Gateway to the West

After spending the night in Springfield, IL, we headed southwest and once we got to St. Louis, MO, we looked for parking so we could explore the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, or at least, that's what it used to be called as it's been since upgraded to National Park status and is now called Gateway Arch National Park. Obviously, the arch is the main attraction, but there's enough here for several hours of discovery, as we soon found out. One of the things we decided to do was the St. Louis Arch virtual cache, which proved to be a small distraction as we actually had to leave the grounds and find something nearby to prove that we were there. I guess posting a photo of us at the arch wasn't good enough. 

That particular year, some of the grounds were under reconstruction, so they had limited service for the elevator that took you to the top of the arch and getting there when we did, plus it was the 4th of July and very crowded, meant that the tours were already sold out for that day, so we toured the museum at the base of the arch, plus the museums across the way over at the old St. Louis courthouse.

The museum at the base of the arch gave us good information about the construction of the arch, including a 15 to 20 minute movie that showed how it was constructed. The arch is an impressive architectural feat, standing 63 stories tall. It was completed in 1965 along the banks of the Mississippi River overlooking St. Louis and the neighboring state of Illinois. After touring there for awhile, we then walked the several blocks over to the old St. Louis courthouse where Dred Scott sued for his freedom. There were exhibits here dealing with westward expansion, including areas that were dedicated to the Santa Fe Trail and the Oregon Trail.

For those of you following along on this journey, we also contemplated taking in a baseball game or two as we worked our way across the area. Passing by the Milwaukee Brewers, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals' baseball stadiums, we had quite a choice. However, it didn't work out on this trip as there's only so many things you can do when you're on a road trip like this. In actuality, the only time a team was home as we were driving by was when we were in Wisconsin, but that was the one day when I didn't have to drive anywhere and I really didn't want to drive several hours to Milwaukee in order to take in a game. I think if I'm going to do something like that, it's going to take a lot more planning and logistics to pull that off.

But back to the road trip at hand. Once we were done touring the two museums, the base of the arch and the courthouse, it was time to hit the road, as we wanted to be in Independence where we were going to spend the night. Driving across Missouri, we stopped here and there to find a couple of geocaches, nothing that really stand out, with the exception of the virtual cache we did at the arch itself.

Pulling into Independence, we felt like we'd had a good day. We got to our motel, then found a nearby place to eat and then watched the fireworks play out in several different directions from our room's window. Not a bad 4th of July for my youngest's first out of state 4th, and the first I'd experienced since I was 3 years old. The next day, we would be touring Harry Truman's house and the Harry Truman Presidential Library.