2024 WB Day 4 - Batter Up!

Go the Cardinals!… but not until the end of the day!

First up, the wide open pastures that stretch for miles and miles, straddling the 1926 - 1930 alignment before R66 shifted further east.

This unfenced farm land is so unlike New Zealand.

The red brick road dates back to the first alignment in 1926… and amazingly is still carrying today’s traffic weight.

Mind you back in ‘26 when they laid the concrete at Nilwood…

…the turkeys weren’t warned and they left a lasting impression!

Before that at Girard we looked in through the window of Decks Soda Fountain.

…and talked about the old days when Bill & Bob Deck spoke so fondly of their pharmacist grand father who started his business in 1884.

The Carlinville Court House is a must photo stop. Hard to imagine anyone pulling a stunt like this today, building so massively over budget, and getting away with it!

By the Illinois border lies the Luna Cafe… our third state, Missouri is just across the river.

That river is the Mississippi, straddled by the Chain of Rocks Bridge.

Off in the distance is St Louis CBD… our destination for the day.

Being up in the Arch feels like being on top of the world.

Everything that looks so small below including the baseball stadium!

The run into our accommodation is a total contrast in life from one side of St Louis to the other.

Blueberry Hill was the next stop, to cater for the musical bent in our group…

…and by evening we’re back in the CBD, inside Busch Stadium watching the local Cardinals fight it out with the Denver Rockies. The setting in amongst the buildings is spectacular…

It was a bird’s eye view… as was the view from the bar above the Moonrise Hotel in Delmar Loop. A long day, although only 100 miles on the clock.