Travels thru cities or around them?

cjmgranny wrote:
Hi all,
This information is terrific!
I was thinking we should avoid St Louis MO but had no idea that camping in E. St Louis IL would not be a good idea.

You really do NOT want to go into E St Louis. It's population is about 25,000. 30 years ago they were having over 400 murders a year. That's just in E St Louis and does not include the murders in St Louis. To put that in perspective if the same murder rate was to occur in New York City, pop of about 9 mil, NYC would have about 144,000 murders a year. To further explain everyone talks of the number of murders in Mexico. They have about 25,000-30,000 a year in the entire country. If you lived in E St Louis and figured in murders, shootings, stabbings, and serious batteries then the odds of you being a victim of one of them was once every 3 years. It's gotten a bit better now but it's still a very high violent crime area.
If you intend to visit the sites in St Louis and wish to stay on the east side of the river closest to St Louis then the only place in E St Louis would be the Casino Queen which is right across the river from the Arch. Drive directly to the Casino Queen and directly from. Do not venture any other places in E St Louis.
You don't say how you're coming in from the east and where you intend to go after getting thru St Louis. That will make a difference how to get around the St Louis metro area with fewest problems. If you're coming into the area on I-55 or I-70 and you intend to go on west on I-70 then take I-270 around the north side. If you intend to go west on I-44 then take I-55/I-70 to I-255 South at Exit 11. Take I-255 around the south side to I-270 north a couple of miles to I-44 west. If you intend to that I-55 south then about 3 miles after you cross the river on I-255 you can take I-55 south.