Saint Louis Arch and Busch Stadium

Monday, August 20, 2011

Had breakfast with Betty, cinnamon where on toast, juice, coffee and grapes.  We had conversation for about 45 minutes.  We had thought she really didn’t want interaction, but she said it was lonely and that she loved it when Affordable people came through so she could meet some new people and talk.  She was funny and really sharp.  She told us she had lived in her neighborhood longer than was probably legal!  She also said sometimes she gets a hankering to get out of here and she would pack her bag, and then decide to go out for dinner and to a movie and come home and unpack her bag!  She was adorable. We headed out toward Forest Park and caught the metro to downtown and got off at Arch Laclede’s landing.  The arch is enormous and very beautiful.  It was built to beautify the downtown St Louis waterfront. 

The have a Westward Expansion Museum underground as well as various IMAX shows and a ride to the top.  We elected to do the museum.  They had a very interesting summary of American history from the early 1800’s on in timeline format.  We learned where the saying Uncle Sam came from  .Sam Wilson, a meatpacker in Troy, New York is called “Uncle”Sam to distinguish him from a younger Samuel Wilson from the same town.  Soldier’s began to call Wilson’s meat “Uncle Sam’s” because of the stamp “U.S.”on the provision boxes.  We also learned where the expression O.K. came from The expression “OK” came into use during Martin Van Buren’s presidential campaign.  His nickname was “Old Kinderhook” because his birthplace was Kinderhook, New York.  Although the expression became an ubiquitous Americanism, Van Buren lost the campaign and the Presidency.

We then went to the Old Historic Courthouse which is run by the National Park Service.  This is where the historic Dred Scott case was heard and the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that African Americans were not US Citizens and therefore not protected by the Constitution but were property of their owners, therefore ruling slavery as Constitutional.  This was part of the beginning of the Civil War.

 We had lunch at Calico’s.  Jodi once again chose wisely and ordered an Italian hot meat sandwich with steamed vegetables.  Jack got a Philly Steak and got his vegetables in fry form and beer to wash it all down.  Num.  Then on to walking downtown area including War memorial and museum, Busch Stadium where the 2011 World Series champs St. Louis Cardinals play baseball.  The city was dead except at the arch.  Where are you St Louis natives?

To all my fellow Seattle sports fans, I sure wonder what this might feel like!

  Ended up at the Union Station which is a beautiful old building converted to a Marriott hotel and mall.  Still very few people.  Caught the metro back to Forest Park where we got coffee.  Went back to the campground and made our egg scramble.  We were out of milk for breakfast so left the campground in search of.  Foolish Jodi wanted to find a  real grocery store with fresh produce.  Yeah right.  We passed one convenience store and drove on.  The next one only had 2 percent gallons.  The next one had the same thing but an added feature.  It had what looked like a sports book in the back with many TV’s with horse racing.  Lots of beer and liquor for sale, no produce fresh or otherwise and still no ½ gallons of milk.  Realizing what a sketchy neighborhood my beloved had picked for us to stay in. Tried a few more convenience stores and finally gave up. Were we going to be safe in our campground?  Gave up on milk, returned to the lull of traffic, trains and cicadas, and churchbells.