🌞Good morning campers! It’s sunny, 70* at 7am here in Carlyle, Ill.. We’re up at 7am, dressed, cooler packed for a long day of adventures & on the road at 7:50! We had a little over an hour drive to get to St. Louis. We had timed tickets for our tram ride up the Archway and an FYI….. they are not parking friendly in the area! 🤦🏻♀️ Talk about frustrating…especially with a F-350 dually truck! 😡 So now with 15 minutes till our tram, Tim finds a spot, he tried the meter numerous times and said….. 🤬….and we went to the Arch! OMG now just like TSA….off with belts, empty pockets and we & are bags are scanned! We went directly to tram and stood there about 5 minutes and away we went!
After a brief history of the Archway, 8 small groups were lined up on step stairs so we could then enter our pods. It was just the 2 of us in ours. We stood in front of a 4ft x 4ft metal door, when it opened there were 5 little pod looking chairs. A very narrow, Ferris-wheel compartment! 🎡
Beautiful clear day! Amazing how far we could see from the top!
St Louis is the second-largest city in Missouri. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi & Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the population 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which extends into Illinois, had an estimated population of over 2.8 million, making it the largest metropolitan area in Missouri, the second-largest in Illinois, and the 20th largest in the US.
The Gateway Arch …”The Gateway to the West”…is a 630-foot-tall & wide monument, made of stainless steel in the form of a weighted catenary arch. A National Historic Landmark in Gateway Arch National Park. It is the worlds largest memorial & Missouri’s tallest accessible building.
The Arch was designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen in 1947; construction began on February 12, 1963, and was completed on October 28, 1965, at an overall cost of $13 million. He wanted it simple as possible to have meaning and impact. It was designed to sway up to 18 inches in high winds! The monument opened to the public on June 10, 1967. Because the Mississippi River played an essential role in establishing St. Louis’s identity as the gateway to the west, it was felt that a memorial commemorating it should be near the river. Directly across the street is the Old Courthouse built in 1839-62 as a community crossroads…. It was the setting for the pivotal Dred Scot case in the 1840’s and 50’s. It was remodeled in 1860 with a cast iron dome which is Italian Renaissance style Rotunda featuring murals of St Louis history.
The underground visitor center for the arch is 70,000-square-feet and is located directly below the arch, between its legs. Although construction on the visitor center began at the same time as construction for the arch itself, it did not conclude until 1976 because of insufficient funding; however, the center opened with several exhibits on June 10, 1967.
Near the top of the Arch, you exit the tram compartment and climb a slight grade to enter the observation area. This arched deck, which is over 65 feet long and 7 feet wide, can hold up to about 160 people. Sixteen windows per side, each measuring 7 by 27 inches, with views up to 30 miles….to the east across the Mississippi River and southern Illinois and to the west over the city of St Louis.
Each tram is a chain of eight cylindrical, five-seat compartments with a small window on the doors. As each tram has a capacity of 40, only one was working while we visited. The cars swing like Ferris-wheel cars as they ascend and descend the arch. This fashion of movement gave rise to the idea of the tram as “half-Ferris wheel and half-elevator.” The trip to the top took only 4 minutes.
When we got back downstairs we toured the impressive visitor center….yes earned our Junior Ranger Badge then proceeded to the documentary movie we bought tickets for months ago! “Monument to the Dream” Film was 35 minutes & documented the construction of the building. Very interesting.
Off to our next adventure. We were only 1 block away from Busch Stadium….and I really wanted to see it up close and personal! Wish we had more time for the Cardinals we’re playing the Braves that night but we had reservations elsewhere! ⚾️🤦🏻♀️⚾️
⚾️⚾️⚾️ Baseball Trivia-On April 10, 2006, the Cardinals opened their new 46,000 seat retro-style downtown ballpark with a 6-4 win over the Milwaukee Brewers. ***Ceremonial First Pitches – Chris Carpenter and Albert Pujols to Bob Gibson and Willie McGee *** Cardinals HR – Albert Pujols, 3rd inning, April 10, 2006. The Cardinals also became the first team in almost 100 years to win a World Series Championship in the inaugural season of a new ballpark. The new Busch Stadium hosted the 80th MLB All-Star Game, in July 2009. There are 48 former Cardinal players, managers and executives enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame Museum in Cooperstown, New York. ⚾️
🎉🎉🎉🎉 Yes the truck was still where we parked it…..No Ticket…No Boot!!!! 😅😃😅
We had 1 1/2 hours till our next adventure! So it’s happy hour! We drove but it is within walking distance of the stadium but we didn’t want to press our luck! 🍻4 Hands Brewing Company was founded in 2011 in the LaSalle Park neighborhood near downtown St. Louis, Missouri. They brew a wide range of year-round offerings along with a vast variety of seasonal and limited-release beers and seltzers. Surprised when we walked inside, for it’s a 2-story.. 20,000 square foot facility. Tim tried Chocolate Milk Stout (ABV 5.5%), Ill Repute Pumpkin Ale (ABV 8.5%) & his favorite was Incarnation Mosiac IPA (ABV 7.2%).
🐶 We passed the main Headquarters of Purina Farms! Who knew right here was their big visitor center and arena? 😱🤦🏻♀️ Next time through! Not enough time in this day!
OMG….we went right by Anheuser-Busch Headquarters! 🍻🤦🏻♀️🍻 The world’s largest brewing company! The company employs over 30,000 people, operates 12 breweries in the United States!
Our next adventure was at 2pm for a guided hike….so away we go! Met up with our dear friend Linda at Ulysses S. Grant National Historical Site. Yes…I got my Junior Ranger badge here too! 🤣😇 We met with the Ranger for our 2 1/2 hour “Walk Through History” tour, and we started walking. This young man has been doing this tour for over 3 years and has such a wealth of knowledge and is so passionate about this area. We visited White Haven House, the summer kitchen buildings behind it, ( this stone building, consists of two rooms. Before the Civil War, the enslaved used this building for laundry and summer cooking), the Ice House, Chicken House & the winter kitchen. (The ice house was built around 1840 and the chicken house dates from 1850 to 1870). Then walked among the 850 acres to the original site of his “Hardscrabble” Log Cabin the he built himself in 1854. There was a marker in the spot for it has been since moved but we do see it later on. When the tour ended we went through all the exhibits at the visitor center.
Ulysses S. Grant is known as the victorious Civil War general who saved the Union and the 18th President of the United States. He first met Julia Dent, his future wife, at her family home, named White Haven. From 1854 to 1859 the Dents, Grants and an enslaved African-American workforce lived on the property.
When Ulysses S. Grant lived at White Haven in the 1850s, the entire property was 850 acres. It included cleared fields, orchards, large wooded areas, and hills cut by streams and creeks. Although most of the property was later sold and the main house privately owned until 1986, several historic structures remain today and serve as tangible links to life at White Haven in the 19th century. Five remaning historic structures & “Hardscrabble” log cabin (the Grant family lived in for three months in 1856 while at White Haven) are the ones we saw. Hardscrabble nevertheless remains a living legacy to Grant’s life as a St. Louis farmer.
We have worked up an appetite so we asked the Ranger for a restaurant recommendation! Helen Fitzgerald’s Irish Grill is where the 3 of us went for dinner! “Helen Fitzgerald’s is a restaurant/bar/club chameleon serving the St. Louis area since 1992. The large Irish pub features daily food and drink specials, live music and an energetic atmosphere. The menu offers a wide variety of appetizers, salads, pizzas, entrées and desserts.”
We were not disappointed! While we were having dinner it poured outside but was all over with when it was time to say goodbye and head back to the campground! We had such a fun afternoon & evening with Linda & can’t wait to see her again! 🥰
Total of 133 miles for today! Good night! 😴
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