Arch Madness

Each day, the landscape is different. No sooner had we left Dayton than those cornfields I mentioned yesterday reappeared. Of course they are not growing this time of year, but they are still everywhere. In the cornfields, along the roads, in the rest areas, and just about everywhere you can imagine there are giant signs advertising fast food, and gas stations, and hotels. They are on giant steel stalks, so they are visible from at least a half-mile away. Occasionally there are so many of them clustered together that if I were an alien reporting back to the ship I would talk about this strange crop made of steel and plastic and lights.

I neglected to mention above that we have now entered that part of the country where the roadside billboards also offer to save our souls.

We seem to have arrived in St. Louis at a very exciting time. It's Arch Madness! This is the regional playoff bracket in the Missouri Valley for an automatic entry into this month's NCAA basketball playoffs. Our hotel, which we picked because it's very close to the Gateway Arch, also seems to be the hotel of choice for many of the fans of the tournament. Go Jays! Yesterday were the semifinals, and Creighton demolished Evansville 99-71. Go Jays! . If Creighton wins today against Illinois State, they may be one of the Cinderella teams in my bracket. It was fun to see all the fans dressed in their team colors in the hotel lobby, and easy enough even for the least observant to figure out who won and who didn't. Go Jays!

I'm sitting in the hotel room right now at about 6:45 AM, looking through the window and watching the sunrise over Busch Stadium. Gorgeous, both the sunrise and the stadium. The sun rises quite late here, since we are on the extreme eastern edge of central time.

Yesterday afternoon we walked down to the Gateway Arch . What a magnificent monument to the Western expansion of the US. I had only seen photos of it before, and for whatever reason thought it was made of concrete. In fact, it's made of triangular sections of stainless steel. The bottom sections are 57'on a side, decreasing to 17' at the top. For you math wonks reading this, the shape of the arch is a perfect inverted catenary, designed by the great architect/designer Eero Saarinen. Because of all the politics usually associated with a project of this type, which was conceived of during the 30s, but not approved until the early 50s, then redesigned by Saarinen in 1957, he did not live to see its completion in 1965. (Saarinen died in 1961). St. Louis was the stepping off point to the Lewis and Clark expedition to open up the western half of the country, and that's what the Gateway Arch commemorates.

 A quick movie:

Note to my friend Maren: last night at the hotel there was a surprise 50th birthday party for Jackie Joyner-Kersee! We did not feel up to crashing the party, so did not get to see her, but I thought you would appreciate that we were here and she is 50!

Today we are not following the L&C expedition, but will be heading to somewhere in Oklahoma. For history wonks:  Major land runs, including the Land Run of 1889, were held for settlers on the hour that certain territories were opened to settlement. Usually, land was open to settlers on a first come first served basis. Those who broke the rules by crossing the border into the territory before it was allowed were said to have been crossing the border sooner, leading to the term sooners. I guess we will be the laters.