Ride time – 2 hrs. 26 minutes
10.9 mph
We were up by 6:15 this morning as Bill and Gloria are going to take us into St. Louis to view the St. Louis Gateway Arch. We arrived at the Arch and took a few pictures outside and was there right when it opened at 9:00AM. We bought tickets to take the elevator up to the top of the arch and then also to see the movie that shows the construction of the arch, which is the gateway to the west. The arch was started in 1963 and completed in 1965.
If you are claustrophobic the tram is probably not something you would want to go into. The door to get into the tram is about 5’ tall and there are chairs for 5 people in a very enclosed area inside the tram. It takes 4 minutes to ride the elevator to the top and 3 minutes to ride the elevator back down (unless it stops like ours did on the way back down).
Once you get to the top you can look out very small windows (about 8”x20”) about 4-1/2 feet off of the floor. When we were up there it was cloudy and overcast but we still got a very good view of St. Louis. After getting back down to ground level we went to the movie that showed the construction of the arch. It was really amazing to watch how the construction workers did not have harnesses on when they are over 600’ above the ground. Wouldn't OSHA have a hay day with that now a days? The arch is 630’ tall and 630’ wide at the base. Very interesting!
After leaving the Arch Bill stopped at a bike shop in St. Peters so we could replace our flag on our B.O.B. We left it behind in our hotel in Hannibal – grrrrrrrrrrrrr! We also stopped for a buffet lunch at Ameristar Casino before heading back to Bill and Gloria’s. Once we were back at their house we packed up the B.O.B. and said our goodbyes. About 11 miles from their house Gloria called to let me know that we left a few things behind. So they were able to catch up with us with their car to give us our forgotten items and then we were on our way.
The route from their house was quite hilly and also heavily traveled. We were glad to get back on the Adventure Cycling route which was more secondary roads with less traffic. We bicycled to Marthaville where we got on the Katy Bicycle Trail for 4 miles. We arrived in Washington, MO about 4:00PM and checked into a Super 8.
Once again we would like to thank Bill and Gloria for the incredible airplane ride, the tour of the St. Louis Arch, and their generous hospitality. They sure were tremendous hosts – thanks again!
No comments:
Post a Comment