Thelma here. That's actually an example sentence in my vocab curriculum, for the word "salient," which means, "striking, conspicuous, most noticeable." We figured that since the Arch is the SALIENT LANDMARK of St. Louis, we had to visit.
Thing is, St. Louis is undergoing this crazy thing called, "Road Construction," so every route, and we mean, EVERY ROUTE didn't work. At one point, the GPS was trying to have us park in the water at the levees.
So, after yet another two times across the Mississippi, we parked a good 1/2-mile away and figured that since we've just spent the last few days in a car, the exercise was necessary.
The Arch? It's amazing. You ride up/down in a space pod, which takes about four minutes each way.
The view is incredible, and since Missouri is flat, you can see for miles.
On our way out of town, we stopped in for frozen custard at Ted Drewes Frozen Custard. The place has been in business for over 80 years.
As we drove along, we kept seeing advertisements along the highway (which we were paralleling) for Meramec Caverns, which were used by the Union to mine saltpeter during the Civil War (but was in Confederate territory...that was just *slightly* problematic), and then used by Jesse James as a hideout after a pretty impressive heist.
You know...we're on a road trip. That means, we can stop and see things...such as Jesse James's hideout. Truth be told, there wasn't that much about the Civil War or Mr. James, but the stalagmites and the stalactites ended up being pretty impressive. They actually have the third largest stalagmite in the world (eclipsed only by China and New Zealand).
At the end, they take you to the Theatre Room, where they project a very sweet, moving, patriotic film on the "curtain" made of the formations.
We're glad we stopped. Oh! Did I also mention that the ambient temperature in the cave was 65-degrees? Considering that it was 90-degrees outside, we felt that detour was quite advantageous (especially since it was 95-minutes long!).
Tomorrow, who knows what adventures we'll find?
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