Well our class got done at 4:00 on the first day so I had some time to kill. I didn't feel like just hanging out in my hotel room, so I thought I'd drive over the river into St. Louis and have a look around. I thought I would maybe just go take a walk over by the Gateway Arch, and maybe walk around the downtown, or go have a look at Busch Stadium (BOOOOO CARDINALS!). Well that plan was shot rather quickly. I got across the river but quickly found out there was no place to park. In fact, the directions from the Garmin led me to a one way street by an Indian Casino. As I didn't feel like gambling, I tried to go back around it. I was stuck in what looked to be a historic district with cobblestone streets (that were quite uneven and bumpy). There actually were some surface parking lots that I could have parked in and walked over to the Arch, but I didn't want to have to pay $6 just to walk over to the Arch for 15 minutes and take a photo. So I was left to just drive around a little bit and I found that there was a lot of construction going on around the Arch and the old courthouse, which was apparently a historical landmark. So instead of driving around on one way streets, not knowing where I was going, I made my way back to the Interstate and made my way to Collinsville.
On the way back I decided to drive by the Cahokia Indian Mounds. If you have never heard of them, here is some background (please read at your leisure). I thought I would have a look and see if I could walk around a little bit. Well it turns out it was pretty much like a city park. There were a couple of parking lots and paths between the mounds. The "Interpretaion Center" was closed, but at least I could go on a walking tour of the mounds. I ended up climbing the largest of the mounds, Monks Mound.
The mound rises to a height of about 100 feet and has a base that covers 14 acres. That's pretty big! I actually got a little winded climbing the stairs to the top.
I was also able to actually take a photo of the skyline of St. Louis... so here is what it looked like:
I took a couple of pictures of the park as a whole too, so here is one view of the rest of the park from the top of the mound.
I think it was a good thing I went on Monday, because Tuesday it was rainy, and there is a severe thunderstorm cell rolling through tonight. The only other day that will be available for "sight-seeing"is going to be Thursday, if the weather is nice. I don't think I'll be much in the mood to go driving around though as I will probably be busy making sure everything is packed up and ready to go so I can check out before going to my seminar Friday morning and then get on the road home as soon as it's over so that I get home before 10:00 PM. Too bad. Maybe one of these times I'll get lucky and be able to do something in a city where I go for these classes/training. I will keep my fingers crossed for next time, I guess.
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