Post 3 of 17
Day 7: St. Louis to New Albany, Indiana - 341 Miles
Gateway Arch Day - One of the most iconic monuments in America
We get out early and drive down to Gateway Arch National Park. It's about 8:30 Monday morning. Downtown has no cars and very few people. Driving is a cinch. We snap a pic of Busch Stadium and find a place to park down by the river - the Mississippi River.
We make our way over to the park.
The Arch is really something. It was originally conceived to be a memorial on the riverfront to commemorate the westward expansion of the country. Several obstacles had to be overcome regarding site location, funding and moving several railroad tracks. Designs didn't happen until the 1950's and a large arch was finally agreed upon for the structure. Ground was broken in 1959 and it was dedicated in October 1965. It didn't open to the public, however, until 1967.
The arch is 630 feet tall and is the tallest monument in the United States. It is has a stainless steel skin and shimmers on the bank of the Mississippi. Elevator pods will take you to the top and you can walk through the very top portion of the arch. The windows up there could be bigger, though.
We head for the visitor center, which is a very nicely designed space set underground between the two foundations. A fascinating movie details the construction. St. Louis was the main jumping off point for the pioneers. Exhibits cover the massive undertaking required to move the settlers west.
We pop up right under the arch - it is awe inspiring.
The base portions are enormous. The arch was designed for 150 mile/hour winds. You know, the kind a tornado has.
"Man. That sumbitch is tall," said the man in the yellow t-shirt.
The Mississippi waterfront
Looking west
The shimmer.......
The Old Courthouse
We hop back in the car and drive around downtown. There's some amazing architecture. There are still very very few people to be seen.
The AT&T Center
We catch the Martin Luther King Bridge and cross the Mississippi over to East St. Louis in Illinois. Things are a bit sketchy as we head over to the Mississippi River Overlook to catch a view of the Arch with the St. Louis skyline.
It's already almost noon, and we are all of about 4 miles from our starting point. Better get a move on. We jump onto I-64 east and set our sights on Lincoln's Boyhood National Memorial - 193 miles up the freeway. There's tornados lurking, but not where we're going right now.
The freaking memorial is, of course, closed today. The nice park ranger lady let's us use the rest room and peek around a bit. She directs us a mile away to Abe's actual homestead.
We park and hike a ways down a quiet path to Abraham Lincoln's boyhood homestead. He was born in Kentucky (tomorrow's target) but the family moved here when he was seven and set up a small farm. It's quite idyllic.
It's virtually impossible to plan a trip , select places you want to see and then have them all line up to be open on the days you are there. My vast list of "Things To Do" was too vast to look everything up. It's now become very apparent that we will miss several items on the list, a sad, but necessary revelation. We agree that the list is now just a list of "Suggestions" and not "Must Sees." Be that as it may, we are still picking off sites at an extraordinary rate - and we have to be happy with that. You can only do what you can do.
Next up is a place I've wanted to see since 1979. Larry Bird burst onto the college basketball scene as he led his Illinois State Sycamores team to a 33-0 record and into the NCAA finals against Magic Johnson and his Michigan State Spartans. An epic game saw Magic's team win and Bird and Magic would go on to two of the most incredible careers the NBA has ever seen. Their rivalry helped save a faltering league and pave the way for Jordan and all those that followed. As such, we are now only 54 miles from his hometown, French Lick, Indiana.
French Lick is a quaint small town of fewer than 2,000 people. But, there is plenty going on in the area. A trading post popped up in 1840 near a sulphur spring and a salt lick used by wild animals. It soon became known as a spa town.
French Lick
A hotel was established by 1845 and continued to grow over the years. After nearly failing during the 1929 stock market crash, they rebranded and went with a golf theme. Eventually, the hotel went through a $382 million renovation project, including the addition of a casino and updating its 443 guest rooms. It now includes 2,600 acres, three golf courses, hotels, the casino, restaurants, boutique shops, a spa and a conference center. It's kind of a big deal.
French Lick Springs Hotel
Famous guests
French Lick Casino
195 Casino
We make our way over to Larry's house.
How many games of HORSE were played on this hoop over the yesrs??
West Baden Springs is about a mile north and is home to the West Baden Springs Hotel, also part of the French Lick Resort. Another fabulous hotel, also on the National Register of Historic Places.
Thinking it was just a big round building, a surprise awaited us inside. A 200' high dome shelters 500 rooms. It opened in 1903 after taking just 270 days to complete - for around $500,000. Absolutely amazing.
High Society
Several nice gardens on the grounds
We work our way to Hwy 150 and wind through the charming burg of Paoli, IN - population about 3,700.
Orange County Courthouse
Its about 7 o'clock and we are still an hour away from the hotel. We are staying in New Albany, IN - just across the Ohio River from Louisville. We drop our bags at 8 and head into New Albany in search of dinner.
Our search bears no fruit, so we head over to the waterfront, climb up on the dike to an observation deck and look over onto the state of Kentucky for the first time.
Sherman Minton Bridge - I-64 over the Ohio River.
So, we decide to venture across the river to Louisville. It's dark now but we wander about and finally find a restaurant on the far side of town. On the way back to the hotel we drive by the University of Louisville campus. It's too dark to see. Maybe tomorrow. Back at the room by 9:30. Sheesh - a 13 hour day. The weather report does not look good tomorrow.
Week One in the books. Four to go.
New Albany, Indiana
Total Miles: 3,004
Daily Avg: 429 Miles
Day 8: New Albany to South Charleston, West Virginia - 342 Miles
Really looking forward to today: Louisville sites, including the Louisville Slugger Museum, Churchill Downs, then down to the General George Patton Museum, Fort Knox, Lincoln Birthplace, then, back up Frankfort - the capital. It all comes crashing down. Yesterday, powerful storms and tornados ripped through Kentucky just south of us and killed 19 people. The tornados may still be lingering and several rivers have flooded. Not good.
We scratch Louisville, Patton, Ft. Knox and Abe. We decide to stay north and head straight for Frankfort, to see the capitol. Damn.
It's about 7 AM and a massive squall has just blown through with lots of rain and high winds. The major weather is to the south of us, also heading east, but I think we can stay out in front of it. We pack up and grab a quick breakfast.
Looking east from the hotel entrance at about 7:30
We cross the bridge over the Ohio again and downtown Louisville comes into view. It was dark last night. We blow right through. I wanted to see the Muhammad Ali Center (one of our friends helped with it's design space, but it was closed. Not open Tuesdays - of course.
We reach an incredibly nice Kentucky Welcome Center near Shelbyville, KY - State #46 for us.
From there it is an easy 30 minutes to Frankfort. Everything is lush and green. So far, it is a beautiful state.
We make our way to the capitol building and park. The dome is undergoing some renovation.
We head inside and the place is filled with stunning grey and white marble, with spectacular stairways and columns.
The capitol is about to close for a five year renovation - we got here just in time. I believe this was the senate chamber - they already gone.
We finish up the capitol tour and drive down across the Kentucky River and hop up the nearby hillside to the Frankfort Cemetery.
Daniel Boone is buried here.
A nice view of the capitol
And the town of Frankfort - Population just under 29,000
Its's only around 11:00, too early for lunch, so we head over to the Buffalo Trace Distillery. They say they've been making fine bourbon whiskey for over 200 years. I’m sure they probably have it down by now. Cool place.
Back in Frankfort we scope out the quaint as hell downtown.
Main Street
We park and wander about, settling on a lunch spot several blocks away from the car. We are without jackets. During lunch, the skies open up and the leading edge of the storm we have been running from is here. We wait it out for awhile, but then just scurry back to the car as fast as we can. Got a touch wet. We hop back in the car and try to beat the storm to Lexington.
It's just rainy and windy. Lexington and the University of Kentucky are only a half hour away. Traffic comes to a standstill several miles from the city center. We finally crawl past storied Rupp Arena (another basketball mecca) and make our way to the campus. There is lots of construction, the roads are grid locked and it looks like there's no easy access to the campus. Buh, bye Lexington. It was the worst traffic we encountered on the entire trip.
The last stop for the day is Point Pleasant, West Virginia - 175 miles away, mostly on I-64. It's a pleasant enough drive and we are ahead of the weather again.
Point Pleasant is known for a couple of things. The Point Pleasant Bridge collapse in 1967 and the Mothman, a purportedly winged humanoid creature sighted many times in the area. A movie, The Mothman Prophecies in 2002, starring Richard Gere and Laura Linney, cemented it's place in paranormal folklore - and also included the bridge collapse into the storyline. Having seen the movie a couple times, we are headed for the Mothman Museum.
We get there about 4:40 and the place closes at 5:00. I ask the ticket guy if 20 minutes is worth it, he said yes. The museum is a fun collection of Mothman statues, paraphernalia and news articles about all the encounters.
The place is packed and they are not closing at 5:00. There's actually a lot to look at. I buy a Mothman tin for the garage wall and we step outside into a gathering gale.
The wind is really picking up and it starts raining as we get in the car. It's an hour to the hotel and we won't be directly running away from the storm. We have to drive diagonally in a SE direction. It will get us. About 5 miles out of Point Pleasant all hell breaks loose and it is raining buckets. The wind is howling. It's hard to see and traffic slows to 30 mph - which would make us 2 hours out from the hotel. This could get interesting. My weather app radar says we are still ahead of most of the storm, so we press on and get back to normal rain and wind in about 20 miles. We reach South. Charleston and the safety of the hotel by about 7 PM. It has rained more in the last two days than on all of our previous trips combined.
South Charleston, West Virginia
Total Miles: 3,346
Daily Avg: 418 Miles