18. St. Louis

Aug 16, 2009 Uncategorized

After leaving Laura and Lawrence I headed for St. Louis, Missouri. I didn’t know much about the area, but after arriving I noticed there were a fair amount of rough areas and neighborhoods. My first stop was the St. Louis Arch. Much to my surprise, the arch doesn’t cross the Missouri River. I guess this was common knowledge, but I figured the arch spanned an impressive gap like a river.

Anyways, after spending a long time in line I made it to the elevators that took me to the top of the arch. I probably saved myself 1-2 hours of waiting in line since I was alone. They let me cut up to the group way ahead of everyone else. I guess that’s one bonus of traveling alone.

This was taken while waiting in line. They had this old fashion scale on display. The kids could sit on it and rock back and forth depending on which kid was heavier, or in most cases, which kid jumped on. It was really loud because everytime a kid hopped on the stop at the top slammed into a piece of steel. It was rather annoying

This was the tiny door we had to go through to get into the elevator to the top of the arch. It was like 2.5′ wide and maybe 5′ tall

This is the tiny elevator we piled into. Not much room but it worked.

I tried to take a pic of the elevator shaft, but they didn’t come out too well :/

This was the tiny observation deck. It was a tight area.

The next 3 shots are of east St. Louis

Here is downtown St. Louis

I wanted to test out the zoom of the camera. I thought it turned out all right. I can read the words on the sign. Scroll up a few pics to see the same shot of the stadium without the zoom.

This is from inside the monument. It honors the designers and builders

Here is the world famous St. Louis bear

This is the Arch from different angles

Some bridge over to the east side

St. Louis likes the brick roads. On my bike I don’t care for them. My old boss said the best way to capture the poor condition of a road was to get down low. Here was my attempt

After spending the time at the monument I needed to secure a home for the night. I remembered that my buddy said his cousin lived in St. Louis, so after some number exchanging I got a hold of this guy named Kevin. He said I could crash at his place. We had a couple beers, watched the Cardinals game, and then I slept on his couch. Here’s a picture of me and Kevin before I left in the morning. Notice his shirt matches his glasses. He has a small clothing company and that’s actually the logo for his brand.

Now I’m off to Memphis to explore the famous Beale Street and all of its offerings