts. Made me glad to get home.
http://www.startribune.com/562/story/1452935.html "Remember the I35W bridge--who needs terrorists when there are Republicans"
I've never been to Quincy, so I can't comment. I can tell you that there is extensive historic preservation going on in Alton. Always has been. History is about the only thing that place has going for it...
I stayed in a convent in Galena once. Another quaint (read: creepy) river town lost in time. "Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.
As for the beauty of the Mississippi bluffs, my favorite views come from the little municiple park in Lansing Iowa. The perch is SO high.
"Remember the I35W bridge--who needs terrorists when there are Republicans"
then I have an instant paranoia about what the situation post Thatcher etc bridges in the UK are like.
the main reason I worry about something similar is I rmember a UK county council discovering it was cheaper to post slippery road signs on its county borders and halve its resurfacing schedule for major roads during the height of the Thatcher Years. Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.
