St. Louis, Missouri

We left Dayton, Ohio Friday and headed for St. Louis, Missouri. We stayed at the St. Louis RV Campground, which was right downtown. It was basically a paved parking lot but we enjoyed a good Wi-Fi connection, clean showers, and the location was great. (If the showers in a campground are "iffy", I shower in the coach but washing my hair is easier in a big shower.) Friday night we ate at Pappy's Place and had some excellent pulled pork.

On Saturday we went to the Gateway Arch. I heard Ed on the phone with Steve, his son, later saying he'd seen pictures for years and had thought it was JUST an arch......until he got there. He was awed and amazed by the immensity of it -- it's 63 stories tall -- taller than the the Statue of Liberty and the Washington Momument!

Seeing the documentary movie before we went up in the tram made it scarier. Just watching the film made me dizzy to see the men working on top of this huge structure even in the snow. They managed to get it built without any workers getting killed.



It is designed to sway up to 18 inches and withstand a hurricane but there was no wind when we were up there.

It takes about 4 minutes to get to the top and 3 to come down.

The arch cost $13 million, was started in 1963 and completed in 1965.

*********************************************

Sunday we went to the botanical gardens. It was really hot -- 97 -- so we were glad to see there was a little train with a guide. This is a clock made with flowers but I think you'd need to view it from above to really see it as a clock.We did get off to view the Climatron, which had tropical plants in it. There was an orchid auction being set up in the main building and we thought of Clarence Geier.
This scupture, (maybe glass?) was hanging in the main lobby.

My best shot of the day was this ginger plant.