Golden but not THAT one

The one thing I wanted to do while we are here in the St. Louis area was go to the top of the Gateway Arch. Yeah well good plan BUT nowhere, in any of the research I did about tours of the arch etc., did it mention that the tram that takes you there is a capsule teeny, tiny, closed capsule that you share with four other people! When I saw it I knew right away this wasn't for me - no way, no how. From what I saw there are NO windows, however I did just now look up wikipedia information about the arch and below is a picture and description of the capsule from that source of information - which I should have gone to first! And by the way, did YOU know that the Arch is a National Memorial? I didn't.

"Passing through the doors, passengers in groups of five enter an egg-shaped compartment containing five seats and a flat floor. Because of the car shape, the compartments have sloped ceilings low enough to force taller riders to lean forward while seated (for this reason it's recommended that the tallest of the five passengers in the car sit in the center seat facing the door). Eight compartments are linked to form a train, meaning that both trains have a capacity of 40, and that 80 people can be transported at one time. These compartments individually retain an appropriate level by periodically rotating every 5 degrees, which allows them to maintain the correct orientation while the entire train follows curved tracks up one leg of the arch. The trip to the top of the Arch takes four minutes, and the trip down takes three minutes. The car doors have narrow windows, allowing passengers to see the interior stairways and structure of the Arch during the trip."

Aside from the disappointment of not going to the top of the Arch we had a great time in "downtown" St. Louis, although I don't think we were truly in downtown, I think we were in the main tourist area of the city instead.

It was a beautiful fall day and the Arch is in a lovely park along the river (Mississippi River). There are, obviously, many many bridges in and out of the city crossing the river and below is one of the prettier ones. This is the Eads Bridge, completed in 1874 and the first bridge built using cantilever supports.

Chad, I am sure you could have taken some great photos of this bridge that I found so interesting - with your skill and great use of various lenses and light.

In the photo above, centered in the lower portion you can see a hand holding a hat. This is some sort of statue along the riverfront. The river had risen over the banks and into the streets, but I imagine it is a lovely area when not submerged!

As you can see from these photos, a lot of St. Louis architecture use arches - don't know why that is but I really liked it. Again, Chad you could do some terrific photos here. Seems everywhere one looks there is an arch (no I don't mean the Gateway Arch!)

Below is a very old Electric company building and even at the head of their parking spaces are grass arches ~ I just loved it.

Today we will be finishing up outside cleaning of the coach - we washed it and the trailer yesterday (an all day task!! and not a fun one at that) the vent covers need to be cleaned today. After that we may go back into St. Louis for the Budweiser tour. We had thought about doing part of route 66 that runs (rather ran) through and around St. Louis, but the maps and literature I have (that were my Dad's - he was a route 66 fan and traveled part of it several years ago) indicate that several parts of it are no longer there so I don't know if we'll attempt it.

Our plan is to leave here tomorrow and head to Cape Girardeau (MO) then Memphis. We have to be in Choudrant, LA on the 16th so this gives us almost two weeks to get there.