St. Louis Arch

Thursday 5/9 we departed Branson Missouri and drove 260 miles to St Louis. The ride up I-44 was about a straight a route as you could get and not the way we usually travel. We were going through the Ozark mountains and there just wasn't a long secondary roads going in our direction. The Ozarks are very scenic the mountains covered with forest and numerous rock outcroppings.

North base of the arch

little elevator car to the top

We are parked at a casino campground directly across the Mississippi River from the St Louis Arch. The arch is a memorial to Western expansion after the Louisiana purchase. The idea for the memorial was conceived in the 1930 by a local lawyer who wanted to revitalize the run down waterfront area. It wasn't completed until 1965 and that is probably a good thing as the technology didn't exist in the 30's to build a 630 foot stainless steel arch that will be standing for 1000 years.

looking west

We rode the interior tram to the apex of the arch. The tram cars are very small, each one with only five seats. They not only take you 630 feet to the top, but must also move laterally toward the center while keeping the passengers in an upright position. In the observation room you can see for 30 miles across the city to the west and to the east is the state of Indiana.

observation deck

After returning to the visitors center at the base of the arch we watched the film about the construction of the memorial. It is an engineering marvel there is no doubt about that. But the thing that made the biggest impression on me was no one working in the steel wore any type of safety equipment, none not a safety belt or safety net in sight. And there was not one single fatality.

looking down on the Mississippi side

We had planned on walking uptown and taking a guided trolley tour but the southwestern sky had become ominously dark and we feared one of the severe storms that have been going through the state was going to cross our path. We walked back to the train station and took the short ride to the Indiana side of the river. The sky's had softened some so we decided to tour the casino before returning to the motorhome.

my casino queen

The Queen Casino is unique among casino's. It is not owned by Indians or the Vegas crowd, it is employee owned. They bought it when the original investors wanted to sell. We ate an excellent lunch in the buffet but neither of us wanted to gamble so we just walked around, stopping and studying the craps tables. The betting seems complicated, we couldn't make any sense of it.

By the time you read this we will be on the road again, next stop, Louisville Kentucky. Home of the Kentucky Derby, Colonel Sanders fried Chicken and Louisville Slugger baseball bats.