Day Two - Failure
Greetings from St. Louis! Or should I say the wet, baseball-less Gateway to the West. After a nasty nasty storm swept across the area this afternoon, the Cardinals game we were due to see was rained out, to be played in August or something. So that sucks big time. We're due in Cincinnati tomorrow night for a Reds game, so it looks like we're 0 for one on our Great Midwestern Baseball trip.
We did manage to salvage the rest of the day. We got into town around 11 am or so, took a quick driving tour (there should be some cool stuff on the URBlog from what we saw here). Breakfast was at Panera, but here it's called St. Louis Bread Co. Randomly following a big red line on the sidewalk we ended up touring the Old Courthouse (site of the Dred Scott decision! Exciting!) While we were in there, the skies opened up and ruined our Busch Stadium plans.
After checking into the hotel, we walked over to the Arch. You can ride a Kubrickian pod 630 feet up to the top, but the weather restricted the view to just about a mile or so. Some sights were cool, though, while others were cruel. After descending, we walked over to the original settlement, which was dead in the Tuesday afternoon rain. We took the only subway/light rail line in St. Louis from there to Busch Stadium, where we quickly learned from the many ballpark employees filing out of the stadium that tonight's game was off. We were hungry (saving room for the all important hot dog test), so we hopped back on the train to the old Union Station, where we found food in a pretty well designed rehabilitated train station/mall-type thing.
Next, an after dinner stroll back to the hotel and we found out there was no ESPN2 in our room. We ended up in a TGI Friday's which had the Sox-A's game on (and a local pale ale on tap) and at least got to watch our nine demolish the Athletics. After I post this (on the hotel's complimentary high-speed internet, thanks guys!), it's bed time. Five hours on the road tomorrow and all… And here's the view out our window as we go to bed:
May 26th, 2004 at 7:11 am
Pretty damn cool!
May 26th, 2004 at 11:05 am
Sorry to hear the game was rained out. That is a pretty cute rain tarp, though… :-). St. Louis seems to be a love-hate city. I know people who think it’s the best urban space in the nation, and others who think it’s the armpit of the Midwest… When I was there, I wasn’t too impressed…
Oh, looking at your travel map again, are you taking Interstate 84 through NY and over the Hudson River (over the Newburgh-Beacon bridge)? If so, I have some travel tips for you… You’d have to hit two sites… First is the fantastic new Dia Modern Art museum in Beacon (http://www.diabeacon.org), which, if you like modern art, is fantastic. It’ll take you like 8 minutes off the highway to see it on the East Bank of the Hudson.
Whether or not you do Dia, about 20-30 minutes off 84 on the East bank of the Hudson going South on Route 9 is the town of Cold Spring-on-Hudson. It is a near 100% preserved late 19th century river town. Virtually every building in town is on the National Historic Register and it’s one of those towns I was talking about on the URBlog that has ordinances to keep things looking old, even if they are new. It’s jam packed with great restaurants, boutique stores, and antique places. It’s worth just stopping to eat. Here’s a decent guide site and photo tour at http://www.hvgateway.com/CS40.HTM. They don’t show you the great views of the Hudson River and West Point Military Academy from the shore, though.
Alternatively, you could see the town, go a little farther down Route 9 to a diner that has one of the most impressive sports memorabilia collections I’ve seen outside a museum. You can check it out at http://www.stadiumbarrest.com.
This area is about 10 minutes away from where I grew up in New York (Carmel, New York), so if you have anything else you might want to see, let me know. There is some really interesting stuff in the area (like the largest Buddhist Monastery outside of Asia with the largest Buddha statue outside of Asia, take a look at http://www.baus.org/baus/about_us/cym_buddha_hall.shtm).
Garris
PS: I’ll be doing my own drive soon to Providence. I’ll probably be hitting Minneapolis, Madison, Chicago, and Cleveland!
May 26th, 2004 at 11:53 am
Did you see the abandoned buildings, crack whores and porn shops? Those were my lasting impressions of St Louis.
And have you noticed that Mizzur-uns who hit the big time always seem to get the hell out of there as soon as they can? (Mark Twain, Billy Mueller, Ashcroft, Limbaugh, Brad Pitt, Kathleen Turner, etc)
Ok, truth in advertising here. I’m baiting a Mizzur-un who I’m hoping to lure to your blog. She has the fanciest trailer in the metro area and she’s a diehard Cards fan. (The team that plays in the big, ugly round ballpark)
And speaking of Busch Stadium… Were you able to figure out why it houses the National Bowling Hall of Fame? A real head scratcher that…
May 27th, 2004 at 9:55 pm
Bil,
I’m sorry you didn’t see our Cardinals play. They are building a new ballpark. It’s a shame you didn’t experience the “big ugly round thing” (as Stephen would describe it)before it disappears. Did you know the arch is the nation’s tallest man-made monument? If you make it back to St. Louis before the end of September, visit the extensive Lewis & Clark collection on display here. The collection includes the Louisiana Purchase Transfer Document that formalized the transfer of the Upper Louisiana Territory. The Cahokia Mounds site is cool, too–if you find Indian history of interest. Cahokia Mounds is a United Nations World Heritage Site. I hope you return to enjoy more of our city.
May 27th, 2004 at 10:46 pm
>>I hope you return to enjoy more of our city.
What a cruel thing to wish on anyone…
May 30th, 2004 at 9:53 am
Hi Bil,
Hope its not to late, while you’re in Cleveland, if you get a chance go to Shooters on the West Bank of the Flats. Go after dark for the best view of the city. Go to Cleveland.com for directions and a map.
Also the Rock Hall & Browns Stadium on the water front. From the Jake go North on East 9th St. to the end.
See Ya,
Uncle Dennis
May 31st, 2004 at 5:15 pm
Thanks everyone for the tips! Unfortunately I could get on the net until we got home, but I appreciate it. The trip was awesome, we should be doing a weeks worth of posts about it!