Day 4 - Chicago to St. Louis to Topeka

We got out of the hotel at the usual time and made our way out of Chi-town. We decided we didn't want to use the GPS directions until we were on the interstate, so there were a lot of frantic "which exit do we take?" conversations while making our exodus.


ILLINOIS


Moving through Illinois to Missouri was pretty uneventful - lots of flat land, and we're bored with wind farms at this point. Next stop: St. Louis.

MISSOURI

St. Louis is right on the river between Illinois and Missouri, so as we crossed the mighty Mississippi, we got to check off a new city and a new state at the same time. On a tip from one of Jon's college friends (thanks, T.J.), we stopped for lunch at a place outside the downtown area called Fitz's. The restaurant makes its' own sodas - they're best known for their root beer, but Jon and Mike both hate root beer, so Mike got an orange soda and Jon got a cream soda.



Alright, enough of this "local stuff only"nonsense - it's time to be tourists. What would a trip through the Gateway to the West be without a visit to the Arch? We got directions and drove through downtown to the Arch waterfront area. It's much bigger than we expected - apparently it's 630 feet tall, making it by far the tallest structure in St. Louis. Also, it's shiny. Once at the Arch, we decided we should make our trip into the West official by walking through the center of the Arch from east to west. We walked to the middle of the grassy field below the arch, and made the momentous steps past the silvery threshold, thereby cementing our place in history with such great pioneers and explorers as Magellan, Lewis & Clark, Neil Armstrong, and Bear Grylls.



We decided to get to the top of the Arch, because what would a Mike and Jon trip be without climbing something tall? We walked down into the large underground lobby below the Arch, and bought tickets for the tram which takes people to the monument's summit. The under-enthusiastic high school kid who sold us our tickets asked if either of us had a problem with claustrophobia, and he was right to do so. The trip to the top was made in a tiny 5-person pod which was about 5 feet in diameter and resembled a cross between a tuna can and the white pods from "2001". The pod's circular shape allowed it to stay level as the angle of the arch changed on the way up. It leveled itself in a series of very comforting jerky adjustments which would throw our heads against the sides of the pod. Fun.

Once at the top we were able to enjoy the panoramic vistas from several tiny widows that seemed better suited for firing arrows from a position of relative safety than actually seeing stuff outside. No matter - the views of the city and river were actually quite nice, and it was cool to see the Arch's shadow on the ground from above.



After making our way down, we were approached by a reporter for the local NBC news affiliate for an interview. Apparently, earlier in the day, the pod elevator system had broken down, and several people were stuck at the top for several hours. Great. During his interview, Jon said it was a good thing he didn't watch the local news, and Mike said that someone needed to be held accountable. It's unlikely our interviews made it on the air.