September 16 Jefferson National Expansion Memorial

This was a much better day. The guy was here about 8:15 to replace the truck window. He was done in 30 minutes and we left not long after 9. Neither of us slept real well and Bill was on the couch when I got up. He couldn’t sleep and got up to read and then fell asleep for a while. We had a quick breakfast today so we could get in as much sightseeing as possible since we leave tomorrow.




From the top of the Arch



Busch Stadium from
Gateway Arch

We had no problem getting right over the river to the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, better know as the Gateway Arch. We parked in a much better place today and there were many other tourists around. The Arch is set in the middle of a large park with benches and walkways from both ends. Also on the property is the old cathedral, but we didn’t have time to visit there. When we left his morning I realized that Bill’s National Park Golden Age Passport was also stolen, we we’d need to replace it for the discounts for this trip and unless we lose it, for all future trips. There’s a huge underground to the Arch with theatres, displays, shops and the loading and unloading of the trams that take you to the top of the arch. They also had airport type security but these guys actually looked like they knew what they were doing and cared! We passed through and stopped at the gift shop to get Bill’s new card. We were pleasantly surprised it was only$10 as we paid $50 for the old one. So then we used it to get our discount tickets for the tram up the arch and the Lewis and Clark Expedition movie. We had not charged the video camera with all that went on yesterday so we had a small wait so we plugged in the camera and took turns guarding it.



Bill and his favorite wild animal

 The movie was first and it was awesome, as all National Geographic movies are. Excellent use of scenery, quotes and historical record. We then went right across the under ground to get in line for our appointed time to take the tram. It wasn’t exactly on time but nothing like waiting in a Disney line. The small tram cars, and I do mean small, hold 5 regular sized people. I mean anyone over 6 ft would be stooped all the way up and down and the seats are very close and small so anyone too overweight would impinge on their neighbor for sure. The door to get in is only 4 ft tall. The ride up is 5 minutes and down a fast 3. Once at the top there are I think 8 viewing windows on each side, east and west. The width of the arch at the top inside is no more than 6 feet wide so with trams coming up from both sides it gets tight in there. Luckily for us it was a very clear day and the city side was beautiful. We could see right into Busch Stadium and Bill commented that was as close as he’d get, and I felt so bad. He’s not much on heights so didn’t want to spend any major time up there. You could see the city buildings and the Old Capital Building is directly west of the arch and perfectly centered. Both rides we were with the same 3 Russians who didn’t use deodorant. Once at the bottom we visited the displays on the expedition and other info on the westward expansion. We could have spent more time but it was after 1 and I needed to make a few more calls regarding the theft. We had no reception underground so sat up by the north leg and made the calls.

Next stop was the U. S. Grant National Monument. It was a ways west of the downtown. It was his wife’s family’s home, White Haven. Funny thing is, it’s painted 2 tone green. Dark green trim and a rather limey color, called Paris green in the 1860’s. We watched another movie there telling Grant’s story of failure as a merchant and a farmer and glory as a soldier but not much about any accomplishments as President. He died at 63 of throat cancer, living just long enough to write his memoirs as a means of support for his family after his death. He had five children. I now know a lot more about Grant than I did, so it was a learning experience. We went on a ranger led tour of the house and it’s history and changes. It was once part of an 800 acre farm, and now sits on 10 acres with the house mostly original as are the out buildings. We did enjoy seeing it and hearing about the family.

By now we were both hungry and it was 3 so on the way to the Interstate we spotted a White Castle and stopped for a few. They’re like Krystal burgers. We each had 3 and Bill had fries and we shared a large coke. Enough to last til dinner.

We had planned to visit Daniel Boone’s home but needed to get back to the pets and do some “work” on the RV. Bill de-bugged the front, drained all the tanks and I put a patch on a place on the roof and de-bugged the top from there. Then Bill took the truck to fuel up and I did a load of wash. We forgot to get lettuce last night so had a mozzarella salad with celery and roma tomatoes with some of my dried basil to season. I made some mezzaluna pesto pasta with a spinach marinara sauce and we were happy. No Hubig again tonight as Bill had bought some oatmeal cookies at the Arch and we each had one and a couple of Scotch Treat I had forgotten were in the fridge.

Bill watched some TV and I tried again to use the internet with my aircard and was not getting much of a signal so gave up. I downloaded all my photos and labeled them and printed some to send as postcards, did my journal and it’s time to end another day.