Mississippi Road Trip Day 10: St. Louis to Sikeston

The Rundown

Photo of the day: Our tight budget doesn't allow us to take the elevator to the top of the St. Louis Gateway Arch, rising 630 feet above the Mississippi riverfront. But we stop to take a few photos and walk underneath Eero Saarinen's graceful rainbow of shining steel.

High point of the day: Free lunch! From St. Louis, we travel 12 miles across the Mississippi to Columbia, Ill. Paul Ellis, the town's director of community and economic development and the founder of the Mississippi River Facebook page, found my blog and invited us for lunch. He treats us to tasty thin-crust pizza from the local restaurant Boccardi's, and directs us to the back roads that travel along the Mississippi to Sikeston, Mo., where we plan to stay that night. If you want to drive along the river, you usually have to leave the interstate.

Sound bite of the day: Louis "Hutch" Schlafly, president of the Columbia Chamber of Commerce, joins us for lunch and he tells us about the 1993 flood, when the levee broke and a wave of water wiped out the nearby town of Valmeyer. The media got footage of the flood pulling one of the homes up from the ground and Schlafly says news stations all around the world played it repeatedly. (When you talk to people who live near the Mississippi River, they usually want to tell you about the floods they have endured--just as Californians love to talk about earthquakes.)

Most interesting person encountered: We meet Bob Edler (pictured above) when we're driving through Illinois farm country on our way to Sikeston, Mo. We notice some donkeys in front of his farm and stop to snap pictures. Bob, who is well over six feet and wears a scruffy beard, starts walking over to us. He looks tough and I worry that he might kick us off his property, but instead he says in the kindest, gentlest voice, "You can go in the pen. They're friendly." His eyes light up, and he starts to tell us about his daughter, Emily, and how she raises these donkeys, which are the best in the region. "I wish you could meet her," he says.

And then Emily and her friend Adam drive up in a big pick-up truck and they have seven huge freshly caught catfish flopping around in the bed. They invite us to stay to watch them weigh, skin and clean their catch. My children stand in awe as they hang the fish on hooks and remove the skin and innards, the blood dripping down.

Emily's mom, Judy, arrives. She shows us the inside of their grain bin and gives us a lesson in wheat farming. They have nearly 1,000 acres of wheat, soy bean, and corn fields. She tells us about the cattle they keep up on the ridge. "Our cows eat only grass and fresh water," she says. "They taste like nothing you have ever eaten." Bob brings out two snapping turtles, which they caught in the Mississippi and plan to eat as well. "They're really chewy," Emily tells us.

My son plays on the tire swing; my daughter picks some flowers from a bed of marigolds. They don't want to leave the farm, but we must continue down the river. Before we go, Bob brings out a set of deer antlers from an animal he found dead in his field. "They're a gift from us," he says.

Quote of the day: "When I grow up, I want to be a farmer," my 4-year-old son says as we're driving away from the farm. "Mommy, I'll even let you drive my tractor."

Low point of the day: Everything in the adorable town of St. Genevieve, Mo., is closed when we arrive. From Illinois, we crossed the river on a ferry to Missouri and we don't arrive in the former French colonial town until 5:30 p.m. Antique shops with window displays fit for shelter magazines line the main drag and I can tell from the few price tags I spot that things are 50 percent less than what they'd be in California. I want to go inside! We find one place that's open: Sara's Ice Cream. After we order a cherry cone, we realize the cafe specializes in handmade drum sticks: vanilla ice cream dipped in chocolate and covered in St. Genevieve pecans. We can't afford to spend an extra $3.50 and I'm beginning to really hate our $150-a-day budget!

Miles: 200

Total miles: 1759

Hours in the car: 4

Total hours in the car: 36

Expenses

(Remember: We're on a budget of $150 a day)

Hotel: $76.66 (Best Western St. Louis Inn/super friendly service)

Breakfast: free at hotel

Lunch: free (Boccardi's, Colmbia, Ill.)

Gas: $20.52

Ferry: $12 (Ste.Genevieve-Modoc Ferry)

Ice cream and soda: $2.30

Dinner: $34.64 (Lambert's in Sikeston, Mo.: The Only Home of Throwed Rolls)

Total for the day: $146.12

Total for the trip: 1426.14