The gateway to the west is a huge arch in St Louis, Missouri. It was so large that it didn't look real, even standing by it. We had the opportunity to go up this 630 feet (192m) monument. To get up the beast you first have to clamber into a small pod. They squeeze 5 people into these, so me, my parents and 2 amish folk got in. The ride up was stressful to say the least. It felt like a rickety amusement park ride and i was half expecting it to fall at any moment. Fortunately it didn't. We survived!
The view from the top was pretty epic. They say that you can see up to 30 miles on a clear day. It was definitely a clear day. I've put some pictures up on the photo section and I'll put more on Facebook when I get round to it.
The trip down was pretty similar to the ride up. Just as terrifying and nauseating but at least by that point I knew the view was worth it.
We also went on a river tour on the "Tom Sawyer". We learnt intriguing facts from the captain such as "On our right is a pile of rock salt covered by some tarps. That's there because we had too much rock salt at the end of the winter so hopefully we will have enough to spread on the roads next winter." Fascinating. Being on a fake steam paddle boat is fun and it is definitely exciting to be on a fake steam paddle boat on the Mississippi river.
We went through the gateway to the west, so as my dad said, the rest of America will be wild, filled with cowboys and bandits.
The remainder of this section of the trip didn't take long (or, at least, I wasn't awake for most of it), and now we are in Kansas with Nik, Shana, Rex and the menagerie.
