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Hey, That's Pretty Cool!
Oct 23 -
I can't say I was really looking forward to St. Louis. I can't even say why, really. It just seemed like another city
that we should see, not that I necessarily wanted to see.
Vegas, Dallas, Memphis, San Francisco... There's stuff there. Those are milestones for us. Chicago was cool, and we love
New York and D.C. But St. Louis? "Enh," thought I. Take it or leave it. After all, who cares about a dumb ol' arch?
Well, we do now! It's so cool!
We saw it when we were still a half hour away from the city, when the skyline poked its head over the trees. It was like
any other skyline, except... EXCEPT THERE WAS AN ARCH IN IT!!! LOOKEE!!!
Isn't that AWESOME? We were still in Illinois when we saw it and it was all we could do not to speed all the way there!
We drove in nice and easy and under the speed limit, and parked near the Visitors Center in the handful of blocks that
make up the downtown area. There's a nice fountain and stuff, but what you really want to see is THE ARCH!!!
We popped into the Visitors Center for a second to see if there was anything else as cool in St. Louis. That second
turned into a half hour, thanks to this gentleman,
operator of the Visitors Center. He seemed to think that we were in
town just to see the Visitors Center and none of the actual sites. He told us about the City Museum, and about the Cathedral
with the most gold foil mosaics in the western hemisphere, and the red building that was the father of the modern sky
scraper, and Blueberry Hill, and the Cardinals, and Forest Park which is 30% bigger than Central Park, and the gated
communities, and the REAL Jefferson Memorial, and the botanical gardens, and the zoo, and that St. Louis was in National
Geographic, and three of the oldest water towers in the United States. Dude, water towers aren't cool. You know what is
cool though?
The Arch!
So we booked out of there and headed for the Arch. Man, it rocked. See that picture up and to the right there? The one that
looks like a big tower but it's got grass at both ends? That's the Arch from directly underneath. We took about 10 photos
of the full cycle and spliced them together! (I did a poor job, you can see the splice marks, but it's still pretty neat!)
Then we went up it! Wowsers! They toss you into a little teeny room that looks like Dark Helmet's escape pod from
Spaceballs. There's a string of about 8 of them. They shut the doors, then haul from one end of the string right off
the track so everybody dangles for a few hundred feet. Then at the top, they drag you back onto a track so you can step out
of your pod. Neat, eh?
That's me in my pod! The picture on the right is a view from the top looking straight down. It's so weird because it looks
like there's nothing supporting you (those are the supports on the bottom left and right of that picture).
It's 630 feet at the top of the arch. You can see the whole city from there out one side, and the Mississippi River out the
other side. The only unfortunate thing... when you're standing at the top, you can't see the coolest thing in the city.
Which is... The Arch! Wheeee!!! We love it!
The arch really is cool. Here it is again to prove it!
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Today's Weather:
An Indoor Day
Sleeping Quarters |
Meramec State Park
Site 112. A crashing thunderstorm for about 2 hours. We came within a few inches of having a floating tent. Aim left her sandals by the jeep when they stuck in the mud.
Cost: $7.00
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Lunch:
| St. Louis Bread Company St. Louis |
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K's Order: | Turkey and Bacon Sandwich with Gouda French Onion Soup |
A's Order: | Turkey Artichoke Focaccia Cream of Chicken Soup |
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Cost: | $12.00 |
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Snack:
| Ted Drewes Route 66 |
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K's Order: | Pumpkin Pie Custard |
A's Order: | Marshmallow Custard |
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Cost: | $5.00 |
Drewes Carry-out:
Did you know that South of St. Louis they call ice cream "frozen custard"?
We found out at the World Famous Ted Drewes Frozen Custard stand on Route 66, unsure of what to expect. Dude, it's just a
Blizzard. But they were here first! (Ted Drewes is one of the oldest tourist snack stops on Route 66. Everybody loves
frozen custard!)
Note: They're out of United We Stand bumper stickers, but if you want a Ted Drewes sticker, they're loaded with those.
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