May 10, 2021 Lunch - Nuevo Rancho. Dinner - Dinner from Joy Luck Restaurant with Audrey

 May 10, 2021 Lunch - Nuevo Rancho. Dinner - Dinner from Joy Luck Restaurant with Audrey 

We ate the fruit salad Jeff and Cathy gave us with granola and yogurt in the camper for breakfast.

 

Then we drove to the Upper Cataract.  There was a wooden covered bridge built in 1876 across the creek, so we walked across it.  It was constructed with Smith Struts which were 8 by 8 inch square cut logs pinned in the middle with a steel bolt that allowed them to be transported straight and set at right angles to each other on site to create a series of x’s set side by side for the side frame of the bridge.  According to a plaque this was the best preserved covered bridge in Indiana and is on the National Register.

The upper cataract was also impressive dropping 20 feet in elevation with the largest volume of water flowing over it of any falls in Indianapolis.  Again it was formed by glacial action cutting a path for water, emptying an ancient inland sea down to a bedrock of deposits of limestone collected over millennia (think dead seashells).  The water falling over the broken slabs of bedrock that are left form the bottom of the ancient sea floor are what form the cataract. It was quite impressive.

We then drove the 200 miles through Indiana and Illinois to St. Louis with stops every 60 to 70 miles to switch turns driving.  I noticed when I pulled off the highway in Vandalia a small Mexican restaurant named Nuevo Rancho.  The visitors center was closed, so we drove to the restaurant and ordered Enchiladas Mexicana, three rolled beef enchiladas covered with a red chili cream sauce garnished with clumps of salad, sour cream, and guacamole.  For $8.95, this was one of the best Mexican meal we have eaten in a long time. I ordered it with double beans, instead of rice and beans and the smooth shiny refried beans were delicious.  Suzette and I split the platter and a coke and both of us were satisfied.  I suspect the restaurant mixes sour cream with its red chili sauce to moderate the heat, which is exactly what Suzette and I do, so the sauce was to our liking.

Vandalia is a famous town.  Here is the Wikipedia description:

Vandalia is a city in Fayette County, Illinois, United States. At the 2010 Census, the population was 7,042. Vandalia is 69 miles (111 km) northeast of St. Louis, on the Kaskaskia River. It served as the state capital of Illinois from 1819 until 1839, when the seat of state government moved to the current capital of Springfield. Vandalia was for years the western terminus of the National Road.

We decided to stop at the Lewis and Clark Memorial Park on our way into St. Louis.  I was thrilled that it stood on the site of Fort Dubois, where Lewis and Clark spent the Winter of 1803-1804 before embarking on their historic journey to Oregon and back.  

We then drove the Lewis and Clark scenic byway to Alton where we crossed the Mississippi into Missouri and soon crossed the Missouri River on amazing, high bridges. Alton is also a famous town on the Mississippi originally settled by the French.

We arrived at the Hilton Hotel Fontanec by way of several interstate highways which seem to crisscross northern St. Louis.

We showered and changed clothes and tried to find some Chinese food to take to Audrey’s room for dinner.  We had discussed with her bringing dinner and settled on Chinese takeout.  The problem we encountered was that most Chinese restaurants in St. Louis close on Monday.  By a process of elimination we found a Chinese buffet style restaurant that was open and ordered Moo Goo Gai Pan, Beef in Broccoli Sauce, and shrimp in Lobster Sauce.  We picked up the food on our way to Audrey’s. 

Audrey is my cousin, my father’s niece.  She is 89 and living in a high rise independent living facility high on a hillside with a lovely view of overlooking a Galleria and an Interstate to the east.  We ate dinner and talked about everything in the warm glow of the setting sun.

The food was the worst Chinese food I have eaten in years.  The Moo goo Gai pan had only celery, bell peppers, and carrots as vegetables although the white cooked chicken was adequate. The beef and broccoli was the best dish with its dark soy based sauce.  But, the shrimp in lobster sauce was a disaster on every level from the precooked shrimp in a thin soupy sauce of chicken broth and water and corn starch with a few flecks of egg grown into the sauce.  

Audrey insisted we take the leftover food and Suzette said she can use the dishes to bake other dishes, so we are apparently back to creating dishes from PPIs, which is our favored style of cooking.

Audrey was wonderful to talk to. She is just as sharp and acerbic as always and I discovered she drew cartoons for Psychology Today and National Review before she started drawing cards for Hallmark.

We talked until the end of visiting hours at 8:00, when we drove back to the hotel where we watched Chris Hayes and most of Rachel Maddow until we fell asleep at 9:55.

I awakened at 2:00 to blog until a bit after 3:00.

What an amazing day of food; a delicious granola, fruit salad and yogurt for breakfast followed by the best Mexican food in a long time, followed by the worst Chinese food ever.

What set this day apart was a visit with my cousin and visiting the starting point of the Lewis and Clark expedition at the convergence of the Mississippi River and the Missouri River and the historic moment in American history of the Louisiana Purchase from France and the expansion of the US west of the Mississippi River.

Bon Appetit