Blog

So we found the giant catsup bottle in Collinsville, Illinois (hmm. They have lots of “l”s in their name). I have photos to upload of that shortly.

Then we headed further towards St. Louis, intending to find a hotel and restaurant, then head out to find a couple of big things. But we noticed a giant hill off of I-70, and realized it was an indian burial mound. So we hopped off the nearby exit, and found our way to the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, which was incredibly beautiful. It helped that we had bright sunshine in the late afternoon, while we climbed up Monk’s Mound, the largest of the many mounds on the site. We took lots of great pictures.

Just west of the site was Woodhenge, a reconstruction of a large ancient calendar that stood on the spot, made of cedar poles set in a ring 400 feet across, with a pole in the center. We walked to the center pole, and the shadow lined up with the pole directly in line with Monk’s mound. It was pretty cool.

Then we headed into St. Louis to look for a hotel. We opted to look on the west side of town near I-44, which we’ll be taking through the rest of Missouri. We drove through a beautiful section of town called Webster Groves, which had some really huge historic houses. Very nice. We eventually found Pear Tree Inn, and had dinner at the Bandana’s Barbecue next door. It’s obviously a chain, but we’ve never been, so it was fun.