Meet Me in St. Louis

Day 37 St. Louis Missouri

June 3, 2009

The Gateway Arch

What a difference a day makes! Yesterday, when we arrived a the campground it was hot, humid and sunny. This morning was cold, damp and rainy. It never got out of the 60’s today.

We’ve been through St. Louis many times but never stopped at the Arch. Today, after the rush hour passed we took I44 and I51 into the city. Tom Tom did us wrong, but we found our way back over the river (the BIG river) to the Arch.
On the way from the parking lot across the park from the Arch we noticed all the downed branches from yesterday’s storms. I couldn’t help but wonder how scary it must have been to those in that park during the height of the storms.
The way up to the top of the Arch is interesting. We rode in small cars that were similar to those on an enclosed Ferris wheel. Obviously, a ‘regular’ elevator wouldn’t work on the curved structure.

Inside the little cars

At the top

Visibility wasn’t the best on such an overcast and rainy day, but we could still see quite a distance through the tiny windows at the top. The Arch is 630 feet tall at its highest point. After all the mountains we’ve been on, it didn’t seem too high.
Later, we viewed the documentary explaining how the structure was built. We were amazed at the lack of safety equipment in use at the time, the early to mid 1960’s. Obviously, no OSHA back then.

Tame little bugger in the Arch parking lot

It was past lunch time when we left the Arch. A restaurant in the local Italian district was recommended to us. We had an wonderful lunch at Rigazzi's in the Hill area. Actually, it was lunch and dinner, we weren’t hungry for the rest of the day….and we only ate half our meals, portions were large…and good!
Plans to visit the botanical gardens were thwarted by the rain and cold, so the Arch and lunch was ‘it’ for St. Louis. We were trying to get back to Eureka before rush hour .

He only smiles like this for veal

Tomorrow we are leaving here and heading northeast. We are freezing, tonight’s low is forecast to be in the upper 40’s. Yikes! Yesterday I never would have guessed that tonight we’d have the heat on!