Hello Mother and Gateway Arch National Park

View of Gateway Arch from our campsite!

After spending almost four extra days in Oklahoma, we knew we had some time to make up. On Tuesday, 5/5, at 2:30pm when we were pulling out of McAlester Oklahoma, we were actually supposed to be pulling into an RV Park in St. Louis, MO over 460 miles away. Since my Star Trek transporter was out of service, we had to do this the hard way. Our goal for Tuesday was to make it to Springfield, MO, about 250 miles away. In a car, that’s a piece of cake. In the RV, that’s a long driving day (for us anyway). To complicate matters, it was blowing like crazy. At one point, Rog pulled over and was ready to hang it up for the day. The wind was pushing so hard he was wrestling the coach more than driving it. He looked at the weather and saw that waiting wasn’t going to help, so he soldiered on.

We have some very specific goals for this trip. In additional to attending the Escapade RV rally in Fryeburg, ME, we orchestrated our route to pick up most of the states and the six National Parks that we’ve missed in the lower 48. We’ve actually been through some of these states when we drove across the country in 1989 with our travel trailer, but ideally we’d like to hit them in the Short Bus before adding them to our map. Since we had to cancel our stay in Kansas, we compromised by darting across the border on our way to Missouri. Check that box and keep driving! Lol.   

Proof! Lol.

We made it to our destination, a Harvest Host site, Mother’s Brewing Company in Springfield, MO around 7:30pm. We popped into the taproom for a well-deserved libation. We made it!! Mother’s was a fun stop, too bad the weather hadn't been better (it was windy and spitting rain when we arrived), they have a huge two-acre outdoor beer garden with lots of fun games and activities. As it was, we were just thrilled to grab a brew and relax for a few minutes.

Mother's Brewing Company.

Rog was extremely happy to relax and enjoy a sampling of Mother's wares.

Raney helped me pick out a t-shirt. 

On Wednesday, 5/6, we were back on the road and heading to Draftkings at Casino Queen RV Park. The RV park is in East Saint Louis, IL and right across the Mississippi River from Gateway Arch National Park in St. Louis, MO. The Arch was designated as a National Park in 2018, just after our big year on the road trip so we needed to add this one to our list. We actually had a decent view of the Arch right from our campsite! Lol.

The stuff you see along the way...
It's not the destination, it's the journey. Maybe not today. Lol. 

 

We're parked directly across the Mississippi from the National Park.

Riley and Raney check out the view.

Gateway Arch National Park is the smallest National Park at 91 acres. Referred to as the "Gateway to the West", the arch symbolizes Thomas Jefferson’s vision of a unified continental nation and St. Louis’ role as a confluence and gateway to the American West during the 19th century. The park was originally named after Jefferson whose Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United States, but was changed when it became a National Park. Here are some fun facts:

• The Arch was designed by Eero Saarinen, A Finnish-American who won the 1947 nationwide competition for the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. His design was chosen from 172 entries to honor the westward expansion.
• The Arch is 630 feet tall and also 630 feet from leg to leg at ground level.
• Although the design was announced in 1948, construction of the Arch did not begin until February 12, 1963. The delay was due to a combination of funding shortages, the Korean War, legal battles over the design, and complex engineering planning. The Arch was completed on October 28, 1965, with no worker fatalities. 
• There are 1076 steps in the stairways of each leg, but they are used by maintenance and emergency personnel only.
• The tram ride to the top takes four minutes and guests are seated in a five-foot diameter capsule that seats five people (yes, it’s tight) that ascends either the north or south leg of the arch.
•  Guests have about 7-9 minutes to admire the view from the top through the small Lexan windows and then return on the tram.
• There are 16 windows on each side of the viewing area. Each window is 7 x 27 inches and 0.75 inches thick. Over 500 tons of pressure was used to jack the legs of the Arch apart for the last four-foot piece to be inserted at the top. Larger windows would not withstand the pressure.

Gateway Arch may be the smallest park,
but there is still plenty to see and do!

Gateway Arch over St. Louis.

Since we were arriving in St. Louis a day late, we had only one day to visit the park and we made the most of it. While visiting the Arch and museum are free, everything else requires a ticket. The entire Visitor’s Center, including the museum, movie, tram rides and extensive displays are located under the Arch and I mean under, as in underground. After looking online, I purchased “Ultimate Explorer” combo tickets that included the tram ride to the top (40-60 min), the “Monument to the Dream” documentary film (35 min), the “Cobblestones & Courage” virtual reality experience (10 min), and a St. Louis Riverfront Cruise (one hour). You pick each event time when you purchase the tickets, so our first activity was at 11:20am and we finished with the cruise at 3pm. That gave us plenty of time to explore the museum and just hang out staring in awe at this superb piece of engineering genius.

Happy Campers under the Arch. 

From a distance the Arch looks pretty cool, but get up close and it’s mind-boggling. The documentary film that talked about how it was constructed was fascinating. The ingenuity and precision craftmanship were absolutely amazing. It’s also hard to photograph up close, my camera kept distorting the view so please forgive any weird looking pics. Lol.

See?? It just looks weird. Lol. 

It was a beautiful day too, perfect for visiting the park. On a clear day from the top of the Arch you can see 30 miles to the east or west. We could see the Short Bus parked across the river to the east and a gorgeous view of St. Louis to the west. Looking straight down was a little trippy. Lol. The ride up in the tram is also interesting. The capsules have a glass front so you can see what's on the inside of the Arch as you ascend and they rotate so the riders remain level even though the capsule is moving at an angle. Pretty cool design. 

Going up!

 

Looking east across the Mississippi, I spy a Short Bus. 

Looking west across St. Louis.

Looking straight down. Yikes!

It felt good to get out and walk, seeing and learning new things. That is one of my favorite parts of our travels. The nearby famous landmark, The Old Courthouse, was donated to the National Park Service in 1940. Several controversial rulings came out of the court including the Dred Scott Case. The sculpture, The Captain's Return commemorates the return of Lewis and Clark. They landed on the riverfront in St. Louis after their exploratory expedition that had lasted two years, four months and nine days. But who's counting? Lol. 

 

The Old Courthouse.

The Captain's Return.

Different perspectives. 

The riverboat cruise was interesting, the captain provided information on landmarks, bridges, and the shipping industry during our sail. We sat on the top deck where we had a great view of the cityscape. The Mississippi River continues to be vital to the shipping industry, we watched tugs pushing huge rafts of barges loaded with grain and other goods.  

Gateway Arch Riverboat Cruises.

This was our boat for the cruise.

Arch view from the riverboat.

After the cruise we walked downtown to Salt and Smoke, a BBQ restaurant just outside of Busch Stadium. With full tummies, we headed back to our car and our patient pups. I sometimes worry that they feel neglected when they’ve been in the coach most of the day. But they are so chill, we had to pry Riley off the couch. Rather than feeling neglected, he was annoyed that his nap was disturbed. Lol. They really are the best travel pups.

Salt + Smoke, a great name for a BBQ place. 
(Sauce tip: Mix the "I Can't Even" with the Hotangy", Yum!)

Woohoo, we are now back on schedule. (At least until the next snafu! Lol.) We have a travel day and then another (new to us) National Park to share. Mammoth Caves here we come!