Phill's driver's license was set to be delivered to Mr. Faulkner's house this morning. But just after breakfast, Mr. Faulkner called us and said that the UPS truck had beat him into the office. Phill immediately got on the phone with the UPS store in Hopkinsville and a very nice woman helped him track down where the UPS driver was at currently with his package, so Phill went off on a UPS truck chase! At first he thought he might catch him at the factories in Pembroke, but by the time he got there, he had missed the truck. So he called UPS back again and she thought he might be able to catch him at the nursing center in Pembroke. He raced to make it there and caught the driver as he was leaving the building. Mission accomplished! Had we been in any other city, I'm not sure that we would have had as much help as we did in tracking him down. Good ol' Hoptown!
We finally got on the road around noon – a bit of a late start. But we didn't have a whole lot to see, so we just trucked along and decided that we would probably make it our longest driving day. We got to St. Louis, Missouri around dinnertime and decided to go into the city and walk around a bit. Right on the Mississippi River waterfront is the Gateway Arch Monument – a 630-foot arch celebrating the mind of Jefferson and western discovery. The arch is in a quiet park that used to be the site of historic St. Louis. Passenger trams go to the top of the arch and overlook for miles of the city. We didn't go up since we had Bailey with us and were a little bit limited on time. What I found interesting about the tram though was that although the arch slopes inward, motors keep the tram completely level as it ascends. Between the two legs of the arch, underground there is a museum and learning center devoted to history of the nation's march west – most notably the Louis and Clark expedition. And apparently it is made to withstand any foreseeable natural calamity. Engineers claim that in an 150 mile per hour wind, the top would sway about eighteen inches. That's good, I guess, but I don't think I'd want to be up there with wind like that.
If you're standing at the Mississippi waterfront and looking into the city, you can see the Old Courthouse and the Old Cathedral. We didn't get a chance to go into either, but the buildings were fantastic. It's a neat city because there's a lot of historical buildings mixed in with new modern buildings. You just don't see stuff like that the further west you go.
After reading more about the history of the city, we were amazed when we realized how much the country changed in just 100 years between 1800 and 1900. It was founded in 1764 and outfitted Louis and Clark for their expedition in 1803. When they came back and reported their findings, St. Louis became the trading port for beaver fur that the expedition had uncovered. Fur prices eventually dropped, but the new boom of westward emigration began. The city outfitted all sorts of pioneers from gold seekers headed to California to pioneers headed out on the Oregon traill. Go back to 1800 and a whole half of a country was undiscovered. Then just 90 years later, there was no longer a definable frontier. The century was one of western exploration, mountain men trading furs, Indians being displaced, pioneers on the Oregon trail, 49ers searching for gold, cowboys in the plains, etc. Pretty incredible to think about.
We're pressing on now. Not sure how far we'll make it, but we hope to get near central Kansas tonight. It's getting dark quickly, but since we had such a late start, we still feel energized and motivated to go.
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