Hounds
Home > Travels in 2006 >
 |
St. Louis, Missouri
June 22, 2006
|
A view of the Gateway Arch from the north side.
The first sightseeing stop on our westward journey was St. Louis, Missouri. We had driven for 9 hours the previous day to reach the eastern end of Indiana, and it took us another 5 hours to travel across Indiana and Illinois. We saw the Gateway Arch for the first time as we drove through the city on I-44 towards our campsite about 25 miles west of the city.
When we reached our campsite, we set up the camper and rested for awhile inside, air conditioner blasting: it was a warm day and the hounds needed a break from the heat. While they relaxed, we made some lunch for ourselves and filled up some water bottles to take with us back to the Arch. It wasn't long before we loaded everyone back up into the van and headed back to the city (sans camper this time).
We parked on the ground level of the parking garage on Washington Avenue and went up a flight of stairs to get to the Gateway Arch park. Once we cleared the trees that shaded the walkways, we were able to our first unobstructed view of the Arch. Even though the skies were cloudy, the silvery sheen of the Arch still gleamed in certain places.
Brian and the hounds below the Arch.
We walked up the grassy hill to the west of the Arch to see if it could all be captured head-on in one photograph. We could not: the Arch is simply huge. After taking a picture of the statehouse building (we assume that`s what it was) across the street, we took a moment to give the hounds some water. Frazzle seemed to be panting particularly hard, so when they were finished, I poured the leftover water in the water bowl over his back. We then headed back down to the base of the Arch. There we encountered two elderly women who came over to pet the hounds. After petting Frazzle's wet back, one of the ladies asked if we had just come from the doggie pool. Apparently there was a pool just for dogs somewhere south of where we were.
Although we were curious about the pool, we decided that we weren't inclined to go looking for it. Instead, we went towards the river side of the Arch. On that side, a series of concrete steps leads down to a road, and on the other side of that road are docks and platforms that hang over the Mississippi River. Deanna went down and across the street to take some pictures of the hounds and me with the Arch above and behind us.
Carrie standing below the Arch.
After she returned, Deanna took some pictures of Carrie with Carrie standing over her below the Arch, then they relaxed for a bit while I took the camera up to the base of one of the Arch`s legs and took some photos looking up along it. The skies were beginning to darken, so we decided it was time to leave, before the thunderstorms that had been predicted rolled in. When we reached the garage, Deanna decided that she didn't want to make Frazzle try and go down the steps, so she took Wren and Frazzle down in the elevator. Frazzle didn't seem to mind the experience; Wren was a bit taken aback by the sinking sensation.
It turned out we had timed our departure well: soon after we left the city, it began to pour and we saw lightning in the distance. Fortunately, we didn't get any of the high winds or hail that the weather service had issued a watch for earlier in the day. We returned to camp and relaxed for the rest of the evening. We knew that after today, there were 3 days of driving before we reached our next sightseeing stop, the Grand Canyon.