2010-07-07
At 10:30, Tony wakes up Evan and I, because we had a reservation for visiting the arch at 11:30. By 11, we were on our way over, and by 11:15, we had found a parking spot, ran/jogged for 50 feet, given up and continued walking, and finally reached the entrance to the arch.
To get to the top of the arch, you not only have to have a reservation, but you have to go through the visitors' entrance, which resembles a miniature Grand Central Station. It's even underground, accessed by two ramps which lie directly under the two sides of the arch. At the bottom of these ramps is a security checkpoint. After the security checkpoint is the gift shop, bathroom, and Westward Expansion Museum. Moving on, another ramp descends from the security checkpoint down to six "elevator" shafts located at points along the underground path of the arch.
When we arrived at the first ramp, it was fully packed all the way down to the security checkpoint - we were way too late to make our reservation. Luckily, the visitor in front of us, apparently not concerned about keeping an appointment, overheard our dilemma, and suggested that we go to the other side of the arch, which is on the far side of the arch from the parking lot, because the line might be shorter. We picked up our pace again and sure enough, the other side of the arch was completely line-free, and we made our appointment.
As I said earlier, visitors are transported to the top of the arch through "elevator" shafts. I say "elevator" because the thing resembles more closely an egg seat from "Men in Black," except that the tour guides manage to fit five anxious tourists into each pod. As the pod rises through the arch, it has to rotate at several points so that visitors don't arrive at the top of the arch at a 45 degree angle. The rattling of these sudden, periodic, and jolting rotations, combined with the view of the out-of-commision, old, metal stairs just outside our pod's viewing window can be a little off-setting, but the ride is only a few minutes (5 up and 3 down), and worth the wait. At the top of the arch, the floor, windows, and ceiling curve with the arch, because the arch is not wide enough to provide for a classically rectangular room large enough for the tourist demand. The windows lean out slightly, so visitors can look straight down.
After about five minutes at the top, we got bored of the view and left the monument for our next checkpoint, Pappy's BBQ. Aside from the obvious, they had fried corn on the cob, which dad liked, and Evan had baked beans.
We left straight from Pappy's for Kansas City, where we already had a hotel reservation (we used Hotwire extensively this trip). However, we had to find a shot glass for Evan first. He collects them, and for some reason they weren't selling them at the Gateway Arch. Long story short, we made several detours that lasted over an hour in themselves, and finally met success at a Flying J west of St. Louis on I-70.
Our hotel in Kansas City was literally right across the street from the Royals' and Chiefs' stadium. We got in early, and the room was fairly nice, so we decided to order pizza from the hotel restaurant, despite the fact that the hotel keycards had Domino's ads printed on them. Then things got sour; the pizza was made with cheddar cheese, and the free internet was quirky. We were staying at a Clarion, so when we looked for wireless connections, and found a "Clarion" wireless network, we figured that was it, but the signal was awful. However, there was an open "Holiday Inn" wireless network that worked perfectly. We noted the Holiday Inn across the street out of our window, and, though puzzled, gratefully accepted our luck. As it turns out, that Clarion used to be a Holiday Inn, and they had never changed the name of the network, so the Holiday Inn wireless network was actually the correct one. Thanks for the heads up, front desk.
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