St. Joe, June 17-18

We've been surprised at all there is to see in St. Joseph. We went downtown to tour the Twin Spires Cathedral (formerly the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church). When the congregation got too small and old to support the expense of the church, the diocese sold the church in 1992 to a couple from California who were buying up old buildings in St. Joseph. The church has beautiful stained glass windows, and the statuary was impressive - especially the stations of the cross. The owners turned it into a wedding chapel, and weddings are held all year except for Dec - March when it is too expensive to heat the church. The basement is used as a banquet/reception facility.

From the Twin Spires we went to see the oldest house in St. Joe. It was built in 1843 by the founder of St. Joseph, Joseph Robidoux a French Canadian fur trader who named the city for his patron saint. The house was originally about 10 one-room apartments which were rented to people moving west who arrived in late fall and wintered in St. Joseph before their wagon trains went west. Mr. Robidoux lived in the one end of the house until his death. Many of the furnishings were his.

On Friday we toured the Wythe-Tootle Mansion which has been made into a museum. The parquet floors are beautiful throughout the main level. Because of the economy the house is in need of exterior and interior repairs, but there is little money to accomplish it. It's located among all the mansions we saw as we walked on "Museum Hill" yesterday.

Today 5 Airstreams pulled into the campground. Jack and I were eating lunch when there was a banging on our door. A member of the group came over to invite us to join the Wally Bynum Club. Jack visited with them after lunch and we learned that they were on their way to the Airstream Rally in Gillette, Wyoming and were meeting up with their caravan in Sioux Falls the next evening. Tomorrow we leave for Kansas City East KOA, about 75 miles south and east of here.