Another thing I’ve learned along the way here, is that I should have brought some kind of Dictaphone as I keep forgetting the things I want to write about, as soon as I sit down to write them.
The continued ride to St Louis was as for the last few days, cop-less, a steady 80 and straight, flat roads. The only upsetting thing was the amount of dead deer, with a couple looking like they’d just fallen over at the side of the road and others were obviously hit by a truck. For those poor bastards I would see a leg, followed by scatterings of the remains about half a mile up. Speaking of cops, I think I found out where they all were; as I went to take some pictures of Busch Stadium, I saw a whole group of them stood in the entrance to a beer garden, watching the home game (go Cardinals!) on large screens. I started to film a portion of this, but got some hard stares from them and considered it wiser to quit.
St Louis for me has topped events so far and when I left after 5:30pm, I was tired, sore and wanting to come back to see what else is on offer. I knew as soon as I parked up that it was going to be special and the first view of that immense bridge spanning the Mississippi, followed by the sheer standing height of the arch just had me planning more trips here.
I found out that you have to go through a security line to get into the underneath of the arch, wherein you proceed to purchase tickets and usually have a couple hours of wait time between purchase and being able to ride up. I took this time to nip out to the old cathedral, which turns out to be not that old, or a cathedral at all but some of the artifacts were worth it. I’m no religious nut but it takes a smart person to realise what went in to some of these things and the beauty they portray. I think some god must have been listening, because after I made a voluntary donation, your deity of choice decided to crack the sky open and urinate on the world below at a stunning rate. Luckily for me I was wearing my wife-beater, which has a habit of drying out real quick. The only things that got soaking wet on the jog back to the arch, were my jeans and hair.
I took a quick stroll around the exhibitions and must say they are amazingly well done, with some crazy animatronics for the narrators of various stories. It was also again, nice to see the real history coming out and not trying to hide the darker sides of American past. After that, I grabbed my ride to the top of the 600+ ft structure, in what could be considered the worlds smallest elevator cab for one, that actually seated five. Didn’t stay too long among the crowds at the top, but long enough to get snaps out both window sides and catch the next ride down again. It’s very much like the Space Needle, in that you gain more from the outside, than the inside.
After finishing at the arch, it was nice to see the rain had stopped but that just meant I would get sticky instead of dry. The climate is more what I would perceive the rain forests to be, but here obviously there are no rain forests, just flat with a splattering of trees and bushes.
Next I headed over to the Old Courthouse and just sneaked into the Jefferson museum, before they called closing time. I never made it to the art on the higher floors, but there will be a next time.
Finished up the visit by briefly walking a few blocks around, to get some pics of the Busch Stadium as mentioned at the top and then waved ta-ta for now, to this pretty cool place.
Last stop on the agenda before motel beckons, is Cahokia Mounds; onward we go then.
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Mike Bennett 