St. Louis Arch and the Giant Eyeball, in Missouri

We arrived in St. Louis late, as we hoped - hoping it to be cool enough to set up camp. It wasn't. We didn't even unhook the trailer! We just plugged in the power so we could have air conditioning for the night!

 

(There were, tragically, reports of heat related deaths, from power failures or air conditioning malfunctions... :( very scary. I've heard of that before, but never been so near. Poor people. We decided if the power went out during the night, we'd have to just get in the truck and keep driving.)

 

 

We planned to get up early the next morning and go up the St. Louis Arch. (http://www.stlouisarch.com) I've heard that it's best to go to the Arch early, anyway, before the school kids get there (the sight seeing windows are still relatively finger print and nose print free early in the morning!!)

 

I was also told to be aware that the elevator lurches and creaks as it goes up, at an angle, to the top of the Arch. I guess that makes sense, and I'm glad for the warning, because I imagined the elevator moving more like the glass elevator in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0367594/) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4bydZrQzYA)

Again, with the heat! Because we were pulling a trailer, we had to park about 1/4 of a mile away, which might have been ok (although the temperature by 8am was already around 104 degrees), but we had the two little puppies and they would've had to sit in the trailer, with no air conditioning on, during the time we walked to the Arch, took the elevator to the top, looked around & took pictures, and walked back... so, we had to skip it.

We did drive around and around the Arch, though - partly because we wanted to, partly because some of the roads were closed due to the Fourth of July celebrations, and partly because we ended up lost when we detoured.

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In fact, we crossed the Mississippi river... 5 times!

 

Later, in Wyoming, we met a man who lived in St. Louis, and he told us if we wanted moderate weather, the best time to go visit is between November and February...

 

Wish we could've done more there, but I'm happy with the sights we saw!

 

Just outside of St. Louis a couple of miles, at Laumeier Sculpture Park (still considered part of St. Louis) on 12580 Rott Rd (another find on roadsideamerica.com), is a sculpture of a Giant Eyeball. (There are many sculptures there, but that one was the reason we went out of our way.)

 

Once upon a time, when Evan was maybe 7 years old (see previous posts about Evan), he was mad at all of the adults (us, and his parents). I forget what the problem was, but whatever it was was causing him to be sassy, and he wasn't getting away with it. Or something like that. Bottom line is: he was making me giggle, which made him more mad.  

He finally said in his angry little 7 year old voice: "STOP IT! OR I'M GOING TO HIT YOU WITH MY EYEBALL!! uhhhh I mean ELBOW!!" So so funny! That was it - hysterical laughter. (He didn't think it was funny at all, until finally, after he saw this picture, he appreciated it - of course, as I found out in the last blog - he's 10 now, so that probably helps.)

We went out of our way to take THIS picture for Evan! That being said, it's pretty impressive, if you ask me! It was really worth the trip!

 

Sunday's post will be about Kansas City, Missouri.