Kellogg, Iowa and St Joseph, Missouri...17th to 19th October...

It's a beautiful morning as we hitch up and head out from Kellogg and say farewell to Iowa and hello Missouri...229 miles today mainly on Interstate 35...
The road surface on this stretch of the I-35 south is for some reason pink, we have no idea why but it's smooth and quiet with excellent rest areas approx every 30 miles and historical information boards. 
We are still very much in the area of the western migration routes...

Love this vintage car...such a shame that I couldn't get a shot of the front of it as we passed...

We crossed the state line into Missouri in time for our lunch sandwich at the Welcome Centre...

This and next pic not too bad for a quick shot through the windscreen of a "flock" of blackbirds...

Almost a heart....

Naughty me another water-tower ! and just a few miles from our home for the next 3 nights at the AOK Campground, St Joseph Missouri....
We had planned a 2 night stop but on checking in we discovered that St Joseph has a lot of museums and historic buildings as well as a nature centre and walk along the Missouri River...

St Joseph was the starting point of short lived Pony Express....mail and newspapers were delivered the 1,900 miles from St Joseph to Sacramento, California in 10 days...
They employed only young men (no older than 18) who were excellent horsemen and prepared to face death daily...
With the coming of the transcontinental telegraph the Pony Express was forced to cease business in October 1861 after just 18 months....
St Joe as it's called locally was also a major stopping off point for the western migration routes before crossing the Missouri River and months of possible hardship....

We didn't discover why there are these amazing murals on some of the large buildings...

Most of these buildings were built in the mid to late 1800's....

There are also very clever sculptures dotted around the city...this one is made of spoons !!

"Mulligan" a sculpture for you golfers...

The highlight though today is the Patee House Museum originally a 140 room luxury hotel built by John Patee in 1855......
It has since been a female college, a epileptic sanitarium and a clothing factory and since 1965 a museum...
It is huge....we spent a very pleasant 2 hours ambling through history....

An annex has been built onto the Patee House to house a working carousel....all hand made of wood very similar to the one we saw in Kellogg, Minnesota last year....

Incredible workmanship...

And of course my favourite exhibit a full sized locomotive....

Incredible to imagine the early settlers crossing these vast plains and mountainous areas in these small wagons....we have high respect for their tenacity....

After our lunch sandwich overlooking the Missouri River we head out along the river walk, an easy 2 mile walk along a paved walkway....
This pic shows why it is called The Big Muddy....

The railroad also runs close to the river and as I sit here typing up our blog entries in Dodge City  a few days later (the railroad runs not far from our RV Park) on cue there's the railroad whistle....I might have said many times that I love the sound...

This tree is at the RV Park and we discover from Dale the park owner that  it's approx 300 years old and is an Indian Marker Tree.....the marker trees were used to guide The Native Americans to a good campsites source of water or a good place to cross a river....young samplings were pinned down using an animal hide/thong, hence the name "thong" trees....
We have really enjoyed our stay in St Joseph but tomorrow we move on across the Great Plains crossing the Missouri River and into Kansas and another "new" state for us.....
Until the next post it's bye for now from...
The more "knowledgable" Campers...