370 Lakeside Park, St.Peters

This is the area where we are currently located. It is Mississippi River bottom land which was farm land until the flood of 1993. A few soybean plants, lying in orderly rows, can be still seen struggling to survive along the lake's edge. High levees surround this park; soil was dug up from the farm land to create the levees, and consequently a 140-acre lake was formed. It has been newly stocked with fish. In this park is also many acres of protected wetland, as shown in the picture above. While biking around Lakeside Park I have seen egrets and herons sitting in the water, also deer in the forests. Canadian geese and killdeer are in an abundance here. During my morning bike rides I have made the acquaintance of another biker, Ed Prouhet (he is the youngest son of the Prouhet farm family from Bridgeton). He starts biking earlier than I do and consequently has wildlife sightings to report to me, as raccoons and bald eagles. We had more of a citified life when we came to St.Louis in previous trips here and stayed at the recreational vehicle park in St.Charles. I must say that I do not miss having easy access to stores as much as I thought I would!  Below is a picture of one of the metal sculptures found through out the park. It has been fun exploring the many trails which wind around the lake and wetlands.

The only unfortunate part with living so far from St.Louis is that we do have a distance to go to attend events in the city. One trip which we made into the city was to hear the St.Louis Symphony kick off their season with a concert on Art Hill in Forest Park.  Fireworks after the concert made it a perfect evening. Sunday we had only to drive as far as St.Charles to hear the Mahnken Brass Quintet. Susan Slaughter, past principal trumpet for the St.Louis Symphony, was part of that ensemble and it was a joy to hear her again. She also played the trumpet for some of the songs performed by the Community Gospel Choir. It all was first rate entertainment, and only for the price of a donation to the BackStoppers. The BackStoppers are a local  organization which provides needed support and financial assistance to the families of local and county firefighters, and police officers who have lost their lives while in the line of duty. It has been great to be back in St.Louis again; not only is it wonderful to be in a city where we know our way around, but it is also a place where there is plenty of things to do. We have also been quite fortunate in the past week to meet up with friends from both Beautiful Savior and Holy Cross Lutheran churches at various social functions. Our plan is to stay here another two weeks and then head west to California.