Gateway Arch

Gateway Arch! WOW...this thing is huge as it's height towered over most of the downtown buildings. We did go back in time as we hoppped on the TOM SAWYER River boat and took a short and informative cruise on the Mississippi River. We then proceeded inside the Arch. Boy, the "bucket/space-like" contraption we rode in looked like something from "Lost in Space" (picture to come in a day or so...OH THANKS TO BILL BISHOP FOR OVERNIGHTING my Camera Cable...it is currently in Denver and will be awaiting me in Cheyenne when we arrive...pics tomorrow evening sometime, probably late..THANKS BILL!!!)

Looking down from the arch, people literally look like moving ants! The Arch gave a great view of down town, the riverside looking back into Illinois, and directly into the Cardinals Baseball Stadium. The Arch facility also has a great museum inside showing our countries expansion west, mode of transportaion and the good and bad times it could have represented.

Lunch was in "THE HILL" district which was reccommended by Dr. Holland of GSO, we had a fantastic 2pm Italian lunch at "Zia's" before we headed out....We needed a nap but had to forge "WEST"....well Lori got the nap...2days...2 naps and counting...

So today we left Missouri, and this moring we wake in Grand Island Nebraska....I'm just not sure how this place came to be, because it is truly in the middle of NO WHERE! And there's no water surrounding it......We will be in Cheyenne Wyoming after lunch to participate in Frontier Days, and the worlds largest Rodeo event is happening which we will attend tonight...See us on ESPN (Yeah I'm Sure).

All the girls are asleep and i feel like I could go back, but that will have to wait.....

Wildlife Seen Yesterday: Deer. CORN! Hawks, more Deer and MORE CORN...lololo I have to tell you, Coming out of Kansas City, on the interstate, it waas a littl quite as the girls were watching a Walton's episode (kids ask your folks), and Lori screamed "I saw a deer!" I mean she screamed....she said, "it was beside the road, it was tiny, it had spots"..... Her excitement continued for a while as I laughed, and then giggled later....it apparently was a new fawn, perhaps very new as she said it could not have been more than 2 feet tall...I would loved to have seen it as well but her reaction was priceless...lesson, to bad for all the old dear we saw, their not exciting...

Comment of the day comes from Hailey: "Dad, I don't know how people can actually say that most Americans are lazy. All we have seen is fields full of corn and other stuff, these large industrial plants we've never seen before, the barge workers along the Mississippi, all those who get the stuff from fields to the barges. People work hard in America."


Earlier in the day at the Arch museum I had pointed out a specific picture to the girls and read the heading, it read: "This is a hard life to swallow, but I just couldn't sit back and look to someone to feed us"...this was stated by a Migratory Worker....somehow I feel this point needs to be reinforced today!

Have a great Friday!