St. Louis, Kansas City and Kansas 


Spent a morning in a sunny St. Louis, took then quick road to Kansas City. The next day started following US-56 through Kansas. 

Tuesday morning was nice and sunny in St. Louis so I walked around a little. Downtown was now alive but in sunshine it looked mostly like any big business district - boring. Darkness and rain had made it look much more sinister and interesting in the previous evening. Still there was some similarities to my favourite US city - Chicago. For example, my route from the hotel to downtown went under raised I-70 road which reminds me the raised roads and tracks in Chicago.





I did not have time to search for more interesting areas so I headed to Mississippi river front. This area is dominated by a huge arch. The building has very simple, clean design but it's sheer size makes it really impressive. Too impressive for my camera, actually - I should have gone to the other side of Mississippi to get a good picture.



St. Louis Arch: Bigger than Sun..

I followed the river back to my hotel and realized that my hotel was between the downtown business area and an old, deteriorated industrial area. I just love those those old brick buildings and the mood and how nature is claiming back those areas.





Next destination was Kansas City. I decided to save some time so I took interstate 70 instead of smaller roads and drove about 240 miles without too many interruptions. In Kansas City I decided to check only one area and then go on as I needed to hurry up and save some time for mountains next week. I went to West Port area as my guide book said it is the birthplace of the city. I was not exactly expecting to find Wild West there but Kansas City managed to surprise me quite completely. The area was quite hippy, full of cafe's and ethnic restaurants. Classic music was playing from loudspeakers in street corners. I went to a brew pub for a good IPA and read the local news paper - found out it was quite liberal paper. Having driven through the "bible belt" this was quite refreshing.

The final surprise happened in a liquor store - I was running out of my travel beer (Sierra Nevada Pale Ale) and figured out West Port would be good place to find more. They had Sierra Nevada there and lots of other good labels as well. They had also small but interesting selection on Single Malts, including some 30 years old Bowmore. It is excellent stuff but very expensive and hard to find. There they had 5 bottles at half of the normal price! Too bad I could bring all of them back home.

On Wednesday I started following US-56 (sometimes called US-50 north) which follows quite closely the old Santa Fe trail used in late 1800's. This area is almost completely flat, endless fields and straight roads. Not too much to see unless one wants to study the history of Santa Fe road. Still, it was nice relaxing drive and there are some nice old towns on the way.





I stopped a few times to see some of the old towns and there was also a wildlife refugee with some buffalos roaming (or actually they were staying close to ranger station and eating hay - not very impressive..).




Drilling oil seems to be a popular local hobby - small pumps could be seen everywhere


Darkness comes early at this time of year and I don't want to drive in dark unless needed so I stopped at a small town which claims being exactly in the middle between New York and San Francisco. Too bad the hotel I found is between the US-50/US-56 intersection and railways tracks - not exactly a quiet place..



 

Posted: To - Marraskuu 3, 2005 at 05:49 ap.          

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