Meet Me in St. Louis, Louie

Daily Mileage=0; Trip Mileage= 11,123

(Yesterday we passed another thousand mark on the trip; today we hoofed it.)

Today we tried to see the Cardinals vs the Phillies game but when the tickets were $70.00 each we decided we didn't want to see the game that badly. The stadium however is great! It has wonderful statues of famous Cardinals outside the stadium. One of them was Stan Musial. They did the stadium over in 2006 and then they proceeded to win the World Series. "Build it and they will win!" Anyway, we got some really nice shots of the stadium even though we didn't go in. Maybe next time.....

So our next stop was the Arch. How could we be in St. Louis and not see the arch? It's actually more than just an arch. It is technically called, the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial and is under the auspices of the National Park System. It has several movies, a nice museum and of course the Arch trip. You can also take a ride on the Mississippi on a river boat. We decided to do it all. It was very warm and humid here and spending time inside seemed to be OK with us.

It took a little more than 2 years to build the arch and it really is phenomenal. Again, it's one of the sights we wanted to see but really didn't think it would be that great. It was! Not only from an aesthetic view but also from an engineering perspective. The arch was built from 1962 until 1965. No one died during the process which was quite amazing given that these workers were doing things not done before, very high up without any safety lines.

The documentary movie told of how they actually built the arch, which after watching, I was sorry I had a ticket to go to the top! The arch is huge, 630 feet high, but it is an arch and slants up and down. I was having trouble understanding how we were safely going to travel up this structure in a "tram" and stop at the top to look at the view. Here's one of Rich's views of the arch from the bottom.

So we went up to the top and the ride was an interesting one. You are put into a small round enclosure, similar to the ones used on old Ferris wheel rides. It's made for five people but not really. It is small, we both bumped our heads on it. When five people were seated our knees were hitting each other. It was hot and there was only one window looking on the inside of the passageway. If you're claustrophobic, this is not for you (in fact, it probably wasn't for me and I'm not that bad!!) There are eight of these "pods" or as someone put it, "space capsules" that travel at one time.

When you get to the top you exit your pod walk across the top of the arch (inside) but you definitely know you're walking across an arch and can spend as much time as you want in a relative small area. There are 32 small, narrow windows (16 on each side) and you have a tremendous view, if you like that sort of thing. I was ready to go down in about 3 minutes!! The ride up (and down) is only 4 minutes but seemed a lot longer, especially going up.

The museum has many exhibits on the western expansion which was undertaken at the orders of Thomas Jefferson, hence the name of the National Park site.
The arch is representative of the "gateway to the west" and to that extent we kind of did this in reverse. We should have started here on our journey West, as did Lewis & Clark. Their expedition is a major part of the museum since they left from this area. We have actually seen several of the sights in person that are talked about here and elsewhere. Now we understand why we kept seeing "Lewis & Clark" trail signs everywhere we went out west. However, the museum and the overall experience was really worthwhile.

We then took the riverboat cruise so that we could say we rode on the Mississippi River in a riverboat (even if it was only an hour). It was starting to rain but we had a nice ride up and down the river. We are still amazed that the Missouri, the Ohio at some point, and the Mississippi all converge into Mississippi (about 20 miles north of here). We saw the Missouri River so far away from here (in Montana) that it's hard to believe it! Today on the cruise they indicated that barges still carry million dollar loads of product up and down. The river may look brown and not so great but it is the lifeline for cities on it!

We then walked around the rest of the downtown area which is has many old beautiful office buildings. Much of the downtown area is being re-done into lofts and condominiums. Some are done already but many are closed up and being worked on. You can see the potential but they are definitely in the middle of a revitalization. It will be fantastic once it is accomplished.

Today is our 23rd anniversary on the 23rd of June! We had "pulled pork" some Tanqueray and tonics and did the wash! It was a great anniversary and we're starting to face the fact with saddness and anticipation that we'll be home next Thursday. We don't want our wonderful adventure to end but we are looking forward to seeing our own homestead and family & friends!

Good night. Love&Joy, Mare&Rich