Day 49 Home

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Day 48 The St. Louis Arch

Today was another long day. We were going to take a shorter route to St. Louis, but it got flooded by the Missouri River. So it was one detour after another looking for a place we could cross the river. It was also so foggy that you could look straight into the sun and it wouldn’t hurt your eyes…so we took pictures of it. Of course, that meant it was also hard to see the road. Finally, we got past all the detours and arrived at our destination: The Gateway of the West (otherwise known as the St. Louis Arch).

When we got there, even from the road, the arch was towering over our car. We went to a grand visitor’s center before going to the arch. Then we went to the arch itself. We bought tickets; then we went up to the top. To get to the top, we had to cram into a tiny tram that was circular and only held 5 people. It was in the inside of the legs of the arch. We could see the construction of the inside through a little window in the door. It took 4 minutes to get up, but only 3 to come back down. A cool part about the tram was that, even though we were going through the arch on an angle, we were always sitting straight up and down. At the top, I looked out the tiny windows and I could see all of St. Louis (well, that might be exaggerating a little). On the way back down we met up with a nice lady who rode down with us. We went outside and admired the arch.

Day 47 Hastings, NE

Today was a long day. We woke up early, got breakfast and hit the road. I played the ipad, watched the scenery (flatland and cows), listened to some music, rested a little, played the ipad, listened to music, watched the scenery, went to the hospital in Hastings where Pa was born, took a picture, played the ipad, ran it out of battery, charged it, watched a cog railway movie, played the ipad, plugged my nose from the smell of cow manure, looked at scenery (still flatland and cows), listened to music, played the ipad, arrived at the hotel, and ate at a wonderful pancake house.

Day 46 Pike's Peak

Today we went on a Cog Railway train to Pike’s Peak. A cog train is different from a normal train. It has a wheel in the middle of the track that works like a gear with the train. Cog trains are used when he track is steep. When we got on the train it was huge. It was two cars put together. We sat across the aisle from some very nice people who were going to run in the Pike’s Peak marathon on Sunday. When we got to the top we had some hot chocolate and special donuts that can only be made at 14,000 feet. It was a great view and that is also where the lady who wrote “America the Beautiful” was inspired. It was really cold and it even snowed while we were up there! On the way down, we saw some yellow-bellied marmots and mountain goats on the rocks. When we got to the station, everyone asked, “How was the ride?” We all said, “AWESOME!”