St. Louis

Thursday 7/31/08

We left Branson heading for St. Louis, MO. We drove all day stopping at a campsite about 3 in the afternoon. We did some set up and then went off to see the Gateway Arch. During the drive, Lynn had been looking through the AAA book to see if there was anything else to see in St. Louis. She noticed the Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site nearby so we headed for that first. What we found was the Grant home as it was before the war and his presidency. This home was Julia Grant’s family home. This is where Julia and Ulysses met and fell in love. The Grant’s were eventually married here and lived with Julia’s parents for a time. In the 1850’s, they raised their family and farmed the land at White Haven. In the 1860’s the Grants purchased the land from Julia’s family. After the war and the presidency, the Grants never lived at White Haven again full time but visited often.
Now a few miles down the road we headed for the Gateway Arch. After parking, we walked down to the roadway next to the Mississippi River. What we noticed first was that the river was very high and there was debris floating down the river. There was a sign describing the travels of Lewis and Clark and if you looked in the water there was a statue of either Lewis or Clark. We couldn’t tell because it was under water all the way up to his neck. We were told that the levee was flooded. Normally there was parking on the levee but it was all under water.
We walked on to the Arch. It is a very impressive sight to see it rising from the ground. We went in to buy our tickets. We wanted to take a tram ride and a riverboat combination but the riverboat was closed. We bought tickets for the ride and headed for the tram. The tram ride is in a little pod that holds 4 to 5 people. There is one little window in the door. We were in the pod with another couple. Ed says “it is kind of a small window to see out”. The rest of us were all kind of shocked because we were under the impression that we would be getting out. The other girl is dying because she’s thinking “I want out of this thing”. Sanity prevailed and we all decided there was no way they would keep us in this pod at the top. The ride came to an end we were let out of our little pod. The windows are little but the view is tremendous. On one side is the Mississippi River and Illinois and on the other side is downtown St. Louis. We spent some time looking out the windows and taking pictures. Ed noticed the couple that rode up with us did not stay long and the girl would not go near the windows. We took our ride down in the pod with a guide and Ed asked if these things ever get stuck. She said yes, unfortunately, quite often. We made it down without incident and headed back to camp.