A Slice of Life
Bill Lites
Day 8 Continued (5/23/2022)
After that quick ‘Trip to the Past’ I left Paduca and headed back north 50 miles on SR-13 to visit the Gateway Classic Cars collection located in O’Fallon, IL. This is a fabulous collection of beautifully restored cars, ranging from the 1930s Hot Rods to the present-day Muscle Cars. I never get tired of drooling over the finished product of someone’s ‘Dream Car.’ I’ve been there and know how hard it is to sell that car you have put your heart and soul into restoring.
Photo Credit; Bill Lites
Now it was only about 15 miles west on I-24 to where I had planned to visit the old 1831 Campbell House Museum located in the Lucas Place neighborhood in St. Louis, MO but they were closed by the time I got there. Just a few blocks away I stopped to see if the Soldiers Memorial Military Museum was open. They weren’t, so it wasn’t far to where I checked out the Moto Motorcycle Museum. This museum is the private collection of famous architect, Steve Smith, and displays mostly motorcycles made before 1975, and mainly from European countries. It is a beautiful collection of motorcycles with names not commonly heard of in the United States.
Photo Credit; Bill Lites
On the same block I noticed the International Photography Hall of Fame & Museum, and stopped to take a photo. They were closed also, so I headed a few blocks to check out the Laclede’s Landing Wax Museum located not far from the Gateway Arch, adjacent to the Mississippi River. This museum has five levels and displays over 250 wax figures of some of the most famous persons in history, including movie stars, presidents, world leaders, religious leaders, and inventers just to name a few of the categories of wax figures.
Photo Credit; Bill Lites
By now I was getting hungry, so I gave Greta (My Garmin) the address for the Blueberry Hill Diner located in the Delmar Loop district across from the Ackert Walkway leading to University City. The Blue Berry Hill is a longtime pop culture–themed diner where live music is played several nights each week (Not tonight – Bummer). They advertise that Chuck Berry walked across their stage, in their ‘Duck Room’ over 200 times. I enjoyed an order of their famous French Dip, accompanied by a lot of Chuck Berry’s recorded music in the background, while I ‘people watched’ the crowd who came and went.
Photo Credit; Bill Lites
After that exciting experience, I walked across Delmar Blvd to take a photo of the bronze statue of Chuck Berry that guards the entrance to the Ackert Walkway leading to University City. I was amazed at the crowd of people filling the sidewalks on either side of the street. They consisted of people of all ages dressed in every conceivable type of clothes, from shorts to dinner attire. What a sight that was!
Photo Credit; Bill Lites
Greta was again employed to take me to tonight’s motel there on the outskirts of St. Louis, and she did a good job. After I got checked in and got my things into the room, I recorded my day’s activities, and went to bed. I had to get up early as I had reservations for the first timeslot at the Gateway Arch tomorrow morning and wanted to get a good night’s rest.
—–To Be Continued—–
Bill is a retired Mechanical engineer living with his wonderful artist/writer wife, DiVoran, of 65 years in Titusville, Florida. He was born and raised in the Southwest, did a tour of duty with the U.S. Navy, attended Northrop University in Southern California and ended up working on America’s Manned Space Program for 35 years. He currently is retired and spends most of his time building and flying R/C model airplanes, traveling, writing blogs about his travels for Word Press and supporting his wife’s hobbies with framing, editing and marketing. He also volunteers with a local church Car Care Ministry and as a tour guide at the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum there in Titusville. Bill has two wonderful children, two outstanding grandchildren, and a loving sister and her husband, all of whom also live in Central Florida, so he and DiVoran are rewarded by having family close to spend lots of quality time with.
One of Bill’s favorite Scriptures is: John 10:10
Old Things R New 
Very well done!
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