Up early this morning again so that we could get on the road by 7:15am. Everyone was up and on time. I got the car all packed once more for the beginning of the end of our trip. Nana and Bapa were ready a few minutes before we left, so we caught up with them at the 155/55 South split in Lincoln where we met up with Mandy and Nathan. They rode with Nana and Bapa the rest of the way south to Maryville, IL which is just north of Collinsville, IL where Nana’s side of the family hails from. We went to my cousin Norma’s subdivision’s lodge for a family reunion. We weren’t able to get everyone since it is the middle of summer and people have things to do, but we got a lot. I think the count was somewhere around 43 folks. The girls had many cousins to play with, and they got settled in pretty quickly once the initial shyness wore off. It had been at least 4 years since I had last seen most of the family from this end of the state(a couple of folks were able to make it to Mandy & Nathan’s wedding two years ago.) It always feels too long. It’s always fun to meet up. Everyone brought some sort of yummy thing to eat as well, so we were all super full by the end of the day from grazing. People popped in and out throughout the day. We really appreciated that people were so willing to pull this together on our account.
We had our laptop setup on a continuous slide show if anyone wanted to see our picture spread which is now edging towards 45 minutes in length at 3s interval. Bapa brought his pictures from his trip to build houses in Guatemala. Nana brought her pictures from the last reunion we had at this lodge 17 years ago. Everyone laughed about how young they once looked. The gathering came to a close around 4:30 pm. We said our final goodbye’s to Nana, Bapa, Nathan, and Mandy (who had been following us around the state like we were the Grateful Dead, and we love them for it), and set off towards St. Louis, MO. But first, we went to visit the huge Brooks Catsup Bottle that is at the factory where my maternal grandma worked, right on route 66. You can see a picture of it at www.catsupbottle.com. We stopped to take some pictures before finally moving along to Missouri, our first new state in over a week!
We found our hotel easily. Traffic was light due to a St. Louis Cardinals game still in progress downtown at what I assume is still called Busch Stadium, but I didn’t look to be sure. We went to our room with a few things (6th floor. the girls finally got their wish to be on the top floor of a hotel), and then walked a half block to a Jimmy John’s for a light dinner. We unpacked the car and after a brief scare where I had to walk back over to Jimmy John’s to retrieve Jada’s purse, we settled in for the night. Ellen took a shower while Phoebe tried to write her journal. Phoebe showered as well. Then it was time for bed.
July 18: St. Louis, MO
Tough night of sleep last night. There was a wedding party staying at the hotel last night, and they all came back drunk and noisy. Our room is right across the hall from the elevator, so it was quite loud especially when our AC would kick off leaving no white noise to block it out. Around 2am, we heard our neighbor’s TV through the wall. I ended up turning down the AC again to force it to kick on again to drown it out. The AC itself was loud too. It would turn on and sound like a jet taking off. I gave up and went to the fitness center at 5am. This one is so much better than the last hotel we were in with cardio, dumbbells, and exercise balls. Spent 30 minutes on the elliptical and did some core work before heading back to the room to find that the girls had kept Jada up for another hour since I left fighting over who was on whose side of the bed, and who had all the blankets. After my shower, I took them down to the breakfast so Jada could get a little bit of sleep. We stayed there until 7am before heading back to the room.
The TV reports had talked about a storm coming in, but it hadn’t started by the time we drove down to the river front to go to see the Arch. We had a spot of bother (sorry, listening to Phil Liggett calling the Tour de France stage today while I type this) finding the parking garage. The signage from the highway is pretty good to find the Arch, signage to parking is not so good. As soon as we came out of the parking garage, and I tried to take a picture of the girls with the Arch, I found the camera lens completely fogged up. That’s how humid it was this morning. Quick side note. I keep just calling it the Arch, but it’s actually the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Gateway Arch designed by Eero Saarinen. I had already purchased our tickets to the top for 8:40am at the North Tram. We were in line at 8:26am. Not too many people there yet on a Sunday morning. We were assigned tram car 2. They’re like little eggs with 5 seats in them. The door to enter is only 4.5 feet tall, and about 2 feet wide, so it was a bit of a squeeze for me. Even Jada had to duck to get in. Luckily, the doors have windows in them to see the infrastructure of the arch as you rise, or it would have been really claustrophobic. We all survived the trip to the top as the 4 minute ride would move up, tilt, and correct over and over as it came up towards the top of the arch. It was a steep stair up to the top and a sharp curve at the 630 foot top of the arch observation area. The windows on the river side were quite foggy due to the storm rolling in, but even in the wind, the arch wasn’t swaying much yet. I asked the ranger at the top about it, and he held his radio mike from it’s cord to check the sway like a plumb line. I was surprised that I wasn’t dizzy and weak in the legs like I remembered being when I was up there as a kid. The girls did pretty well, but it was a pretty small space for all of us, so when Phoebe said she was done, none of us really argued. Visibility wasn’t really fantastic because of the clouds coming in too. There’s no limit to the time you can spend up there either so when we were ready to go, we just walked back to the north leg and said we were ready to go. They told us which little door to stand in front of (there are 8 cars in all that travel together each way), and after the people that had come up got off and squeezed by, we could squeeze into the car. The ride down is only 3 minutes, but not stomach turningly bad.
We visited the Museum of Westward Expansion underneath the arch, and we heard an announcement as we started in there that the walks around the grounds of the memorial were going to be postponed due to the rains that had come in. We kept seeing people come in that were soaked. The layout was pretty neat. There was a statue of Jefferson at the middle, and as you looked out at the ceiling, there were concentric circles reaching out with the dates when the things underneath them happened. There we learned about the peace medals that the were given to the native peoples as the explorers moved into what would become the United States. We learned about the beginnings of the Lewis and Clark expedition, and we saw pictures of home blown up from floor to ceiling of Ecola State Park, the Columbia River Gorge, Fort Clatsop, the mouth of the Columbia River, and Haystack Rock. We learned about the pioneers, mountain men, cowboys, Native Americans, and farmers, and how they survived. We went out to the central plaza for a quick snack, and they rolled out the arch pieces to construct an arch on the floor. Myself and another dad helped the kids with the upper portion of the arch since it was 8 feet tall by the end.
We stopped at the gift shop before leaving where the girls each picked up a souvenir for themselves. Ellen chose an antique-like paper documenting the Lewis and Clark expedition and return trip. Phoebe bought an arch and capital building statuette. Jada got post cards and another magnet. The gift shop had every conceivable knick knack with the arch on it except the one thing I was looking for...a bumper sticker! What’s up with that? On the way out, one of the rangers at the entrance noticed our newly minted rangers and applauded them for becoming Jr. Rangers. They got high fives from another. Unfortunately, by the time we left, it was still raining. There was a really loud thunder crack with the lightning. I would have loved to have gotten a picture of the water cascading down the outside of the stainless steel arch, but I didn’t want to ruin any of the cameras in the rain. We got back to our car and headed back to the hotel along the water front. The Mississippi River level was all the way up almost even with the road, but it wasn’t spilling over yet. To get back out to the highway, we had to drive right by the new Busch Stadium which was hosting another Cardinal vs. Dodgers game that day. Luckily, it hadn’t started yet, so we were able to slide through.
We decided to just go to lunch at the Highlander Bar and Grill which is attached to the hotel. We were the only ones in there just after 11am. Service was really slow still, and the waitress really pressed Jada on her choice for just a cup of chili. She was so concerned that she wouldn’t have enough food. In the end, it was plenty as usual. The food was ok, but with how slow everything was, we didn’t go back there for dinner. It took us an hour to get in and out of that place with only 4 other families in there by the time we left. We drove down the street to the St. Louis Science Center since it was still raining, but the parking lot was packed. We were in a line of cars stuck trying to just get into the parking lot. That’s sort of what we expected being a Sunday afternoon and all. We took a quick vote and decided that we could miss it. Instead we went looking for the Trader Joe’s to pick up some provisions and one of Jada’s favorite snacks, roasted plantain chips, that aren’t stocked anywhere else. By the time we were done with that, the rain had slowed to a sprinkle, and the sun was starting to work it’s way out. Jada and I lay down for a rest on the bed while the girls found something to busy themselves with. I got an hour of rest before the pestering to go to the pool started, so I took them downstairs before it got to be enough to wake Jada up. They made friends with the only person in the pool, and started playing with her the rest of the hour we were there. They got showered and we hung out in the room for a little while watching the Tour de France, before heading to dinner. We walked over to Jimmy John’s again. Jada and I split the Beach Club sandwich was really good (turkey, avocado spread, sprouts, tomato, cheese). When we got back to the room, the end of the stage was still coming, and it was just to the attacks so that was lucky. Andy Schleck with team Saxo Bank is still in yellow. Levi Leipheimer of Radio Shack dropped from 6 to 7th place. Before bed time, my friend Leah who lives nearby came by to visit with us in the hotel lobby for a while. It’s always fun to see her, and we’re so glad she was able to make it.
Bed time was difficult tonight unfortunately. It took the girls a long time to fall asleep. Luckily, Jada went down to the gym to get away for a while since I got to miss the fireworks in the morning. We got things tidy’d up somewhat before bed and pulled out clothes for the next day. I turned the fan on the AC to hopefully keep a constant white noise tonight. Tomorrow we push off for Mansfield, MO to see the final home of Laura and Almanzo Wilder.