116. ST. CHARLES & THE KATY TRAIL

St. Charles, Missouri

7/19/2012

St. Charles was Missouri’s first capital. The downtown area is a nice historic district, with the obligatory 50 antique stores. We drove through it, but the 104 degree heat deterred us from walking around. Besides that, it was pretty confusing to navigate. Things weren’t very clearly marked, so we wound up driving in circles and getting fairly frustrated.

It was from St. Charles that Lewis and Clark began their famous expedition to explore Thomas Jefferson’s then-recent acquisition of a major expansion to American territory through the Louisiana Purchase. I stopped in the Lewis and Clark Boat House and Nature Center just as it was supposed to close. The nice lady there was very accommodating and stayed open a little later so I could get some information. (The rest of the family stayed out in the car.) There was an elderly man there too, waiting for the woman. He asked me where I was from and he said he was from Hershey, Pennsylvania originally. We talked a few minutes about the town.

The two of them bantered back and forth about what would happen to their investments if Obama or Romney won the upcoming election. They got so into their discussion they forgot I was there. When she realized, the lady said, “I’m sorry. You don’t want to hear us talking about politics.” I said I didn’t mind.

I returned to the family and we then tried to find the Katy State Park. This was actually very confusing, even with the lady’s help. Basically, the Katy Trail is a hiking trail that runs over 200 miles throughout Missouri. Built to follow the remains of an old railway line (The Missouri-Kansas-Texas, aka the M-K-T, aka “the Katy”), Patricia calls it the nation’s skinniest and longest state park. It’s so skinny it was hard to tell where the town ended and the park began at St. Charles. We found out fast. I convinced Laura (against her better judgment) to drive down a path by the old railway line. Some irate guy ran over the car and told us to get our vehicle off the bike trail. Oops. I guess we found it. Laura was embarrassed, but it was completely my fault.

We got out of the car and explored the path a little bit. I stood at the spot where Lewis and Clark set out to indulge in my historical geekiness.

The whole trail here runs alongside the Missouri River and parts of the old railway line still stand – including a few train cars.

Daniel insisted on walking down the entire track pretending to be a train, going “Choo-choo!” and waving his arms in a way that defies description, but I think was supposed to simulate the moving parts of the train.

Before we left town we took a slight non-Patricia detour for personal reasons. I am working on a book on famous American Catholics and St. Philippine Duquesne of St. Charles is featured in it. Although she is not very well known I’ve lived and breathed her life for several months, so I couldn’t resist visiting her shrine in the north side of town. Unfortunately, by the time we got there the shrine itself was closed, but I’m still glad I got to get a look at the grounds of the community and school she founded.