Mom & Dad on the grounds of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, where the Gateway Arch is located.
Monday, July 21, 2003 10:55 PM
What a long day! I don’t know why I do these vacations this way. It’s nearly 11 PM and I still need to write this journal entry. There are just too many thins to and no time to do them.
Anyway, we were up at 5:30 AM and had breakfast at La Fiesta, the little restaurant next to the hotel.
Arielle and Jessi. Waiting for me to get back with the wheelchair
We were on the road by 7 AM. We have a long drive ahead of us. One thing before I forget. I have greatly over estimated how oxygen we will need for Dad. He is using them about half as fast as I had guessed. Dad has three sources of oxygen for this trip; His concentrator, that we use in the hotel rooms; the big tanks, that we use in the mini-van; and the small tanks, that he carries when we are seeing some attraction. I had arranged to have full tanks waiting for us at the hotel. There were two large tanks and six small tanks that we would have swapped empty for full. But we only need about half that, and even one of the small tanks we are leaving is nearly full.
Continued….
I decided I was too tired last night to finish this before I got some sleep.
Just before boarding the Tom Sawyer, Jessi, Arielle, and Me
So we are on the road right now and I should have plenty of time to catch us up. That is if I don’t have to take over driving. Margo keeps throwing up. She isn’t sick, but complains of having a “tickle” in her throat. It must be aggravating the gag reflex. She feels fine the all of a sudden she just throws up. We were in the heart of St Louis and I had to hand her a trash bag and take the wheel. But, I’m getting a head of my self.
Monday’s road portion of the journey was pretty uneventful, until St. Louis. This is the 2nd time I have been though St. Louis. We missed an exit the last time and got turned around. We are batting a thousand. This city is such a pain in the ass to drive in. The signs aren’t accurate enough for the non-resident.
The Gateway Arch from the river.
The highways converge and then veer off. If you aren’t in the correct lane right then you miss it. I suppose this just the frustration of the moment, but I was trying very hard to be in the correct lane. We at least hit our exit, but you had to be in the correct lane while exiting too. We weren’t and missed the Kings Highway turn. We ended up having to find an alternate route to get us to the Gateway Arch, which is what we intended to visit today. We made the adjustments, but it put us a half an hour farther behind schedule. I did not allow enough time for rest breaks today. Dad needs to stop about every two hours with his enlarged prostrate. I don’t mind stopping. I don’t particularly like to drive for endless hours, but I didn’t account for it.
We got to the parking lot at about 3:30 PM. We planned to take a boat ride on the Mississippi, but I knew from the schedule I had printed out that the last one left at 4 PM.
Jessi and Arielle on the riverboat Becky Thatcher.
It would take something just short of a miracle to make it. We got something short of that.
It was about a quarter of a mile from the parking lot to Arch and I ran up a head to get Dad a wheelchair. I could have walked it, eventually. But as we were both pressed for time and it was getting hot, this was a better idea. We made to the entrance to Museum of Westward Expansion about 3:50. The museum is located directly under the arch and is where I got the wheelchair. Getting in the museum was a bit of a hassle for me. I was in a serious auto accident in 1986. As a result I ended up with an artificial hip. Most metal detectors, even in the post 9/11 world, don’t pick it up. But the one on the north side of the museum did, every time. So I would have to move to the side and get patted down by a park ranger.
Arielle enjoying the cool breeze on the river
Every time. Before the day was out I went in and out a total of five times. You would think they might start to remember me. Oh, well better safe than sorry.
We got everybody settled and I zipped down to the river to see about tickets and even if a boat was still there. I soon discovered we had the classic good news/bad news situation. The good news was there was a boat leaving at 4:30 and as it was 4:10 there was time. The bad news is that there was no way Dad could make down all of the stairs to the river in 20 minutes, possibly at all. Stairs are not good. The only alternative was to get him back to the car and drive him down. Somehow I didn’t think that was going to work either. Dad wasn’t exactly heartbroken. He spend four years in the Navy, so it wasn’t like he had never been on the water before.
Arielle and Jessi atop the Gateway Arch. Notice the guy in the background. The windows to look out are tiny!
Mom was content not to content with a hundred stairs and Margo thought that the air conditioned museum sounded pretty good. Not exactly adventure travelers, but it’s there vacation too.
The girls were with me, so we made out way down, in a quick and orderly manner and got two tickets to ride on the Tom Sawyer. The boat ride lasted about an hour. It was both relaxing and educational. Well, it would have been educational if I had paid much attention to the narration. But, I was enjoying the views. St Louis is very much a working river city. Freight comes in and goes out. We passed a cement processing plant and watched them load a barge as we passed by. That was interesting as they used a large hose and blew the dry mix into the barge, similar to the way you blow insulation into an attic. (You Florida and California people will be in the dark here, sorry).
That's not a building they are standing by. That's one leg of the Gateway Arch!
The barge had a shell on it, so the mix would not escape.
The girls just like being on the river. It was much cooler and the movement created a nice breeze. We went down about four bridges worth and turned around. I took a few pictures, mostly of the girls and soon our trip was over. We made our way back to the museum, it got my Ranger massage, and we found everyone. They had looked around the gift shop a little, but mostly they had just been people watching and enjoying the cool air. As mentioned the museum is directly under the arch and is the staging place for a trip to the top. Jessi and been to the top when she was five years old, but Arielle had never been. Mom, Dad, and Margo bowed out. Mom and Margo had also been to the top. Margo had not been impressed with the experience and Mom didn’t like the enclosed and small tram that took you topside. Dad didn’t want to fight it.
He is not Mr. Adventure to begin with, so if something doesn’t tickle his fancy when he hears about it, he isn’t apt to try it just because it is different. He is secure in his conservative world, and in this case it was the exact right decision. The trams are to say the least, not handicapped accessible. They are tiny and seat five. You have to go through a small door, about four foot tall, to get in. The bottom of the door is about a foot off the ground. So if you are mobility impaired, even if you just need a cane, it will be difficult to impossible to ride. But, the girls and I aren’t and we all crawled in.
The ride up took about 10 minutes. The car makes a ratcheting sound as it ascends up to the top. The tram was not air conditioned and got a little warm. But once you got to the top, cool air again greeted you. We got out and spend about ten minutes up there. Truthfully, there is just not a lot to do. You can look out a window and that it about it. The windows themselves are pretty small and you only have a few choices. It was also the height of tourist season (Yes, I know. We were several of them) it wasn’t like we were alone up there. So after a look-see and a few pictures walked over to go back down.
Reflecting back to our ride up, I recalled that the people who had just descended from the top looked harried and hot. At the time I thought they were just a bit wimpy. Yeah, me too. The staging area to back down was a furnace. We waited for our turn and after the wait and our ride back down, we had the same look about us too. We didn’t bother to warn anyone. They were past the point of no return anyway. Let them be surprised. Margo and my folks were in the exact same spot as when we left. Dad was looking tired. It was well after six o clock and everyone was getting hungry. I delayed everyone for about ten minutes while I ran into the gift shop to get a polo shirt. That or a book are my preferred souvenir when I travel.
After that it was back to the car and east out of town. We were staying in Collinsville, IL. Which, luckily was not very far. We found a Bob Evans Restaurant near the hotel. It turned out to be a very good choice. My chicken was a tad dry, but that was the only complaint. The portions were huge and all else perfect. Dad looked much better after eating. They had a gift shop and I bought a candle for Debbie Serrano, the lady that works at Brighton Oxygen. She had helped immensely in setting the oxygen deliveries, answering my stream of questions, and providing me with updates on what was done and what was pending. We even called her while on the trip to have a valve delivered to my Aunt Ellen’s place when we finally got to Kentucky, tomorrow. With respect to the oxygen, the deliveries at these first two hotels had gone exactly as planned. What I had ordered was waiting for us. I had decided to call and reduce the amount at our remaining stops, as Dad was still using far less than planned.
We checked in, unloaded, and then I set out to get some water. Unexpectedly, we weren’t drinking much pop on this trip. Everyone seemed to prefer water. So I needed to find a store. The lady at Bob Evans gave me directions to a K-Mart. But I never found it. I did find a Wal-Mart. I never did figure out if I made a wrong turn or is she misspoke about the identity of the store. Like it mattered. I got water and went back to the hotel. I went through my money routine and went to bed. These days are long and the nights are short!
It's claustrophobic, a bit boring, but you should do it anyway!
The Gateway Arch is the center piece of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial located on 91 acres next to the Mississippi River in St Louis, MO. The other pieces of the Memorial are the Old Courthouse and Museum of Westward Expansion.
The Arch is 630 feet tall, took 4 years to build and was completed in 1965.
While very impressive to look at a trip to the top is a combination of claustrophobia and boredom. That said I have done it twice, as it’s just one of those things you should do at least once.
The cost of tram ticket is $10, $7 if you already have a National Park Pass. As it is impossible to put a standard elevator in a curved structure, the Arch has a tram, which operates similar to a Ferris Wheel as it ratchets up one side of the arch, with you and four of your closest friends inside. The trams are tiny and if you are claustrophobic you will not like them. You have to be reasonable fit to ride in them as well. They require a bit of dexterity just to climb in and out of them, due to the small entrance and tight space.
I wish I could say that once you are at the top the trip was worth it. But, the view is through one of a handful of small windows. You do get an excellent view of the Old Courthouse and downtown St. Louis. While much more roomy than the tram, once you get up top it can be crowded, so during the summer you still get the feeling of being in a cave. It is air conditioned once you get up top, but the tram portion is not. As the arch is made up of stainless steel, it gets pretty warm in the trams. Luckily the trip is only about 10 minutes or so.
As I mentioned while the experience is a bit of a let down, it is unique and I would not have passed up either opportunity to do it. The tram system was specially designed for the arch and I don’t think it has been replicated anywhere else in the world. So unless you are very pressed for time or money, or hate enclosed spaces I would still do it.
The Gateway Arch
View of the Old Courthouse from
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