Day 27 – Arch proves more popular than Mark Twain

Do you get the sense that they're a little obsessed with Tom Sawyer, here in Hannibal?

Hannibal, MO to St. Louis, MO

We’ve reserved this morning for seeing the sights of Hannibal.  We considered skipping it and lighting out for St. Louis immediately, but couldn't stand to admit this whole side trip to Hannibal was a waste, so we went ahead into town and got tickets for the Mark Twain complex.  It was actually a pretty nice set of buildings (Mark Twain’s boyhood home, Becky Thatcher’s home (under construction), Huck Finn’s house, and a few other miscellaneous dwellings), plus a pretty elaborate museum.  But again – almost no people.  We’re left wondering whether the whole town is a front for some sort of drug running operation or something, because it’s mystifying how anything can stay in business.  In any case, we considered the morning fairly well spent, and headed on to St. Louis in the afternoon.

The Mark Twain Museum.  Apparently no one but us likes Mark Twain anymore.

 (We passed the car time happily with a new game Zoe read about.  One person is “it”, and the others come up with a silly phrase.  “It” has to answer every question with the silly phrase, without laughing.  Most of the family was taken down quickly by “Haggle snaggle huggle snuggle I love Justin Bieber” and the others quickly succumbed to “It was Grandma on a motorcycle with Grammy in the side car” (which spawned many interesting questions).)

We’re treating ourselves in St. Louis, staying at the Drury Inn & Suites.  We have a suite in this nice downtown hotel, which has actually turned out to be a very good deal because it includes free parking, breakfast, and “the 5:30 kick-back”, which is essentially a free dinner plus up to three free drinks each for Bob and me. 

Our elevator pod.  It was a 50/50 chance that Bob would
make a break for it rather than taking this photo.

We got in early enough that we decided to head to the Arch, about a 10 minute walk away.  It was around 2pm by this time, and we’d figured out that we’d actually not gotten around to eating lunch (somehow, no one was clamoring for peanut butter sandwiches in the car again), so we stopped at a convenience store and picked up some (suspicious but delicious) chicken fingers and a box of triscuits, found a picnic spot in the park by the Arch, and called it a meal.  At least enough to tide us over until our 5:30 kick-back.

View from the top

We all got tickets to go up in the Arch, even Bob (though I think this was only because he didn’t want to embarrass himself on this blog.  In the old days there’s no way  I would have gotten him anywhere near this place.)  The visitor center is underground, so that the Arch sits alone on a grassy lawn.  From the center, you sit in a small pod-like contraption (conveniently for us, with 5 seats) that travels up to the top.  It has to change directions as it moves up the Arch, so it kind of feels like a Ferris wheel car.  Interestingly, the doors were clear glass, so you could see the inside of the Arch and all the elevator machinery as you were going up, which was pretty fascinating.

Under the Arch!

The top of the Arch feels like nothing so much as an airplane, with the same kind of carpet smell and stale, pressurized air.  There are small windows on either side with expansive views.  Though it was a hot, sunny day, we noticed that it was hazy out on the western horizon – and sure enough, by the time we got back down, a thunderstorm was rolling in.  After the worst of it was over, we decided to brave the storm.  It had becoming beautifully cool out, and it seemed like a fun adventure running through the rainy city and watching the lightning in the distance as the storm moved away.

 

Best of all from the kids’ perspective: we got back in time to use the pool before dinner.  And get some free popcorn, which is another service this wondrous hotel offers.  And after dinner, we did something else we haven’t done in four weeks – watched TV.  (Also, the dinner included both macaroni and cheese and chicken fingers.)  Could this get any better?  Yes, as it turns out, it could – stay tuned for tomorrow.

***

From Bob:

Some people on the Internet seem to be surprised that I went up in the Gateway Arch in the Jefferson Expansion National Monument today when really they shouldn’t.  Perhaps they just feel like they need to spice up their part of the blog with a little “humor” at someone else’s expense.  

It may be true that I don’t like heights very much, but the Arch, at about 630 feet, is not as imposing as it looks on the television.  In fact it would fit nicely inside the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, whose high banks (1,000 feet above the river) we traveled along for some way without the benefit of railings.   That 1,000-foot-high path nearly did me in, true, but it also hardened me to mere 630-foot enclosed structures (on this day – read in this no assurances that I would go in any other 630-foot structures, enclosed or not enclosed at any time in the future.  Past performance is no guarantee of future activity.)  Other traumas that have hardened me to such experiences are the Unbelievably High Trail Road at the Rocky Mountain National Park and our visit to the Great Salt Lake.  Wait, that second one only hardened my sense of smell, not my sense of mortality.  Scratch that one.

Also, many of those tall structures, space needles and such, insist on putting the elevators on the outside with windows showing you how high you’re getting. The Arch pods have windows, but they wisely show you only the stairway you’d have to climb if you wanted to walk to the top.  Far from being a scary prospect, this makes you appreciate relative comfort and ease of the contraption, however wobbly it might be.  Moreover, those other tall structures are tall spindly sticks that poke right out of the ground.  The Arch, as anyone can tell you, stands on TWO feet.  This makes it twice as sturdy.

Lastly, since the Arch is part of a National Monument, it is owned by the people, including me.  I would be a lousy owner, indeed, if I didn’t go up and check on it from time to time.

There is actually nice museum under the Arch and pretty nice views from the top.  Looking west, I expected to see the Rockies, but instead there was just a just a grey gloom on the horizon that turned into the heaviest rain we’ve seen on our trip by the time we were ready to go back outside.  Also, from the arch you can see the Cardinals’ baseball stadium, the Mississippi River, a lot of buildings and some trains.  It is rather like being in an airplane, except the floor is curvy.

Although we were in the Arch too early to witness it, there was a baseball game at Busch Stadium this evening, and one whole section of the bleachers seemed to be on hand for our in-hotel dinner.  Once all the people in red shirts cleared out, there were plenty of hotdogs, chicken nuggets and baked potatoes for all of us.  Plus, our second helping of popcorn worked well with our movie night.  HBO was showing “Puss In Boots.”  As it was our first major TV experience in four weeks (The tv at the brewery in Estes Park didn’t count because it was really on in the background.  Also it was a little out of focus.), this movie was entirely sufficient.

On the top of the Arch