We had another huge storm on saturday night. Thunder and lightening and torrential rain. I thought we would wake up to a lovely clear day, but it was still going strong in the morning. Roland was not very keen on driving in those conditions, but we were meeting my friend Leslye to celebrate her birthday in St. Louis.
We left in torrential rain and it was still bucketing down two hours later.
Lunch was in Leslye's son's home, his so called 'starter' home, which I think to most people would be a pretty good permanent home. It was interesting to go into a fairly typical home of the younger generation. He is a lawyer and has just got married. His main interest is sport and to keep him up to date with what is going on in the sporting world, he has 8 televisions. Not piddly, little televisions, but great, half room monster, flat screen ones. All on, with different games and sports. The large basement, so typical of american houses was also dedicated to sport. Memorabilia, TV's. a bar to keep you lubricated while you watch and lots of big sofas!
We spent rather too long over lunch and then had the lightening tour of St. Louis, starting with the arch.
It is far more impressive in real life and actually rather beautiful.
As you can see, the rain had actually stopped. The arch is right by the Missouri river, which is a very wide, muddy affair. Impressive rather than beautiful. They got rid of a lot of old industrial buildings to create this park and put up the arch and they seem to have almost erased the past, which is a pity.
They still have the Eads bridge, which was the first cantilever bridge in the world. It's the one in front.
We were lucky with our timing. There was no queue to go up the arch. Apparently you can wait for 4 hours. Roland didn't want to come. He is not too good with heights. But curiosity got the better of him and he didn't want to miss out, so he came.
The whole thing is very old fashioned. You go up in tiny capsules, that hold 5 small people.
The viewing chamber up the top is also small, and the windows even smaller. You do, however get a pretty good view over St. Louis.
The building in the centre is the old court house and it is rather lost amongst the skyscrapers.
This is the Cardinals stadium. The St. Louis baseball team.
Roland was very pleased to come down and his colour improved considerably. He's glad he did it and won't be doing it again.
Our last port of call was a famous ice cream parlour- or frozen custard as they call it. I had a small tub and could hardly finish it. Rather too much hot fudge sauce! The parlour just happened to be on the old route 66, so that called for a photo.
We weren't dressed appropriately for the photo, but never mind.
We were given a quick drive round the city just to give an impression of the place. It is huge, spread out and very green. It has one of the biggest metropolitan public parks in the world, Forest Park, which covers 1,370 acres right in the centre of town, left over from the 1904 world fair. The art gallery also dates from that time. What we see looks pretty prosperous.There is a lot to see and we intend to come back and do it over several days.
By the time we are driving home, the sky is clear and we get another fantastic sunset. Sorry, I get a bit carried away with them.
As you see, America is big on telegraph poles and cables. None of it is hidden.
This week, the college is hosting it's annual symposium, which this year is on global conflict. The star guest is James Baker, who was secretary of state, secretary of the treasury and other important positions under a number of presidents. He is eighty, but still very on the ball, articulate, informed and runs up stairs!
He speaks to a packed auditorium and there are a lot of media people present. He very pointedly in his examples, only talks about the first gulf war and it is pretty obvious he was against the second but is being tactful. He takes questions from the floor and impresses with his intelligence, knowledge and good sense. This is not someone who would rush into something without looking at all the alternatives and someone who would be aware of the consequences of his actions! unlike some!!!
We meet him again at the president's house for a reception.
Roland has quite a long talk with him and confirms our impressions. I just get to shake his hand! It was very interesting to be able to hear and meet a man who held considerable power in this country. It's a pity there aren't a few more of his calibre around.
Back to reality today. It has been in the 90's for the last week, but this is supposed to be the last day of summer! Tomorrow it is going to drop to 70 and you would think the big freeze had started. I can't imagine the cold, but we know it's coming. The next month however is supposed to be beautiful, so will try to enjoy it while it lasts.
Couldn't resist taking this photo. It was parked just up the street.
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