St. Charles, MO

Thursday - What a rainy trip we had today from Mount Vernon, IL to St. Charles, MO. It was raining so hard at our departure time that we way laid it for another half hour. As we got on I64 west, Larry and Mem were in the lead and it was hard for them to see the road. Of course, all the rest of us had to do was follow their tail lights! How fortunate we were!

We are camped at the Sundermeier RV Park in St. Charles, MO for the next 3 nights. Tonight we decided to try out the Beef Eaters restaurant across the street, but we opted for a light dinner as we would be eating here again tomorrow night too and having their prime rib.

Friday - Chuck and I and Bob and Nance (our IL friends that we met in Crystal Lake, Naples, FL a few years back) drove down to old town St. Charles and went in the shops there. My favorite stores were the Knit & Caboodle (what beautiful yarn they had!) and I found a stained glass shop (The Glass Workbench) where I found a book of lamp patterns--I hope to make one this coming winter while I am in Crystal Lake. We all had fun reminiscing looking at antiques at an antique store there in town.

Our friends (also from Crystal Lake), Larry & Patty Hellrung from Alton, IL across the river, came over for a visit, margaritas and dinner. There were 14 of us that went across the street to the Beef Eaters restaurant for dinner again tonight, but tonight most of us had their prime rib and will have it again probably on Sunday because we had so much left over!

What a LONG walk across the street from the coaches to get dinner!

Saturday - This morning 8 of us (Roths, Mathenys, Parsons & Tolsons) headed out for the AmeriStar Casino for a couple hours of slots and then lunch. Chuck and I played slots for an hour and a half on our original $10 where we were up to $20 at one point and then began to loose. We stopped when we were back down to $10 again and cashed out--loosing no money, but winning none either! After lunch, we headed over to the mall for a small RV show. No, we didn't see anything that we just had to have. When we got back to the coach, we had our usual happy hour at our coach before going to dinner at Fratelli's--an Italian restuarant that Bob and Nance had recommended here in St. Charles.

AmeriStar Casino Fountain (It was fascinating watching this fountain and I will try to upload a video clip of it that should appear at the bottom of this page.)

Happy Hour
(Larry, Jim, Linda, Mem, Mary, Rhodes, Janice and Bob)

Fratelli's Ristorante in St. Charles, MO
(Up left then down right) Janice, Donna, Nance, Linda, Jim, Rhodes, Mary, Mem, Larry, Bob, Chuck & Ralph

Video of Fountain at Ameristar Casino