Last of the Year!

The Fall weather has been unseasonably hot so far this year (record breaking temperatures in the mid-90s) & it was very warm & sunny for the last car show of the year at Fenton. There was the usual good selection of vehicles on display with the line of cars to get into the parking lot getting longer by the minute. Beth came with me which was really nice & there seemed to be more 'girly' coloured cars than usual so she was happy. The Dukes of Hazzard was a big show here in the 1980s & still has a large following with re-runs constantly played on CMT & a yearly 'Dukesfest' show held further down south. Ben Jones (who played Cooter) has his own shop & museum dedicated to 'The Dukes'. It was really cool to see not only a replica of The General Lee (or perhaps it was one of the cars used in the series as they were sold off when filming finished) but also Rosco's cop car. 'The General' was well detailed with all the correct accessories including the CB & 'whip' type aerial, roll cage, & Hazzard County plates, plus it had also been signed by the original cast members!

Hard Rock Cafe/Union Station

We spent most of the morning & the early part of the afternoon looking at The Arch, The Old Courthouse, & The Mississippi, & so it was mid-afternoon before we made it to Union Station. We had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe where Debs bought a Hard Rock t-shirt (to add to her collection) & then had a quick look around the shops in the station. Debs & Gary bought some souvenirs & on the way out we stopped to watch 'fudgeman' do his stuff. We were the only people watching at first, so it was just us singing along with him, but it wasn't long before there were a few more people with us (one of whom was being embarrassed by fudgeman as he wasn't joining in).

Mississippi Riverboat Tour

We boarded the Tom Sawyer for our tour on the 'mighty' Mississippi. This is the longest river in the US (2,320 miles) & is part of the Jefferson-Missuori-Mississippi river system, which is the largest river system in North America & one of the largest in the world. The source of the river is in Minnesota & the river discharges into to the Gulf of Mexico.

As we headed north up the river & passed under Eads Bridge (which was the first cantilever bridge to be built & when completed, in 1874, was the longest arch bridge in the world (6,442 feet) & also the first to use steel in a major bridge) we got a really good view of the new President Casino & the existing casino, The SS Admiral. This is a silver, streamlined, Art Deco style vessel which when first built was the largest passenger vessel on US inland waterways. It is 374 feet long, 92 feet wide & was the flagship of Streckfuss Steamers. It was built between 1930 & 1940 at a cost of more than $1,000,000. It had five decks, two of which were air-conditioned (extremely rare in the 1940s) & side paddles for propulsion (in 1974 it was converted to diesel engine powered propellers) & had a capacity of 4400 passengers. It departed on its first excursion cruise along the Mississippi from St Louis in June 1940 & continued to do so until 1979 when it became The President Casino.

We also go to see some rock structures (a bit like groynes, but parallel to the river channel) that have been constructed by the Corps of Engineers (who are responsible for maintaining a 9 foot navigable channel on the Upper Mississippi River from river mile 0.0 (confluence of the Ohio) to river mile 300.0 (below Lock and Dam 22)). These are used to guide river traffic & also alter the flow in the river so that it helps to naturally maintain the navigable channel.
We also passed a number of industrial buildings on the St Louis side of the river as we headed north. These included the Ashley Street Power Station (which was constructed in 1904 & was originally coal-fired. In 1972 it was converted to oil, & still produces electricity & steam for St Louis), & the Laclede Power Center, (a former power station constructed before the Ashley Street building, which is being renovated by Trailnet to abecome a downtown visitor center).

As we headed back south along the river towards the Cahokia Power Station & Port St Louis, we got a really good view of The Arch, St Louis City & the Illinois side of the river.

Old Courthouse

Whilst purchasing our tickets for the tram ride to the top of The Arch, we also bought tickets for a riverboat tour on the Mississippi. We had an hour or so between finishing at The Arch & our riverboat tour so we thought the we would take a quick look at The Old Courthouse which is also part of The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial.

When St Louis City founders decided that government business should have a central location, the original courthouse in St. Louis was constructed in 1828. Within approximately ten years the successful fur trade increased St Louis' population to the point where the original courthouse was now too small. Between 1839-1862 a new courthouse was built incorporating the original courthouse in the east wing, but the continued increase in population meant that in 1851 the original courthouse was demolished & a new east wing was built. After completion of the new east wing, the small wooden dome in the center of the courthouse was replaced by a wrought & cast iron dome in 1860. The top of the dome was 192 feet high & was, at the time, St Louis' tallest building.

The Old Courthouse dome interior displays four murals by Carl Wimar. These show significant events in St Louis history & comprise explorer Hernando de Soto discovering the Mississippi River, Pierre Laclede & Auguste Chouteau founding St Louis, the British attack on St Louis during the Revolutionary War, & Cochetopa Pass, through which St. Louisans proposed to build a railroad line run to San Francisco.

The Old Courthouse was the St Louis County Courthouse until 1877, & when the county & city separated it continued to act as St Louis City Courthouse until 1930. The Supreme Court of Missouri operated in the south wing of the Old Courthouse from 1856-1876, & the museum of the Missouri Historical Society was located in the building basement for a short time. The National Park Service has operated the Old Courthouse as a museum since 1943.

Gateway Arch

We took Debs & Gary to what is probably the most famous thing in St Louis - The Gateway Arch. There had recently been a problem when one of the 'unbreakable' tram cables broke, so the southern tram wasn't operational, but since we got there really early it didn't really impact upon our visit. The weather was really good with perfectly clear, sunny, skies, & as it was the beginning of fall, the temperatures were low enough so that heat haze wasn't problem. This meant that we had an absolutely brilliant view from the top & were able to see for miles!

Grant's Farm

Grant's Farm is the 281-acre ancestral home of the Busch family. It is another place that we have been to quite regularly & really enjoy. We took Debs & Gary to see the animals & one of only two residences in the US that have been built & lived in by a US president. Due to the really dry weather that we had been experiencing we had to take a different route through the Deer Park on the tram due to the danger of wildfires (most of south Missouri was under a 'Red Flag' weather warning, which is a forecast warning issued by theUS National Weather Service when weather & land conditions are ideal for wildfires). We saw a much larger variety of animals than usual with quite a few of the Deer, Bison, Cattle, & Goats getting confident & standing really close to the tram.

Beth & Debs fed the Pygmy Goats, we watched the Animal Encounters show (which we hadn't seen before) & also the Elephant show from the new, covered, seating area. We also grabbed a snack from the The Brat Haus which is located in the Bauernhof (a 19th century German farmstead).

Zoo

On the way back from the brewery tour, we took a short detour to the zoo. We would have spent longer there but despite the fact that it was 90 degrees & really sunny, the zoo was on it's Fall schedule & so closed at 5pm :(

I think that most of the animals were also caught out by the heat, or else knew that it was nearing the end of the day since they were nowhere to be seen! Still, we got to see the Penguins & Puffins (which were cool, or rather really cold) as usual, & we also saw the Polar Bear being fed!

Anheuser Busch Brewery Tour

Everyone that has been over so far has seemed to enjoy the brewery tour & so we thought that we would take Debs & Gary to see the 'Home of Bud'.

There were construction works on the site, so part of the brewery was cordoned off as one of the brew houses is being demolished since it is at the end of its service life. We still got to see all of the main parts of the brewery, but just using a slightly different route. This was the fourth time that I had been on the tour & this time we finally got to see the packaging plant in the Bevo building. Unfortunately, none of the bottle lines were operating, but we did get to see some cans being filled & packaged, actually walking into the factory area instead of just looking from the viewing area (as we had to do for the bottle lines).

Debs & Gary Visit

My sister, Debs, & her partner, Gary, were on vacation in the US & stopped by to visit us for a long weekend. It was really nice to see them, & as they were only here for a few days we made sure that they visited as many St Louis area attractions as possible.

Bathroom Blues

Our bathroom had seen better days, with the shower having leaked ever since we moved in. Despite my best attempts to fix the leak, it was gradually getting worse & my temporary repairs with parts from other showers, since spare parts for ours were no longer available :( , were no longer stopping the continual flow of water. Just to make things difficult, the shower is completely buried behind the wall & the soldered water connections have to be custom made to suit each seperate application. So replacing the shower basically meant replacing most of the bathroom which could be read as an expensive, messy, & time consuming process.

Our neighbours recommended a contractor to us who 'rehabbed' the bathroom (with a bit of help from Cheryl & I). It was a bit of a nightmare having to go to the local sports center for a shower, but luckily we have a downstairs toilet so it wasn't too bad that we didn't have a toilet upstairs for a fortnight. The bathroom now looks really nice (in a fetching shade of bluey green) & is now a much nicer place to spend time in.

Fenton Founders Day Parade

It only seemed like yesterday that we went to the last Fenton Founders Day parade. The weather wasn't as great as the previous year with light rain towards the end of the parade, but we had a much better location this time almost at the start of the parade which meant that Beth & Cheryl ended up with loads of candy & freebies. Beth also got to meet Governor Matt Blunt which was really cool as he is the top guy in Missouri. He is the state's 54th governor & his role is similar to the President of the US, with the major exception being that his jurisdiction is over the state, not the entire country. There are, of course, other differences but generally the Governor will sign bills into law or veto them, hold cabinet, private, & senate meetings on issues concerning the running of the state, be involved with taxes, laws, federal funding, & other state related issues. Later on in the evening we went over to Fenton City Park to watch the free, evening entertainment (The Z Band, who were pretty good) & the fireworks which, once again, lasted about half an hour & were totally awesome!

Sallie & Marc's Wedding

Sallie, one of my co-workers, kindly invited Cheryl, Beth, & I, to her wedding. This was held in a posh hotel in St Louis (The Sheraton) & was arranged pretty quickly so that Sallie & Marc could get married before Marc deployed to Iraq.

The ceremony was a bit different to those that we have been to in the UK, with the bridal party & groomsmen making their way to the front area where the ceremony was taking place before turning around to face the Sallie as she walked up the aisle with her father. The ceremony only lasted about half an hour with no hymns & was followed with cocktails on the top floor of the hotel in an open-air balcony that overlooked The City. We then had a really nice meal, but before this (practically as soon as Sallie & Marc entered the reception) they cut their weeding cake which was then served for desert. The rest of the evening was the traditional DJ & dancing. We had a really great time & wish Sallie & Marc our best for their future together.

Vlasis Park

It was the weekend before Labor Day & we were at a bit of a loose end. As the weather was still really hot & sunny, Beth suggested that we had a picnic at Vlasis Park in Ballwin. The Park is just off Manchester Road & is Ballwin's largest park. It covers 31 acres & includes two ball diamonds, a playground, four tennis courts, restrooms, two ponds (one of which is stocked with fish), two pavilions, a walking path, two sand volley ball courts, & eight horseshoe courts. One of the really cool things about the playground is that it includes a number of water fountains that form part of the play area. The 'tunnel' of water emerges from the pavement & Beth really enjoyed running through it & the water jets - great fun!

The park also includes some 'wind Sculptures' by the sculptor Lyman Whitaker. These are fabricated from copper, steel, & stainless steel & are pole mounted on a bearing so that they can spin around in the wind. At first these seemed a bit of an odd addition to the park but they were actually pretty cool spinning in the slight breeze with the shape seeming to change depending upon how strong the breeze was.

Sunset Hills Car Show

Following on from the Sunset Hills Cruise, I had a quick look around the Sunday car show whilst Cheryl & Beth went to see the dogs & cats up for adoption at a nearby Petsmart. There weren't as many cars on display as the Fenton show that I usually go to, but the turn-out was pretty good for a 'one-off' show, & there was still a really good selection of vehicles. Evil Twin stood out due to the completely over the top nature of the vehicle & the St Louis Snow Cones' completely made snowcone van (Snowslead) was also at the show, with the company selling snowcones as the van sat on the ground (literally, thanks to the air suspension).

The van was built by Cleancut Creations which is a St Louis based custom/hotrod shop. The modifications (generally in the words of Cleancut Creations) are as follows shaved body lines, all flat sheet metal replaced, reshaped front & rear wheel wells, front & rear roll pan, one off billet snow flake grille, tribar halogen headlights, Billet Specialities tail lights & front turn signals, 1932 Ford door handles, & custom service doors for snow cone vending. It has a 400 horsepower V8 & the stock solid axle front suspension was replaced with a new front clip with narrowed tubular control arms, drop spindles, & 2600 LB air-bags with custom cups. The rear suspension is an AirRide Technologies 4-link on an Chevy S-10 axle with 9000 series air bags. There are one off front wheel tubs, engine cover, & floor, & the rear wheel tubs have been raised 9 Inches & the chassis notched. The paint is white with white & blue flames & also includes stencilled snow flakes. It has a full custom interior & was seriously Ice Cool! (I know, it's a bad pun).