St. Louis Month 2, Historic St Charles area

A sunset over Sundermeier RV Park

When we get bored, we just MOVE!  OK, we loved Babler campground but now we're 20 min closer to Grandbaby, next to the Katy Trail, we have on-site laundry, and we're close to several yummy eating establishments so our friends can come visit (hint, hint)!

Where the trail ends

Katy Trail: I was laying down a blistering pace on our local rail trail when it suddenly turned into a singletrack. We rode quite a ways on our road bikes before I almost wiped out in a sand pit (at least the landing would be soft but I always bend something on the bike). We don't usually have to worry about poison ivy and thorns on our rides! It's a shame our state parks are the first to suffer with budget cuts.

On the boat, there is a moment where all your neighbors pop out at the same time as you to secure, stow and take stock before a storm (at night, you can see all the flashlights/headlamps bobbing around).  It always makes me giggle.
It's a little more cozy in an RV park.  Some wind ahead of a 3:00 am storm.  All the men were out putting in the secondary awnings in their underwear.  I can now answer the question, boxers or briefs!  Our lifestyle is so entertainining.


And yes, it's all about the food!

Some Missouri BBQ at our favorite local establishment (I'm a coffee girl.  The Colonel is hot & smoky!)

Out with the girls in historic St. Charles.  She charmed the waiter into a free brownie!

I just can't duplicate the "bowls" from Crazy Bowls and Wraps...

Unlimited veggies!  This still gives me heart palpitations.

Our new ding ding and it matches!  LOL

We found our dinghy!  Unfortunately, St. Louis doesn't have many RV parks, everything is spread out, they've chased Uber out and public transportation stinks.  We tried getting along without but after borrowing a friends truck (over 200,000 miles & no air but LOTS of personality), then renting a car while we scoured Craigslist & used car lots, we found it.  Our friends at the airport never let us down!  A 2006 Nissan Altima with manual transmission so we can tow it.  Now we just need the tow bar & braking system (which will cost as much as the car!)

Guaranteed to work!

He wasn't happy about this project

Tank access 

Yeah!  The black water tank reads empty! (Update: it never moves from this reading.  Project ongoing!)

Project:  The shitter is NOT full!  On the boat we just call it a holding tank (sink water goes overboard).  In the RV, we have to deal with a black water tank (toilet) and a grey water tank (sink drains).  We can't see our tanks (like we can on the boat) so they only way we know they are full is by the gauge.  Our gauges weren't working.  The Colonel bought some new "guaranteed" probes for the black water tank (that made our RV friends laugh!).  The directions were my favorite (Remove.  Replace the way they were).  They are working so far!

My tea haul--don't tell The Colonel!

Apparently drinking tea is directly linked to becoming "the cat lady"!  Good to know.  The English Shoppe

Historic downtown St. Charles is known for it's shops.  There are no fewer than three tea shops on top of antiques, candy/ice cream/fudge and crafts.  It's also becoming a hipster area due to the close proximity of Lindenwood College.  This is a good thing and a bad thing. I like seeing an old neighborhood being embraced by the next generation but I don't appreciate the "you're lost old lady" look at my favorite coffee shop (which is now also a wine bar with an open mike night)!

The balance of our time was monitoring weather as "Invests" start spinning off of Africa toward the Caribbean.  Good times.  Hang tight, Odin the Sailboat!


A shiny Fleetwood Excursion just arrived at Sundermeier's pulling a...
wait for it...
classic VW Bug!
Hey, honey, how come we didn't get one of those?!

We are officially a moving road hazard.  Yes, we know it.

A neighbor came out and advised moving the chain attachment on the RV to the hitch but I didn't take a second pic so....We also use bungees to keep everything from dragging.

Monitoring Ding Ding through the backup camera.  I see you back there!

I should have written up the tow bar project.  It actually took quite awhile, but unfortunately I wasn't paying attention and didn't get enough pics.  eTrailers.com is actually headquartered in St. Louis so it should have been easy to run over to the warehouse & buy everything--but they didn't have the base plate for an Altima so we had to order it!  (Eek!  Leaving for Colorado soon...). It involved running hydraulics from Odin the Winnebago to the car (Odin already has a hydraulic line at the hitch but a hydraulic line with a quick attach had to run out through the grill).  Mounting attachments for the foot brake, and attaching the base plate to the car.  We also had to purchase a tow bar.    

Above is the practice run with the dinghy to the new Love's truck stop. Fingers crossed!  The only problem we had was the accessory brake lights fell off--they are supposed to be magnetic but luckily we didn't lose them.  Also, it was a little tricky getting the tow bar unhooked from the car but (after reading the directions) we learned that turning the front wheels will help release tension.  Huh?

Normally we can access the engine by flipping up the mattress & frame by the hinge but this is serious work.  Note the mattress flipped up against the wall.  It's a small bedroom!

He did some cool spider man moves while working but I wasn't fast enough with the camera (Note the iPad YouTube Cat diesel video...)

Countdown to our drive to Colorado. Yesterday, The Colonel gave the dinghy an alignment. Today's chore:  adjust valve clearances on our Cat diesel, that lives under our bed. I'm afraid I encouraged this activity. Plans with family this afternoon. We may be sleeping on the couch tonight!