4th of July in St Louis, Missouri

3rd – 6th July 2019

Apparently the 4th of July is a big deal in this country, and can get quite busy. If we wanted to find somewhere fun to be for these few days we needed to be organised and plan ahead. So a few weeks ago the chief travel planner ascertained that St Louis might be a place to be, if we could find a city RV park. More searching informed us that there was a park 2 miles from downtown and they had one space left. Bingo! We had a plan, and having left the Ozarks we pulled into camp on another hot afternoon. The park was started about 40 years ago when a couple bought a disused lot in the middle of gang-controlled depressed St Louis downtown. Every one thought they were mad, but good security made it safe, and now, run by their daughter, gentrification has enveloped it and they are sitting on a real estate goldmine. So far they have resisted the lure of the development dollar which means that many like us can have all the benefits of the city right on our camping doorsteps. It also had a very refreshing swimming pool, which was getting plenty of use.

St Louis, the largest city in Missouri has a fair few reasons why it punches above its weight, having only a population of 300,o00 in the city and 3 million in the metro area. The area was home to generations of Native Americans for thousands of years before the modern city was founded in 1764 by two French fur trappers and named for their king, Louis IX. A lost war against the Spanish saw it pass into the ownership of Spain that same year, and then back to the French in 1800. A small real estate deal called the Louisiana Purchase finally made it American in 1803. A busy few years for the flag makers. It grew quickly and by the 1870 census it was the country’s 4th largest city. It is now the 20th. It was a major port, sitting at the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers (combining to create the 4th longest river system in the world) and trade, transport and manufacturing were major industries. People flocked to St Louis for work, and as a starting point for a new life, especially immigrants from Germany and Ireland, and its reputation as a gateway to the Mid-West was born. In 1904 the city was the first non-European city to host the summer Olympics and it hosted the World Fair. In the first part of the 20th century it saw a second influx of new residents during the Great Migration of Southern African Americans, also seeking a better life. Like many major cities, the mid 20th century saw changing fortunes in St Louis. Declining manufacturing, inner city depression, pollution, racial segregation and population decline all took their toll.

In 1965, its finer history was honoured by the building of its iconic arch, a symbol of this gateway status. It was a big and bold project. It stands 630ft/190m tall and is still the world largest arch and the Western Hemisphere’s largest man-made monument. Its size is magnified by the lack of sky scrappers in downtown St Louis and it still towers over the city-scape. Now the city is booming again.

The arch is far more impressive up close when you are standing beneath it looking up. It shines in the sunlight and it is uniform down to its feet which are planted firmly on the ground, without any pedestals or barriers. The small windows at its apex remind you that you can travel up to the top and look at the view all around. A view which is lacking one important thing. The arch. The riverside park in which the park sits is a designated National Park and this was the site for the city’s three day Independence Day festival.

The 4th of July started for us with a morning walk to find The Parade, a staple of the celebrations. There were lots of floats and marching bands but by 10am it was already 90F and very humid. The parade was a bit disjointed and spread out, and the poor bands looked hot, weary and wilting barely half way down the route. They were resting more than they were playing which unfortunately made it all a bit subdued too. We followed the parade route ending up at downtown, by which time we were weary and wilting too. We found a lovely cool (temperature) bar and had a couple of medicinal cold beers. A justified ‘elevenses’ on a national holiday, surely?

The festival served up drinks tents, food vendors, a few air displays and later, music and the obligatory fireworks. We watched an air display before heading back to camp via a pizza for lunch. This brings us to the adventure for the day…our first ride on e-scooters. The 2 mile walk home would have been easily achievable but it was so, so, so hot and humid! The streets were littered with scooters and we decided to take the plunge. They are brilliant! Admittedly one Uber would probably have been cheaper than two scooters, but what price the wind in one’s (damp, sweaty) hair and the rush of the near death experience of weaving through traffic and avoiding pot-holes?? We were hooked and used them several times over the next few days. I even mastered the art of carrying a large umbrella at the same time.

Early evening we scootered back to the arch to see what was happening. The music was in progress and thousands had converged with blankets and lawn chairs to sit on the grass and wait for darkness to fall and the fireworks to begin. The music was, of course, Country. We had one overpriced beer and listened to about as much country music as we could bear. Which was about one beer’s worth. I think we did well.

We extracted ourselves from the park, had a quick dinner at the same bar/restaurant that had revived us earlier that morning and went to a nearby hotel to see if there was space at their rooftop bar to watch the fireworks…No, nope, non, niet, nein. So as darkness fell we headed back to the arch and the crowds, ooohed and aahhhed at the impressive fireworks display and then had an even more exciting scooter ride back to camp in the dark!

The next day we had a general mooch around downtown. We started at a place called the City Museum, which is nothing like it sounds. It is more like a variety of bonkers installations created out of a bonkers collection of craziness, by a bonkers bloke, housed in a disused shoe factory. We queued in the baking heat to get in, and then realised that it was basically a bonkers playground for kids with tunnels, climbing frames, slides, stairs, crawling spaces and had no air-con. It was packed with young families and there was active encouragement for general rampage and mayhem. We lasted 30 minutes. I think we did well.

We recovered with a quart of frozen yoghurt each, and our next stop was the nearby Busch Stadium, home of The Cardinals baseball team. When he was about seven years old Nick’s grandparents had visited St Louis and brought him back a present of a Cardinals pin/badge. This was one of his childhood treasures and meant that he knew of St Louis from an early age. Not a common thing for a kid from Wigan. This meant that our trip here had also been a bit of a pilgrimage for him and felt a bit like completing a circle. Granny-Ann and Pop-pop, that one small gift had a big impact.

We really enjoyed our time here. It seems like a very liveable city and has a great self identity. People seemed happy and proud to call this place home.