Gate Way to the West (08/17)

Sunday is another raining day so we went into St Louis again for lunch and to see the Gate Way to the West Arch.  Again we had trouble getting around the city.  This time a baseball game was getting ready to start so the streets were a mess.  It took us three tries to find the parking lot for the Arch.  There is so much road construction that it is had to follow directions due to streets being closed.
Once there we managed to get 1:40 tickets for the tram ride to the top of the arch.

This is pretty cool.  You get into these little egg looking cars, 5 people to a car, then you go up inside the arch to the top where you get out and there are windows to look out to see the city below.  It was fun to feel the cars make adjustments as he shape of the arch changes and curves before you reach the top.  It is a little claustrophobic riding in them.  The views from the top is really cool.  I could look down on the baseball game and the Mississippi River.



















The Gate Way to the West is an Arch that was built to signify the starting off point of the settlers heading to the west.  They had to cross the river and this is where they waited to get started  and made last minute purchases.  I can only imagine the feelings of our ancestors as they go ready to embark on and extraordinary journey.

After our tour we went down to the river for a paddle boat tour of the Mississippi River.
What a relaxing enjoyable trip.  It sprinkled on us the whole time but it didn't matter.  You got lost in the history that was being told to you by the Captain then then by the National Park Ranger. They told about how things have changed a long the river since those early days.  You could see barges being pushed up and down the river, these were quite a site to see. They can have up to seven barges be pushed by one tug boat.

 These are several of the bridges that take you in and out of St Louis.  In the one you can see the train going through below he freeway.  The one to the upper right is the newest bridge, it looks a lot like the arch holding it up.

Once back on dry land we head back to the car and Joe wants to go to a blues bar for a blues jam that started at 4 pm.  I think the name of the bar was the Hammerstone, and the Voodoo Blues Band was hosting the jam.  The food smelled good so we decided to have dinner here.  Joe had a Philly Cheese Steak and I had a bowl of chili.  Both were very good.  The jam was very good, they had a great sax player and keyboardist.  We ate and listened to one set then had to head back to Cahokia IL.  We leave in the morning for Bristol TN.  It will take us two days to drive there, it is over 600 miles.  So early to bed early to rise.