We fly back into Newark Liberty International airport and after picking up our car (we needed to have a jump start again) we travelled to Ardsley to spend a few days with our friends the Lances. When we had visited in July a number of our friends were away on holiday so this gave us the chance to meet up with those we missed. We had a great time and it was a wonderful preparation for our trip back to Oregon. We had taken a relatively leisurely 10 day trip when coming to New York from Seattle taking a route across the northern States. The return journey was going to be a bit more of a slog covering 2800 miles in about 6 days, this time cutting across the centre of the country. So far we had done 49 States, the only State we had missed was Missouri so this was a chance to get our 50th and last.
After stopping over in Breezewood, Pennsylvania and St Robert, Missouri we arrived in the City of St Louis. We are so excited to have completed our collection of States. St Louis’ location is at confluence of two great rivers, the Missouri and Mississippi and because of this it became the centre of the exploration of the Western areas of the United States; hence it’s nickname the “Gateway City”. Its importance as hub of exploration the City grew at a rapid pace, in fact at the country entered the 20th Century St Louis was the 4th largest city in the Union. The settlement of St Louis, not surprisingly, was established by the French and did not come under the control of the United States until the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.
With our time limited we head for the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, a national park located on the downtown riverfront where the city was first founded in 1764. It commemorates the westward growth of the United States. Located below the vast Gateway Arch (we’ll talk about this a bit later on) is the Museum of Westward Expansion, which contains an extensive collection of artefacts. It tells the story of the thousands of people who lived in and settled the American West during the nineteenth century. We chose to start our visit to the Museum which allows us to meet up again with our friends, and explorers, Lewis and Clark. St Louis is where they started their great adventure to uncover the new lands acquired by the United States under the Louisiana Purchase. Our journey across the country had crossed their paths on more than one occasion. The Museum documents their exploits and those of the people who followed them and the Native American people who lived in those lands. To help us on our journey through the Museum there are interpreters who aid the bringing to life of the exhibits. After the Museum we go to one of the two theatres showing two very different movies. The first is an excellent depiction of the story of Lewis and Clark’s expeditionary journey and second tells the amazing story on the building of the Gateway Arch. Just watching the construction workers in the movie was enough to give you vertigo. After the movie it was our chance to experience the real thing, to go the top of the Arch. We had seen pictures of the Arch, but you cannot get a sense of the spectacle without a visit. It is truly impressive, and we agreed the most spectacular tower or building we had seen in all of our travels. To reach the top you 
have to take an amazing ride on an elevator-come-cable car that takes you up and around the curvature of the Arch to the very top. You climb into cosy capsules built for four; they are truly tiny so this is not for people with severe claustrophobia (Karen is a sufferer but managed to fight her fears). The journey is a few minutes long and takes you to the very apex of the Arch, it is somewhat disconcerting to know that all that is between you and the ground 350 feet below is a bit of steel. The Arch at the top is only a few feet wide. There are observation windows where you can look out across the Mississippi and towards the downtown area. The Gateway Arch is the centrepiece of the Park and is easily is the most recognisable structure in the city. It was designed by noted architect Eero Saarinen and completed on October 28, 1965. At 630 feet (192 m), it is the tallest man-made monument in the country. After a few minutes gazing out of the observation windows we climb back into the cable car and head back down to terra firma. We spent several very entertaining hours at the National Monument before setting off to our next stop over.
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