St Joseph, MO

We came to St Joseph, MO because Gary's Great Great Grandparents left there with a wagon train headed for Oregon in 1855. There are several museums here where we spent the morning today. Here is a wagon fully loaded, ready for the Oregon trail. Heard interesting stories from the Lakota Indian at the visitors center.

St. Joseph is were the Pony Express started, headed for Sacramento, CA. Letters were $5 per 1/2 ounce and took 10 days. The Pony Express lasted 19 months and was put out of business by the telegraph. The company that started it went bankrupt. Go figure. We went to the River Park to see the Missouri River. It was up over the stairs to the shore and is expected to go 9 feet higher. I-29 that follows the Missouri River in Iowa is closed because of flooding.

We found a happy surprise today. We were headed to Winterset, IA to shop at the Fons & Porter Quilt shop. Turns out it is in Madison County, the county that was the focus of the movie, Bridges of Madison County.

We saw 2 quilt barns but it is not organized here so we were just lucky to see them.

Here is 1 of the 6 covered bridges in Madison County, we only got to see 2.