We hemmed and hawed over staying another day in St Louis. I had been told about Grants Farm, but how I understood it, was it was kind of like a small petting zoo, with minimal information about Ulysses S Grant. It wasn’t overpoweringly tempting, but I just kept feeling like if we were here we should just go. We voted 4 times as a family over it. The vote always leaned towards staying, but nobody was totally excited, they just thought it sounded interesting. Finally we had to make a decision, and just decided what the heck, we were here, instead of heading on lets just go see what it’s all about.
Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Park
We totally found a hidden gem. EVERYONE is glad we stayed, and it took our entire day. I don’t think I can brag it up enough. I LOVE this place!
First of all it’s not just Grants Farm. Mr. S ignored the GPS, and thought the place across the street was Grants Farm. Well it wasn’t, but it turned out to be Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Park. When our little kids saw the National Historic Park insignia, they just started cheering because by now they are expert junior rangers and are excited to earn another badge, which they did here.
In this home at the park, Ulysses wife grew up. They met and courted here, they lived here as U.S. Grant (as they called him here) tried his hand at farming, and they vacationed here when he was president. They have a short movie, a museum, a tour and walk through of the home.
The kids and I were talking later, and I think out of all the places we have been, this National Park was THE BEST at their job of 
presenting an american hero. They are small and go unnoticed, so they have the opportunity to be more personal. The park rangers are very knowledgeable and seemed to take great pride in sharing their feelings and the stories about Ulysses S Grant. They addressed his controversies and his strengths, and did it in a very respectful way. They left me admiring and wanting to read more about Ulysses S Grant. It was a fabulous park.
We were probably there for 2 hours. Then we ate lunch and headed over to Grant Farm. Grant Farm is run by Anheuser-Busch. In the 1850s, Ulysses S. Grant lived and farmed a portion of the 281 acres. Now they have rebuilt his home on this site (the house across the street at the National Park was his in-laws house and then later his, this was his first house here). Then use the rest of the site as a farm. The farm has more than 900 animals representing more than 100 different species. The farm is FREE, except for parking which is $12 for a car.
It was $30 for a RV, but we were already parked at the National Park across the street. We kept our RV parked there and just walked over. It turned out to be closer to the entrance than parking for $30 on the farm. (just a hint to RVers)
When you enter the park, they pick you up on a tram, and drive you around the park. First they showed us Ulysses S. Grants home. They also have added a fence around Grant’s Cabin that is made from Civil War gun barrels, it’s very cool.
Then you get to see the animals as the tram drives through their range. You can see many different species of buffalo, deer, cows, horses, yaks, and birds. At one point there was a buffalo sleeping right next to the road we drove by, and we could have reached out and touched him. The kids just loved it.
** Kid Note: I think the kids are able to see more animals from the right side of the tram, so I would load them on that side and then have the adults in your group take the left side. Our kids ended up rearranging their seats this way so they could see better.
After the tram ride they bring you to a small zoo. By small, for me, I mean perfect 
size. I’m not an all day, walk in the heat and look at animals, type of person. This farm/zoo was perfect! Right when we walked in we bought a couple of kid passes. For $5 you could have 1 snow cone, 2 bottles of milk to feed the goats, and one carousel ride.
First the kids fed the goats, which was kind of funny because we raise goats…but we have never bottle fed goats before. We always let their mothers take care of them. It turns out our kids loved this! Well it was quite the ordeal. Mr. S is now considering running a small petting zoo and copying a small portion of what they do here. The kids absolutely loved it! The baby goats were so cute. Even the teenagers were having fun.
After we fed baby goats we visited their bird section. What is fun about their birds, is they are not in cages. I think the sign said 80% of a these birds, falcons and eagles, lives are spent perched. So they have them tethered so they can move around a little and perch, but they aren’t all caged up. This makes it so you can see them really well, and you feel very close to them. One of the employees came out and we were able to request which birds we wanted to see, and she un-tethered them and would bring them up to us to look at and talk to us about them. It felt so personal as opposed to other zoos I’ve been to.
They have 2 shows, and we were able to go to both of them. I would say they were as good as any animal shows I have paid large 
amounts of money to watch. They let the birds fly around us, and had some other animals come out. They would pick a couple kids out of the crowd and let them on the stage and participate with the animals in activities. They were funny and entertaining, and educational. It was amazing!
After that animal show we went down to a show where they taught us about elephants. The elephant was great. Both shows were very good. Our kids loved it. They liked them enough we went back to the first show a second time.
Then we wandered around the farm, and looked at the horses, camels, birds, llamas, foxes, iguanas, kangaroos, bald eagles, tortoises and goats. That is the extent of the animals, but it was the perfect size. Everyone was entertained for 2 ½ hours, and it was free.
Afterwards I asked the kids if they wished that we had gone on and skipped today, and everyone, teenage and young alike said absolutely not. I have a feeling this will show up on a couple of kid’s top five picks of the trip. And to think we were going to skip it…
It was such a hot day we decided we needed to find somewhere to drink a lot. But somehow drinking a lot turned into looking for a place we could eat a lot, and we ended up at Hometown Buffet.
It’s funny the things you miss, I didn’t even realize it… usually at buffets I head to the salads first and eat quite a bit of that before I eat a main course. But today, no one did, we all missed meat so bad. We have eaten a lot of sandwiches and soups and McDonalds hamburgers, and real meat looked so good. I just started laughing when I looked at my first plate and it was shrimp, fish, steak, ribs, and chicken, and that’s it.
After eating so much I was sick, I went outside to catch up on the blog while everyone else ate for another hour! While I was blogging I started wondering if there was a Cardinals game tonight, since we were still here. They were playing the Giants. When I told the kids, the older boys wanted to go to the game, but the little kid didn’t. So I talked Mr. S into parking down by the Mississippi and letting us just sit inside and watch movies while they were at the game ¼ mile away.
As usual Mr. S, with all his wisdom, kept saying he felt uncomfortable leaving us in the motor home like that along the river. I assured him we would be fine, Jawbreaker would be with me, and I would have the keys, so if I was nervous we could leave. He left very worried, but decided he would humor me.
Well he was right…parking down by the river late at night…not such a great idea. It got to the point where the little kids were peaking out the window giving play by play over every unsavory looking person that was passing the RV, they were petrified.
I was trying to tell myself you can’t judge people just because they are walking near our motor home and they look a little rough, but I was a little nervous. About 30 minutes into it, I just couldn’t stand feeling that tense. I got on the internet, and found out there was a RV park in the middle of St Louis just 2 miles away. I called Mr. S and apologized for being wrong and asked if he wouldn’t mind jogging 2 miles after the game, because I was leaving the river front. The always supportive Mr. S told me to get the heck out of there and we left.
The St. Louis RV Park, is just a parking lot in the middle of St Louis with a large fence around it, hookups, and the police station across the street. But that works for me. I have air conditioning, and feel safe. When I pulled up I told them what we had just done and they looked at us in horror, and started telling us all the stories they knew about parking down there at night. I guess all I can say after the fact is, I’m glad we left.
In retrospect, this campground is a great spot for doing downtown St Louis. We should have done it the first night, and we probably could have gotten in all we wanted to because we were so close. But it works out for tonight, and I’m so grateful it existed.
We haven’t really seen anything this convenient in any other cities we have been in. Another great point about St Louis, they have thought of everything to make your trip great.
Mr. S texted me that they somehow got a hold of free tickets. We will have to find that story out tomorrow. I think he forgot a camera,
The only photo we have of Busch Stadium, if you look way in the back. They went to a Cardinals – Giant game tonight.
so we will have no pictures. The whole plan was just a bit spontaneous. But it all seems to have worked out in the end. Another exciting day RVing.
Summary of Day 41
Drove: 65 miles
Places we visited or saw: Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Park and Grant Farm, Home Town Buffet, St Louis Cardinals Game, St Louis RV Park
Our favorite experience in St Louis (we will fill in the rest when they get back)
Jawbreaker: Harpers Home
Spitz:
Bazooka:
Warhead:
Starburst: Grants Farm
Fireball: Grants Farm
Mr. S:
Mrs. S: Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Park and Grant Farm
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