st louis!

another new american city for me --- and first time in missouri, too --- i remain sad that they tore down all of french st louis in the 1930s to create the gateway arch (1947), comparable to demolishing the entire french quarter in nola --- within a few months, new orleans passed landmark zoning legislation to protect and preserve the french quarter ---- anyhoo, st louis still has great architecture (louis sullivan!) and fine parks and cemeteries and what not all over

a day in st genevieve (ca 1740), a national historic landmark district 65 mi south of st louis, oughta rock my world --- too many historic structures to shake a stick at, and a lot of them 18th c --- plus a bit closer to new madrid and the ever-present chance of a major earthquake, as in 1811-12, which was right after the great comet freaked everybody out --- it would have been swell to have witnessed all of that

and i will finally see cahokia, the center of the mississippian culture (etowah, ocmulgee, etc) a thousand years ago, and site of largest earthen structure north of mexico --- a thousand years ago its population was as large as 40,000, twice that of london --- it's one of 23 UNESCO world heritage sites in the usa --- just piles of dirt now, but still . . .  i like piles of dirt

for whatever reason, travel has not appealed to me of late --- but john is still dead and dog is healed, and god knows i need the diversion, as it were, so imagoin --- like this week