Day 38 - 5/4/11 It Was an Archeologist’s Kind of Day (We are in Richland’s MO)

I hope you can click on this and read it.

What a facinating people these were - and I had
never heard of them before!

We left the campsite but not the city and headed for the Cahokia Mounds Historic Site.  What a fascinating time we had learning all about this thriving civilization that we had never heard of before.  This is the largest prehistoric Indian site north of Mexico.  

Monks Mound from the side.

It covers 4000 acres and includes 120 mounds (these are piles of soil in various shapes used to either elevate homes or for burial.  

I now remember what it felt like

after the first day of gym class!

The largest of these is called “Monks Mound” and we climbed its 154+ steps to the top.  Wow.  The movie, artifacts and recreated village inside the visitors’ center were captivating and we spent the morning exploring.  Just to give you a feel for these peoples:  at their height there were 20,000+ people over the 6 square miles this city encompassed.  

They were farmers (mostly corn which they traded) but around 1300AD it had started to decline we think due to this population density and by the late 1300s it was basically abandoned.  Oh my!

Hey, why can't we go up Monks Mound with you?
There are about a hundred children there to play with!

Nope, that's not McDonalds!

 After lunch (at Arby’s) we traveled the now hilly roads of Missouri to find a home for the night in a gorgeous campground/RV resort in Richland, MO; 

6-Flaggs over ? GA,no MO!

Jellystone?  Where are we?

Which one?

What now?

At last!

That's a lot of Bourbon!

we are the only campers so far this evening as they have had a lot of flooding this past month.  Right now the site we are in is perfect - it is 70 degrees with 45% humidity, the birds are singing, there is a quiet stream running right beside the campsite, I see a grazing deer in the distance, Precious can run around and play to her heart’s content and the computer seems to be acting better than it did yesterday! Plus, it’s happy hour and I’ve heard from several friends by e-mail today that I haven’t heard from in a while - oh happy day!

Shalom,  Heather . . .