Friday, October 30, 2015

10/28 Sainte Genevieve, MO

As you might have suspected from my recent posts, I am sticking close to the Mississippi and working my way south along what is called the Great River Road. The map below gives you an idea of the Road and the attractions along the way.  I joined it in St. Louis, drove up to Hannibal, and am now headed south.
 

 
Ste. Genevieve is an unusual small town along the river with two distinctions from most of the river towns:
  1. It is older than most, being founded in the early 1700s as a fur trading port.
  2. It has a lot of French influence, with a dab of Early American, as you can see from some of the houses below.



These signs tell you a little about the town.  (I have to tell you that I could not stop mentally singing the song with the same name from the musical Camelot!)

 


This home on the corner is currently the offices of the Missouri Natural Resources. It also has a small gift shop and offers tours.  Since this is very much off-season, I paid $4 and got my own personal tour of this house and two others across the street.

This was an elegant home of a prosperous family, as you can tell from this coal-burning fireplace.

Apparently, the lady of the house heard about a steamboat that had crashed on the nearby river, so she sent someone to rescue these original frosted glass panes for the door that divides the living room from the area that had originally been an office and store.

I was impressed with this original door.  It had the original hardware and was at least 40" wide.

This is the kitchen and laundry for the front house with the offices.  It was common to have those functions separate to keep smells and heat away from the main house, especially in the summer.


This is a store/residence across the side street.  The stone is the native limestone that is mined nearby.

The downstairs looked like this.

Upstairs was much more elegant!  It is furnished as it would have been in 1830.

The wash house in the back yard. 

And a view of the back porch.


Just another interesting building in town.
 
And, to end my visit here, my "trusty" GPS that is supposed to guide me only on routes where I can take my large vehicle, instead took me down a road with a 9' clearance railroad underpass, so I had to back up through parked cars for at least 600 feet, and then back through a four-way stop!!  Managed without hitting anything.  I am getting much too good at this long backing up!!  I was VERY glad to get out of town without any scratches or destroying anything.  

4 comments:

  1. I followed the link that you posted on Mermaid's and just want to say hi! I thought that I had seen every fulltimer's blog but I guess not. :-D You travel much the same as we do although I think we go slower but what is really interesting is that you don't have a car. Neither do we but it's so uncommon especially since you actually go places in your RV instead of sticking to long drives and then long stays in campgrounds. Very nice blog!

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    1. Nice to hear from you. I decided when I started out that I would not bother with a car--just too much trouble to hook and unhook, as you know. While it is sometimes a bit of a pain to take my whole vehicle along somewhere, I figure the tradeoff is a good one. I also tend to stay in state and federal campgrounds. My style is to drive a day and then sit a day or so. When I am in a destination such as Florida or Arizona, I tend to stay in one place for a week or so between moving on. I also teach online halftime, so I use my "sitting" time to do work. I will try to reply privately once your message makes it to my mailbox.

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  2. I too followed the link found on Mermaid's site. I found the pictures fascinating. Would love to see how you travel. What kind of rig you have. Your life style is still a dream for me. But one day I hope to see all of the wonderful United States. Stay safe. Martha Petru, Texas

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    1. I would send you my email if I had a link to yours. Hopefully, your comment will appear in my mailbox. FYI, I have a 32' Class C and travel alone, obviously. Been on the road over 3 years and have not been bored yet. Will be headed through your state in a couple of weeks on my way to California.

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