Walk to Illinois

Today, we walked to Illinois & we didn't even get wet! We drove to the 'Chain of Rocks Bridge', which is a mile-long structure that spans the Mississippi River from the northern edge of St Louis to Chouteau island in Madison County, Illinois. This originally carried Route 66 over the Mississippi, but is now used as a walkway (apparently, it is the 2nd longest pedestrian walkway/bridge in the world) & bike trail across the river.

The bridge's name is derived from a rock-ledged reach of river (described as a chain of rocks) which stretches for approximately seven miles immediately to the north of St. Louis. When river levels are lower (the river was still in flood when we walked over it) there is a line of rapids visible just south from the bridge. These are created by water spilling over the 2,925-feet low-water River Dam 27, which was the first permanent rock-fill dam constructed across a major river in the US. This dam was built in 1960 by the US Corps of Engineers to insure adequate water depths over the lower sill of the old Alton Lock that was 12.5 river miles upstream. River-traffic uses the Chain of Rocks canal, which is a 47-mile long man made channel built through Illinois, to bypass this section of the river.

One of the most interesting features of the bridge is that it has a 22-degree bend at mid span. This was needed due to the unique geology of the area & concerns about the navigation of river traffic around the bridge piers. If the bridge had been built straight, one route would have put the bridge in a location where it couldn’t be solidly founded on bedrock & the other route would have posed problems to river navigation by not allowing barges to line up with the current, possibly causing them to collide with the bridge.

Two Gothic castle-like structures stand in the river just to the south of the bridge which are water intakes for the Chain of Rocks Water Treatment Facility. This is located downstream from the bridge & was originally opened in 1894. It is still in operation today, providing potable water to St Louis. You also get some really good views of the St Louis skyline from the bridge, &, apparently, Bald Eagles can sometimes be spotted in the area during colder weather.

The bridge has an interesting past. It was originally constructed as a toll bridge in 1929 at a cost of US $3.0 million. In the late 1930s, Bypass US 66 was designated over this bridge & around the northern & western parts of St Louis to avoid the downtown area (City US 66 continued to cross the Mississippi River over the MacArthur Bridge). Eventually, the toll was removed from the bridge due to a law prohibiting the collecting of tolls on US Highways. In 1967, the New Chain of Rocks bridge was built immediately to the old bridge's north to carry Interstate 270 across the Mississippi. In 1967 the old Chain of Rocks Bridge was closed. The bridge was subsequently leased to Trailnet (which is a local trails group) & US $4.5 million spent renovating the bridge as part of the trails network. The bridge was added to the US National Register of Historic Places in 2006.

Poms spring local competition

Unfortunately, despite Beth doing a really great job at the poms 'fall locals' her team did not qualify for the regional competition. However, this time at the 'spring locals' Beth & her team did an excellent cheer (just a chant without music) & dance routine (to Hanna Montana) & managed to place second. This meant that they had qualified for the regionals & we would be making our way to Kansas City again so that Beth could compete.

70's Nite

This year, Beth's Girl Scouts 'Dad & Daughter Nite' had a 70's theme. There were plenty of chest wigs, medallions, & disco music to create that 70's vibe. I didn't really have any 70's clothes, so Cheryl made a huge collar for one of my shirts from material that she used to make Beth a 70's style dress so that we would match. Cheryl made the dress from scratch (using very sewing unfriendly 70's style material) in less than 24 hours! She did an absolutely excellent job & Beth got loads of comments about how good she looked! We had a great time 'strutting our funky stuff' to plenty of disco music, munching on some 70's snacks (Pop Rocks & Tang), & playing party games.

Ballet, Tap, & Jazz recital

Beth has been continuing her Ballet, Tap, & Jazz dancing lessons & participated in the end-of-year dance recital. Since Beth is in the older age-group, she performed two ballet & two tap dance routines. The recital was once again held at the local sports center where Beth has her lessons. There were two events; an evening dress rehearsal, where photos & videos were allowed, & the main 'matinee' event where no photography was allowed. This is a really great idea since it means that the girls are not distracted by continual camera flashes, parents aren't getting in the way of the performance trying to get that 'perfect photo', & the competition for front row seats is reduced considerably. It was made very clear that no photography was allowed at the matinee performance, but some parents just had to take photos. All kudos to the dance instructor who actually stopped the show to reiterate that photos were not allowed & that the girls were being distracted by the camera flashes. Beth, as usual, put on a great performance!

A whole lotta shakin' going on

Not only do we have snow, rain, high humidity, severe thunderstorms, hail, high-winds, & extreme temperatures, but we now also have earthquakes. A 5.2 magnitude quake occurred at 4:37 am CDT in southeastern Illinois (five miles from the town of Bellmont) but it was powerful enough & close enough to us to shake our bed so that Cheryl woke up. Later on that morning, I felt one of the more significant aftershocks (4.5 magnitude) at work. There was minimal damage in St Louis, with just some concrete falling from the 72-year-old South Kingshighway viaduct over the Union Pacific railway line.

The quake was the result of two tectonic plates along the New Madrid fault moving apart. The New Madrid Seismic Zone, also known as the Reelfoot Rift, or the New Madrid Fault Line, is one of the most seismically active areas in the US (being the source of four of the largest recorded US earthquakes in history, with magnitudes estimated to be greater than 7.0 on the Richter Scale) & extends southwest from New Madrid, Missouri. However, this time instead of being centered along the main fault line (which follows the Mississippi River), it originated from a spur fault referred to as the Wabash Valley Seismic Zone.

There were a number of further aftershocks around the region, however, on May 5 there was a completely unrelated magnitude 2.7 quake centered on.........Fenton! This occurred at about 6:25am & I felt the house 'rattle' as I was getting ready for work. Initially I just though that it was a refuse truck driving by but later reports from the USGS confirmed that it had in fact been a minor quake!

'Mum's' Birthday

We first met our friend's (Tony & Mary) postman, Ray, at one of their recent get-togethers. Ray's Mum (who is nearly ninety & everyone calls 'Mum') was also there & she is English, having made the journey to the US by boat when she was young. This meant that we spent quite a lot of time talking about the UK, our favourite things from 'home' & Mum's interesting life. We were very kindly invited to her birthday party which was held at the 'Great Pacific Coffee Company' in Old Town Pacific.

The coffee co. is located in the McHugh & Dailey Mercantile building which was, at one time, the largest building in Pacific. It was constructed in 1908 when Lawrence P McHugh & James J Dailey constructed the building as the anchor of their growing mercantile business. It was built using 11 railroad cars of bricks, lumber, & ornate materials that were dismantled & removed from the 1904 World's Fair in St Louis.

Pacific has a population of about 6500, but is one of the top 10 fastest growing cities within the St Louis 'Metro' area. It is located along Historic Route 66, Interstate 44, Union Pacific & Burlington Frisco Railroads, & the Meramec River, with the St Peter's Sandstone bluffs lining the north side of the city. Unfortunately, due to the close proximity of the river, Pacific got completely hammered by the recent floods, with a lot of the houses & other buildings being completely inundated with floodwater. There were still plenty of sandbags stacked around downtown buildings, but the parts of the city that we saw didn't appear to have been damaged by the high waters. The area looked quite rural (although there are modern developments that we didn't see) & this added to it's charm.

Memories car club show April '08

The seasonably unusual weather this year has made an impact on the local car shows. The first 'Friday Night' car show of the season at Sunset Hills was somewhat damp & cold which limited the number of vehicles on display. There was still a reasonable variety of hot rods & musclecars but the parking lot was only half full. Still, the reduced attendance made it a lot easier to get a really good look at the newly debuted cars.

World Aquarium field visit

Beth's spring school field visit was to the World Aquarium, which is part of the City Museum in downtown St Louis. The Aquarium has over 10000 animal exhibits on display, with most of the animals donated to the Aquarium as orphans. The Aquarium is part of the St Louis Children's Aquarium which has been educating the public with its hands-on exhibits & interactive programs for more than ten years. As well as aquatic creatures, the Aquarium also has a number of other animals. The Aquarium is well-known for a number of animals that have more body parts than they should. So as well as learning about Sharks & getting to pet a Stingray, Beth also saw the Aquarium's two-headed snake!

Easter Egg hunts

Beth took part in two Easter Egg hunts this year! One was at our neighbour's church, & the other was at the local recreation/sports centre. Beth went to the egg hunt at out neighbour's church with our neighbours & their nieces, Megan & Natalie. Firstly, Beth listened to a story before playing a few group games (one of which included having to pick up a brightly coloured foil butterfly & placing it on a chair on top of a table using only a drinking straw & the suction created by sucking on the straw). The she did some crafts, including decorating a plant pot & planting a flower in it, & then she had an Easter Breakfast. While all this was going on, members from the congregation hid literally hundreds of eggs for the children to find. Beth had a great time & managed to find more than 50 eggs!

We then quickly drove to our local sports centre for Beth's second egg hunt of the day. Beth made it just in time for the last hunt of the morning. A number of eggs had been hidden outside the centre & the children were allowed to find eight eggs each. She also got to do some colouring & had a 2nd Easter Breakfast!

Nice weather for ducks!

To continue the somewhat unusual weather patterns experienced so far this year, instead of very cold weather & lots of snow things have warmed up just enough so that the snow has now turned to rain, & there has been lots of it!

There was extensive flooding along the Meramec River which we are fairly close to, but luckily far enough away so that the flooding didn't directly affect our house. However, it took over an hour to get to Beth's piano lesson in Valley Park (which is usually a 10-minute journey). Valley Park is the next city north from us & the Meramec River runs right through it. The river crested at 37.83 feet at 7 a.m. on March 22nd, which is the third highest flood crest ever recorded at this location & approximately 20-feet above the level at which flooding begins. Luckily for Valley Park, a new $49 million flood defence levee was completed by the US Army Corps of Engineers in 2005 so the downtown area remained dry. However, Hwy 141 which passes through Valley Park was flooded at Interstate 44. The water level was getting so high that MoDOT started making preparations to close the interstate at Hwy 141 since the water had started to encroach upon the road. They managed to keep two lanes open in each direction (which was good since this is the interstate that I use for my commute to work) by placing temporary flood defences on the shoulder & inside lane, but to do this caused gridlock with reports of people being stuck in traffic jams for six hours!

Poetry Slam

Beth read a poem that she wrote at a local invitational 'poetry slam' organized by her school. The event took place in the coffee shop area at a nearby Barnes & Noble bookshop. The authors were organized by grade level & each got to read their poem using a PA system so that the whole store could hear it. Beth did a really good job of reciting her original composition.

Talent Show '08

Beth & her friends from her brownie troupe performed a group act at Beth's school's talent show. The girls were dancing to Hannah Montana's 'The Best of Both Worlds' & were dressed up as either Miley Cyrus or Hannah Montana. Beth has beautiful, long, blonde hair & so would have been a perfect Hannah Montana without the need for a wig, but she was cast as Miley! Beth looked really different with dark brown hair when she was wearing her Miley wig. The girls had been practicing almost daily for a few weeks before the show & it was all worth it as they put on a totally awesome performance!

Yet more snow!

The weather has continued to be somewhat intense this year. e have now experienced thundersnow which is basically a thunderstorm, but instead of heavy rain falling there is snow. When I left for work it was dry & the roads were clear, but by the time I started to make my way home there was 11-inches of snow where we live & some places in & around St Louis had over a foot & a half of snow. The highways were pretty clear though, probably no doubt due to the snowfall starting after the rush hour so MoDOT had less traffic to deal with while ploughing the road. They also have a 20-foot wide snow plough so they can clear the highways quickly. This uses extra ploughs on ballasted trailers that are towed beside the main snow plough.