Shabbos in St. Louis was very nice.  This morning, I took the light rail into downtown:

Gateway Arch National Park commemorates the Louisiana Purchase and the opening of the American West:

The site also contains the courthouse where the Dred Scott case was heard:

The arch:

There’s an extensive visitor center under the arch:

The exit from the visitor center comes up to ground level at the base of the arch:

On the train back to the RV:

The next stop of the day was Ste. Genevieve National Historical Park, which was founded less than a year ago:

The park preserves 18th-century French colonial buildings constructed using vertical logs, with earth or other materials filling the gaps:

The “double attic” construction was used to keep the buildings cool in the summer and warm in the winter:

Checking out the buildings, which are over 200 years old:

This building has had the exterior siding removed, revealing the vertical logs (white) and earth fill between them (brown):

I continued on to overnight at the Walmart on Thayer, Missouri:

See the trip map for today’s drive.