POG XIII - Casino Queen - St. Louis Area

[Jamie Bradford]

Mark Your Calendars September 28 - October 3 , 2014

Arrangements are being made for POG XIII to be held in the St. Louis Area at the Casino Queen.

We have stayed in this newer RV Park on several occasions and it will be a great place for a rally!!

The Casino Queen is directly across the Mississippi River from Downtown St. Louis.


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[Gil_J]

Awesome! Can't wait.

[garyde]

Sounds like a great choice. There's a lot too see in St. Louis.

[Seabyrd]

Is that across the river in East St Louis? If it is I read recently that it was the most dangerous city in the USA ... August of 2013... it said chances of being a crime victim in broad daylight was 1 in 7... chances of your car being stolen 1 in 17... and don't even think of venturing out after dark. I guess I should google East St. Louis and see if I can find what I read a couple of months ago... kinda scary to me.

[pwf252]

Diane,
You are correct, the casino and rv park are considered to be in East St. Louis. It is right at the bridge on the Illinois side going over to St Louis. I've stayed there multiple times, the park is gated and has 24/7 security. We have never had an issue and it's a great facility in regards to paved sites easy in/ out, the casino is on the other side of a large parking lot but they have a shuttle running regularly.
You probably don't want to turn the wrong way leaving the property as that will take you into an iffy area. However I've driven through that part many times with the toad and have only been stopped and assaulted twice. Just kidding about that. I'm sure that with all the armed Texans that will be attending they probably will be more concerned with us than us with them.

[coreygrubb]

I raced at Gateway International many times in the 90"s and 00"s and the younger crew members would invariably go into E.St.Louis to "blow of steam". They always returned intact, at least physically. It's like any other urban area, you have to use your head and listen to your instincts. George

[Jamie Bradford]

I have stayed at the Casino Queen on 3 different occasions over the last several years. It is VERY SAFE. It is right off of the interstate. It actually has one of the nicest urban RV Parks that I have seen.

You are right across the river from Downtown St. Louis - I always walk across the bridge to the Arch when I stay there and had never had any issues.

Jamie

[Gil_J]

Diane,

You are right that East St Louis is not the place I'd be exploring, especially at night. Their stats speak for themselves. If you check Trip Advisor, Yelp, RvTripReviews and other web sources you will discover that Casino Queen and their grounds are pretty safe. As with any social site, you will find negative information before positive information. I was able to find one vehicle break-in in the casino parking lot; nothing more. You might want to look at where the casino is at. I've circled the RV lot on the map. As others have said, it's directly across the bridge. It's actually in an ideal spot to curb crime. East St Louis neighborhoods are actually several blocks away and obviously St Louis is across the bridge.

12449

I have to commend Jamie and Debbie for taking rallies to new destinations. Sure, Las Vegas was a great rally, but how many have been there before. I'd say most and most have been there a lot of times.

It's easy to go to where most have been before. When you have 50+ coaches participating, a new venue is even harder. You may have made the same observation about where the last rally was in Nashville; at the fairground. Although in a higher crime area I don't think anyone felt unsafe. Nashville, like St Louis and so many other places, has very limited resources capable of supporting the needs of so many 45-footers. Still, Jamie and Debbie pulled it off. I think we had 50ish coaches

I hope your husband is doing better and that we'll see you both in St Louis,

[Bill Dator]

We attended a wedding there and felt very safe. If Jamie runs it half as good as Nashville it will be a great time for all.

[NashXL]

11/5

Larry,

Actually if you check the new national data and if you were at the Nashville POG you were already in the most dangerous state in the nation; TN and the most dangerous city in the nation; Nashville followed by Memphis. Shows you how much statistics can be negatively skewed in a large metro area by a very condensed regional area. Kind of the way the voting results shake out.

Doug
NashXL

[Seabyrd]

Thanks Gil... Larry is doing much better.... just a long slow healing process unfortunately.
Cheers, Diane

[Gil_J]

Doug you are right on. I suspect Diane knows all too well what crime stats can reveal. I have no idea where in Lufkin she and Larry live, but I'm guessing it's a part of town that doesn't share the general crime stats for Lufkin. Lufkin is reported to only be safer than 6% of the cities in the nation, http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/tx/lufkin/crime/ I lived just outside DC when they had over 1,000 murders in one year! There too, it was localized to areas we knew to avoid.

Back to the rally. With its central location it would seem like a perfect venue to join coaches from both the west and east coast. It should be a good time.