Gateway Arch

When last I wrote, we were preparing to move to a campground west of St. Louis, MO. I'm really enjoying these short hops of three hours or less from one campground to the next! It's so much more pleasant thant doing a 300 mile, 5 hour drive. We are in a nice little campground with full hookups, and although we only have 30 amps in this site, that's enough to run one air conditioner at a time so we are fine with that. Our Verizon signal is poor but we have great internet and a nice view.

On Thursday Bob and I decided to go see the St Louis Gateway Arch. We purchased tickets online, then parked and had a nice lunch at Angelo's Taverna, right next to the Visitor's Center located in the Old Courthouse.

Such a beautiful building. We wandered through the exhibits in the building which highlighted the history of St Louis as a gateway to the west.

Could this be called the first RV? Well, maybe not, since the folks who traveled in covered wagons weren't exactly using it for recreation. The people who used them had all their worldly possessions in them though, so in that sense they were "fulltimers."

Soon it was time to see the Arch.

We walked about fifteen minutes through the park to the entrance, went through security, and got in line. We stood next to a nice couple from Germany and chatted about traveling with them before getting into the tram to take us to the top. The tram cars were like small space pods, windowless and cramped with seats for five inside, with a rounded ceiling that made it impossible to sit up straight. It took about four minutes to rise to the top of the Arch, but only 3 1/2 minutes to return. Once at the top you could stay as long as you wanted.

It's 630 feet off the ground up there, and we had nice views of the city looking west...

...and of Illinois looking east.

Here's the view looking straight down.

We had to take a selfie at 630 feet, of course!

It looks like we are in for some rain over the next few days. We've decided to hang tight where we are for a few more days before moving on. In the meantime, I'm having fun with my Ashford Inklette loom.