The Sitka Situation: St. Louis, Louisville, HOME!

I apologize for being way behind on updates! The Jameson Hotel in Louisville did not have good internet, and then we got home, and you know...
Anyway, last Wednesday, we drove to St. Louis and decided to do some sightseeing. We had lunch and then walked over to the Gateway Arch.

Hey! There's Lewis and Clark heading on their trip west. And by the way, I learned that Lewis and Clark did NOT name the Grand Tetons after boobies. A Frenchman did. Of course. Shameless.

Mom and I took a riverboat tour on the Mississippi:

It was called the "Tom Sawyer."

There's my car. All alone in the parking garage:

Lots of bridges across the Mississippi:

The arch seen from the water:

A pretty swift current:

A former WWII mine sweeper that sunk in the 1993 flood:

After the boat ride, we went inside the arch. There is a tram that takes you to the top. It's not for the claustrophobic. Four people have to fit inside this little bubble. It reminds me of the little egg that Dr. Evil and Mr. Bigglesworth sit in in the movie Austen Powers.
At the top, you can look West, wear we've been:

And East, where we were heading:

Here's the levy:

And the line that measures the river's height. (Or depth?) That sign says: 9ft and falling.

A cool picture of the arch, curtesy of mom:

And then we hit the road again. We crossed the Mississippi into Illinois:

Then Indiana. And we spent the night outside of Louisville. Thursday, we drove back to Virginia, and back home! The landscape became more and more familiar. This is a great time of year to drive through the mountains of ole' Virginny!
We finally got home around 10 or so. Dad was happy to see us. We were also greeted by the cats: Abby and Jude. I'd never met Jude before. He was rescued by my family while I was gone. He was in tiny abandoned kitty. Mom nursed him back to health. I like him. He's like a little boy child.
The weather has been so nice since I got home. It's normal weather, but I haven't experienced it in a while. I just want to spend as much time outside as possible.
My second day home, Dad taught me how to drive a tractor. And Uncle Lee let me rake a field of hay. These Wagstaffs just throw you into this kind of thing. Baptism by fire.