The Joys of Traveling

Date 11-29-2013 02:21 Edited 11-29-2013 02:30

Spent the last few days out in St. Louis doing some training for my new gig. On the way up we took a wrong turn and ended up at the riverfront at the base of the Arch. Told my daughter who was with me we would come back on Thanksgiving day on our way home as it was dark and we could not get good pictures.

This morning we took off, 18 degrees outside, got lost downtown St. Louis again, went the wrong way on a one way street!! LoL!! Lucky for us it was 6 a.m so nobody to worry about and out of state tags so I think any officers in the area would have understood. We get to the arch and wanted to park in the parking garage. Closed due to the holiday, a parking garage? Ok, so we drove down the road on the river front and pulled onto the sidewalk a bit, turned on the hazards. Told my daughter it was worth a ticket if they decided to give me one. We ran up the stairs and hit the north leg, took some pictures then hauled butt back to the truck to thaw out. Another attempt at the south leg, got some better pictures but still a little dark to get real good shots but enough to know what your looking at!

We rushed back to the truck to thaw once again then decided it was time to make our way home. Traveling and being a road warrior has it's down times but seeing cool stuff like this makes it worth it.

Sorry about a couple of the pictures being blurry. I had the camera set on manual and had it set for low light, aperture, film speed, etc., and did not have my camera tripod, freezing my yams off so needless to say some were a bit blurred!

My daughter doing her "Rocky Balboa" on top of the steps. (120k)

By JMCInc

Date 11-29-2013 17:01

That pic of your truck at the base of the arch really puts it into perspective. Amazing what man can do when he puts his mind to it.

I recently hauled a car to Phoenix and returned through Flagstaff then went by the Vermillion cliffs - came in on the heels of a storm so the air was clean and the rocks were clean and wet. Temps were perfect for a MT boy; one of the prettiest places I've seen looking over the hood of a truck. And the worst traffic I've ever experienced in my life was Salt Lake at rush hr.

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By jbndt

Date 11-29-2013 18:03 Edited 11-29-2013 18:07

JMCInc -

Ahhh,

Rush hour in "The Spaghetti Bowl" ... Your life is now complete!

Next time, pull off and have a GREAT meal at The Red Iguana.
The traffic and your sinuses will be well cleared by the time you finish!

Shawn,

The truck would have really stood out if it were RED !!! :twisted:

Cheers,
jb

(Edit Reason - Another senior moment..)

By Cumminsguy71 (*****)

Date 11-29-2013 18:13 Edited 11-29-2013 18:16

Awesome pictures! Nice Caddy too! My Grandma loved Cadillac convertibles. She always had one that her and Grandpa would go out and ride around in. They were never top notch show pieces but simply a Cadillac convertible. I believe most were in the 63-65 range. Last one she had just rotted into the ground. They were up in years and just couldn't get out like the wanted to.

The truck at the base was just a lucky shot. I ran across the street(freezing my arse off) and looked up at the arch. Saw the truck in the pre dawn light and it looked really cool with the lights on so snapped a few pictures. Ran down towards the river to try and get a full shot of the arch but could not fit it. I'll be back up that way often so next time I'm going to catch it as the sun rises over the horizon on and just starts to hit the arch. It's 650 feet tall from what I've read, been higher but would be cool. I quickly checked out the welds on that thing and you can see the welds all in the seams all over the place. Was not very interested in it at first but seeing it in the dark twice and it is really cool.

I'm headed out to Wichita here in the next few days. Trying to get pumped up for flat empty fields and cattle, just having a hard time getting excited about it!! I hope I can catch a glimpse of the Rockies way off in the distance but don't know if that's even possible. It is a 300 foot tower so maybe my perspective will give me an advantage! Kansas, Nebraska and most of the upper east coast rank way down at the bottom when it comes to places I'd like to see.

Worst traffic for me? Hmmm, not so much bad traffic but Quincy, Illinois has some of the rudest s.o.b's I've come across as far as driving. As far as traffic, I'm going with Atlanta, GA. Was stuck in that mess a few times, yikes!!