Key West Roadtrip 2023 - Day Thirteen - The Gateway And The Way Home

UPDATE 02-04-2023

The Gateway Arch looking east.

On our last day we had breakfast at the hotel and then headed to downtown St. Louis to visit the Gateway Arch.  We'd both been there before but we were both kids. I think I was there in the 1968 - 1971 time frame only a few years after it was finished in 1965.

We went through the museum portion fairly quickly before watching a movie documenting the construction of the arch.  The movie felt like the cheesy films we used to watch in school in the pre-VCR days which is probably when it was made.

After the movie we got in line to go up the arch.  Getting here early on a Tuesday morning has its advantages as the line was only eight people long.  The elevator/tram that takes you up 620 feet (189 m) to the top consists of five tiny cars that hold five people each.  The Wife and I had a car to ourselves.  The door is glass but, since the tram runs on the inside of the concrete and steel arch you only see the interior staircase on the way up.  Apparently before 1967 walking up the one thousand and seventy-six stairs was the only way to the top.  The tram is described as a combination of an elevator, escalator, and a Ferris wheel.  You can feel the cars rock a little as they follow the curve of the arch.

St. Louis, Missouri looking west from the top of the Gateway Arch.

At the top you have ten minutes to take in the sights (a COVID restriction).  We were lucky and we had mostly clear skies this day and could see all the way to the horizon.  The view of the city is pretty cool.

After coming back down we raided the gift shop for shirts and magnets before heading back to the road.  The Wife had developed a wicked cold over the past day so I would be doing all the driving today.  The sixish hour drive back home was uneventful as the ice storm that had been forecast went south of our route.

This roadtrip felt very long and I will confess that I was ready to go home somewhere around day nine.  Not sure why it felt so long.  I may have some thoughts about that in a later post.  Suffice it to say the Wife and I learned some things this trip.

Photos can be found in my 2023-01 Key West Roadtrip Google Photos album.