2,000 posts

I failed to notice yesterday but given the significance of yesterday's events I am not even disappointed.  Still, I need to mention today that Total Eclipse of the Sun was my 2,000th post on this blog.

Today?

Well, 2001, and we were in Saint Louis so we went to look at the Gateway Arch.

That was on the sidewalk as we walked from the parking garage down towards the riverfront.  Actually the parking garage is one of the best stories of  the  day.  We drove from the motel down to Exit 40 and turned into downtown Saint Louis.  We passed a couple of surface lots with staff on duty collecting $20 to park.  That seemed like a lot but it also seemed like what the market might  be.  Eventually we got right down to the area in downtown directly opposite the Arch.  We pulled into a ramp which was marked as having public parking.  Before we took the ticket I asked the attendant what their rates were.  $2 for the first hour.  We entered the ramp, did the amount of tourist activity that satisfied our Gateway Arch urges, got back to the ramp and paid $3 and went on with our lives.

We parked downtown in a major metropolitan area and viewed the most significant local tourist attraction in the area (except perhaps for the Budweiser brewery) and paid $3.

We've all seen this a lot on TV but here is what it looked like today from close up, the Gateway Arch.

Fellow Traveler for scale, sun burst on the stainless steel arch against a cloudy and grey sky for artistic effect.

It is the largest stainless steel structure in the world.

It's big, much, much bigger than it looks on TV.  That seems to be true of nearly every thing I have only seen before on TV when I see it in person.  It  is much, much bigger than it looks on TV.

She ran up and down those steps on the right but that is her story.  The bridge in the background is the MLK bridge. That hulking thing frame left is, well, it's the Arch.

The local tourist information touts an old church and an old courthouse in the city within a few blocks of the Arch.

We checked them both out.

The old church is only old by time as measured on this side of the Atlantic (not even beginning to consider time as measured on this side of the Pacific).  There have been three churches on that spot, the most recent is the first of those three to be a stone church.  It is a pretty nice old stone church.  But it really isn't very big and it really isn't very old, having been consecrated in 1834, but it is stone.  It is  probably the most grand stone church that any city of mid-continent USA could imagine constructing at that point in history.  It has historical value and I am glad we took a look.  At that moment we were dealing with a brief but substantial rain sprinkle and a brief but very bothersome camera battery hassle.  Both circumstances were resolved fairly rapidly but I didn't get a photo of the church.

I did get a photo of the old courthouse.

The diversion from our motel back downtown to view the Arch meant for a very long day of driving, our longest so far on this road trip.  We both think that it was still a good idea.  It would have been a shame to come to a major city where neither of us had ever been before and not view the major local tourist site.  For those coming to Saint Louis, definitely, definitely make the trip to the Gateway Arch.  It should be on your must see list.  Further, the public parking ramp at North 4th Street and Olive Street should be on your preferred parking list.