The Pinnacles and gravel and more sculpture.

 (vacation has been over for almost two weeks and I realized I never posted our last day of adventuring [9 July 2021])

Pinnacles Youth Park.  I found this place listed on Atlas Obscura.  We started down what we thought was the correct trail.  We could see where we wanted to go but couldn't find a good place to cross the stream.

We were about to call it quits when Dennis spied another path so we ventured off.  We spied this interesting sight

 

and continued along the trail.  A sign for the old dam led us to a not dry but not so deep place to ford the stream.  And after a few more minutes of gentle climbing, we made it!

We're on the peak to the right of the ones you can see in the first picture.  I was too tired (and hot) to traverse my way along the narrow path to the big hole (plus there were some teenagers sitting over there).  Mission accomplished!  We made our way back down the trail and I opted to take off my boots and socks so I could wade in the cool water instead of trying to keep my boots dry.  The pants ended up wet but no worries I had dry shorts in the car.

And off we headed for St. Louis.  We meandered along some back roads since we were not in a hurry.  And found our destination of the Weldon Spring Site which is a reclaimed EPA site.  Unlike Fernald (near our home) which was turned into a nature preserve, Weldon is one big mound buried and topped with gravel.  And a convenient stairway to climb to the top.

  

It was getting late in the afternoon so we found two quick sculpture stops before finding a hotel.

The Awakening was a giant rising out of the ground and the butterflies are by the Butterfly house.

We also found the fish riding a bike in the pond near Clayton.

A walkabout in Clayton (where we stayed in the friendly Hampton Inn) revealed two more quirky sculptures (shoe of shoes and the Terminator cube)

We had many more places marked on our map for St. Louis but ending up skipping them.  We spent Saturday running errands for my Aunt Barbara, making her a pork chop dinner, snuggling in a twin bed (why pay for a hotel room when you can stay for free with family).  

Dennis and I did take a short walk around the block Saturday night and were entertained by a street band playing on the corner.  One of the locals said there are 2-3 bands that alternate playing on that corner.  The night we were there is was a group of 5 trombones and some percussion.  They were amazing.  And the youngest three appeared to be about 8, 12 and 16.   And on the same block was the chess hall of fame marked by the world's largest chess piece.

After making breakfast we hit the road for home and skipped all the quirky sights marked on our idea map.  I'm sure we'll make another trip or two to St. Louis so we can always pick up those sights later.

All in all it was a fun trip.  The total mileage when we pulled into the garage was 1,908.3 miles.  Eight days and no major blowups.  A mountain of laundry greeted us (seems our children forgot how to do laundry).