Days 7-8
(part 1) (part 2)
Here we are in St. Louis! Our first stop was the Gateway Arch! Neither of us had been there, so it was a neat stop. We rode in the tram up to the top - 630'! And talk about an optical illusion - the base is also 630' wide! The tram cars are round and sort of like a ferris wheel, so you swing a bit to follow the curve - that was unsettling! You could see out of the cars, too - but you were looking at the inside of the arch. Stairs & wires & various other things you'd see inside a building. The cars held 5 people, if you were very cozy. Luckily, the Spouse & I got our own.
View from the top
Blueprint with the dimensions.
This is a cross-section of the keystone at the very top - those screens are livestreaming the view so people who can't make the ride can see what's up there.
It's very efficient how they work the whole tram thing. We had already bought our tickets (for a specific time) and when we checked in, they gave us a pair of "boarding passes" with a car # on it. There are 8 cars per tram, north side & south side. Then we went into the staging area and stood on the spot on the floor corresponding with our car #. We got the story of the Arch and safety briefing from the worker. and then filed thru the picture area by car #. Up a flight of stairs and then waited at our respective car loading areas. The doors opened and people got off the tram, and we loaded and took the 4-minute ride to the top. The trams reloaded, went down, unload/reload and came back up and that's when we had to reload back onto our same car. So, you're up there less than 10 minutes and it's not terribly crowded at any time that you go.
There are other things to do inside the base of the Arch. There were several museums and a gift shop, of course. We had "Ultimate Explorer" tickets, but since we didn't get the tickets far enough in advance, we ended up missing the documentary movie. We did experience the virtual reality theater - which I wish I'd gotten pictures as we approached - it was basically a walled off area in what reminded me of a food court and several rows of stools. There were a handful of people sitting on the stools with the VR goggles on, all looking around like a flock of chickens. Quite hilarious! We also got an hour-long Riverboat Cruise on the Mississippi River. Take note - make sure you don't wander too far away from the loading area. We did and suddenly 8 million people were in line before us, so we didn't even get to sit out on the deck due to no seats left. But that's OK, it was hot, so even tho we couldn't see outside very well, we enjoyed sitting in the interior part in the a/c.
When we left St Louis, we headed toward Gas City, Indiana. The only reason I knew of this place is it's always where the Spouse stops when he drives home from his Mom's house in Arkansas. I didn't think there was anything special about it, but come to find out, it's part of the Garfield Trail!
Jim Davis, the artist who draws the Garfield cartoon is from Grant County in Indiana. So there are 14 Garfield statues throughout the county in his honor. We drove around and saw them all!
This is #1 stop in the brochure - however we didn't go in numerical order, more like "map order" so we didn't do a lot of driving back & forth.
I was happy to get to this one - we were driving around on a Saturday morning and this one is in the local library so we were hoping it was open! They also decorate the statue for the seasons.
This one is noted that you can only get to it during daylight hours, and between April-November since it's inside the pro shop at a golf course!
This one didn't have a plaque - he's standing outside the James Dean Museum in Fairmount.
A family was just coming out so I was chatting with the mom who said she thought they'd just moved the statue here. Come to find out they were also from Michigan, which was pretty funny!
This was their first stop and our 5th, tho.
Once we finished the Garfield Trail, we headed on back home.
As usual, it's nice to be able to shower and use your own bathroom, even tho we did stay at some nice places.
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