2014-10-25 Coastin' in the Mid West

After we brushed off the radioactive dust from visiting Times Beach, we headed to Six Flags St. Louis.

With limited time to "enjoy" the park before the Fright Fest starts at 6pm, our aim is to ride all of the roller coasters in 6 hours.

It is difficult to know which rides will have the longest queue lines, which will be the most popular, and which we should head for first. We pick Mr. Freeze because it is a short, unique ride and I think they can only run one train on it. It is closed when we get there, so we move on to the biggest wooden roller coaster on the list, The Boss.

The queue line walk was amazingly long. With the wood they used they could have built another wooden roller coaster.

The ride was fast, crazy, out of control, and very smooth. What a fun ride it was. At nearly a mile long it rivaled the length of the queue line!

We didn't want to have to come back to the back of the park again, so we got back in line and rode it again.

From there we just proceeded around the park in a clockwise direction hitting all of the coasters.

Pandemonium was next. It was a large wild mouse coaster and the cars were allowed to spin as it went around the track. The ride is never the same when you ride these.

Their first wooden coaster here was called Screamin' Eagle. It was built way back in 1976 and was the last coaster designed by the legendary John Allen. It too was very fast, but not nearly as smooth as The Boss.

We walked by this cool water ride where the riders and spectators fire water canons at each other.

The Ninja was a roller coaster that had previously been at Expo 86 in Vancouver BC. We choose not to ride it because these types of coasters give us a headache.

The line for Batman: The Ride was over an hour long so we opted for the single rider line. We might not get on the same train with each other but at least we'd get ON the ride.

You sit on this ride like you're on a ski chairlift. It has a huge swooping drop, a loop, and a couple of corkscrews. Very fast. Very intense. Very fun!

We took a short break from the 82 degree heat and had an ice cream before heading over to try Mr. Freeze again.

It was open this time but the ride was almost an hour long. The ride was new to us so we got in line and waiting our turn. I really like this ride but Karen thought it was fast and too short, not enjoyable.

You sat in a regular coaster car but the train was on the track backwards. The train was blasted out of the station backwards at 80 MPH. You did a couple of huge swooping banked turns (one upside down) and then went forwards through the whole thing and back into the station.

Our last ride of the day was on the woody, American Thunder. This was probably my favorite coaster of the day. Fast, twisty, and smooth as silk. For a wooden roller coaster to be this smooth was amazing.

We left a little after 6pm but there were plenty of people to take our place.

2014-10-25 Is That Visitor Center Glowing?

There aren't many amusement parks that open at noon. But it is October and since it's the last weekend before Halloween, Six Flags will stay open until midnight.

So Karen and I are making good use of our time and we'll hit a museum and the most famous toxic waste site in our lifetime before going to the Park.

There's no better way to assure attendance in your museum than by putting "Route 66" in your name. The Route 66 State Park Visitor Center was a mere 6 miles from Six Flags St. Louis so we stopped by on our way.

Housed in the former Bridgehead Inn, a 1935 roadhouse that sat on the original Route 66 highway, we spent an hour in here.

There were a variety of hotel and roadside signs from long gone establishments.

There were plenty of souvenirs  as well. We have been very selective in the items that we've actually purchased on this trip. We've only bought a couple of t-shirts and some ornaments we can hang around the trailer since being on the ROAD.

The gift shop had one of the most extensive collections of Route 66 items available for sale.

Outside was the former bridge that spanned the Meramec River. Strangely, the Visitor Center is on one side of the river in the state park and the actual park is on the other side of the river.

Here's the bridge coming into the park side of the park from the other side.

The land for this state park was reclaimed after it was contaminated with dioxin in the 1970's. The town was Times Beach.

Times Beach lots were sold in the 20's by the St. Louis Times Newspaper - hence the name Times Beach. The area was prone to flooding in the fall so it was mainly used as a summer get-a-way for St. Louis folk.

Fast forward to the 1970's and the town hired this guy to spray the dusty roads with oil. WELL, it also happens that the same guy is hired by a company to dispose of an Agent Orange derivative. He uses the same trucks to do both jobs. Really?

This goes on for almost 10 years and the dioxin level is now 100 times higher than safe levels. In December of 1982 the Meramec River floods and 95% of Times Beach was under 10' of water.

Six weeks later it is announced that the Environmental Protection Agency will buyout the town. Cleanup of the soil takes place in the late 80's and 90's and the property is turned into the state park in 1999.

We drove around the mostly-flat park grounds and none of the joggers or bikers that we saw were glowing.

Oh, and the guy who caused all of this...He was never prosecuted for spreading the contaminated oil around, but he did spend a year in jail for tax evasion.

2014-10-24 River Cruise Aboard Tom Sawyer

Karen and I have never met a river cruise we didn't like. We jump at the chance to take one anywhere and anytime we can.

Today's cruise is on the Tom Sawyer out of St. Louis. It's only a one hour cruise but it gets us on the Mighty Mississippi River, our favorite.

As we're walking down to the dock, about 80 elementary children are headed in the same direction we are. This should be interesting.

The kids are eating lunch as we get on board. That leaves the upper deck for us to find a spot before the boat leaves.

The boat HAS a paddlewheel. It doesn't propel the boat nor does it turn. It's just there to complete the "look" of the boat.

The Tom Sawyer blows her whistle at noon and off we head upstream against the 3 MPH current of the river.

There just isn't a way to take a bad picture of the Gateway Arch from the river.

Along the river we saw one of the newest towboats sitting on the riverbank waiting for another towboat and barge to come downriver.

The new Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge just opened this past February. It looks very similar to the Alton (Clark) Bridge a few miles upstream.

We turned around about 30 min into the trip. Here's a picture looking back at the Eads Bridge with the Metro train on the lower level.

Pretty ladies.

The dock is just below one of the Arch legs. Taking a picture of the arch on the way back to the car is a no brainer.

We drove around town taking pictures of buildings with great looking architecture. There weren't many.

In contrast, the old Union Station was great looking - inside and out.

Union Station was built in 1894 and by the time the World's Fair of 1904 opened in St. Louis there were 22 railroads using the station. The trains would back into the trainshed to load and unload passengers. The roof covering these trains was the largest roof span in the world.

Here you can almost get an idea of how wide the span is.

Eventually airplanes took away the business of the railroads and in 1978 the last train left the station. The building was converted in the early 1980s into a hotel, shopping center, and entertainment complex.

The hotel has over 500 rooms.

The shopping area had MANY empty storefronts.

There were as many employees eating lunch in the food court as there were shoppers.

Our finale for the evening was a projection show on the ceiling inside the sitting area of the Grand Hall of the Hotel.

2014-10-23 Meet Me in St Louis Arch

First off, let's get the name straight. Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. The memorial commemorates the Louisiana Purchase, the slavery debate because of the Dred Scott case, and the first civilized government west of the Mississippi.

So what's here?
There's a 91 acre park, the Old Courthouse, a museum (Museum of the Westward Expansion) inside the Arch, and the Gateway Arch itself.

Our walk from the parking lot to the Arch was lined with trees dressed in their fall colors. I don't think we need to go to Vermont to see trees change colors. They are everywhere. And Vermont certainly doesn't have THIS as a backdrop.

We bought tickets online last night so that we could get in one of the 8 elevator cars (they hold 5 people each) at the time we wanted. The set of cars leaves every 10 minutes.

Here's what ONE of the elevator pods looks like. As they go from the basement of the Arch, up a leg, and then to the top, and they rotate to keep you level.

The stainless steel arch is such a beautiful structure. The triangular bases are 51' on all three sides at the bottom. They taper to 17' at the top where the observation area is located.

Once you are up to the top you'll find room for about 100 people.

These are the windows you get to look out of. There is a set of 16 on each side.

The Old Courthouse is sitting to our west. I see they are putting a lid over the freeway to make access to the Arch easier.

We can also see the St Louis Cardinals baseball team's stadium. (If they had made it into the World Series this city would have been a zoo this week)

Artsy Fartsy shot of the Arch's shadow.

Karen's dreaming about a cruise on the Mississippi River again.

They are rebuilding their floodwall and McDonald's used to have a floating restaurant on the waterfront.

The Museum of the Westward Expansion is confusing. It looks like 1/2 of a wagon wheel and it doesn't lend itself well to following westward expansion in a chronological order. You just kind of wander around.

The back wall has panels of Lewis and Clark's journey from St Louis to the Pacific Ocean and back. The panels use words from the writings of about 6 of the men who kept journals.

There were some working audioanimatronics also. This guy explained how he was choosen to make the peace medal that they took with them.

Sadly, some weren't working and just held their head down in shame.

We walked up to the Old Courthouse and it is really pretty inside.

History lesson time. This courthouse heard the Dred Scott case. Dred was a slave but his owner moved to a non-slave state and then back again and by the laws of the state he should have been free. So he sued for his freedom. The ruling was that Africans could not claim citizenship and therefore could not bring suit in court. The judge basically ruled the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional.

The resultant public outrage increased tension between the North and the South, prompted Abraham Lincoln to re-enter politics, and led to the Civil War.

Karen has a great eye for finding these lovely shots to take.