Gateway Arch

We have covered quite a few states in the last several days. We crossed Missouri, passing the Lake of the Ozarks and skipping Branson, and ending up in St. Louis. The main reason I wanted to go to St. Louis was to see the Gateway Arch. So we did. I took a bunch of pictures and we took the tram to the top of the arch. It is quite an interesting ride. You have to sit in a tiny cabin with five seats in it. The door in is very small, and once in, there was not enough headroom for me to sit upright. At the top, the view is magnificent. You look down over the city on one side and the Mississippi river on the other. You can feel the arch sway in the wind. It is a VERY impressive structure, the entire Space Needle would fit under it. After going back down, we explored the exhibits that are located underground at the base. The whole thing is run by the National Parks Service. We crossed the Mississippi and spent the night in Illinois and were treated to a great thunderstorm all night long.

Gateway Arch

The next day it was on to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. We to there a bit late, but in time for one of the last tours of the day. We had to hustle to make the tour, unfortunately I didn't have time to get my camera out of the car. The tour covered only a very small corner of the cave so we considered overnighting in the area so we could see more of the cave the next day. Linda also wanted to see Cumberland Caverns in Tennessee, so we decided to continue on our way. We spent the night in Cave City, KY.

Cumberland Cavern

Today we drove down to McMinnville, TN and the Cumberland Caverns. The Caverns are privately run, but are the largest cave system in the state of Tennessee. The tour we took was a lot of fun and the caverns are very impressive. the tour was a bit loner than our tour in Mammoth. The only negative was the religious presentation that occurred about halfway through the tour. It is, after all, Tennessee. Before we started the trip I treated myself to a new flash attachment for my camera and was pleased to be able to try it out. It worked vey well and I got some pretty good pictures.

Cumberland Cavern

Tomorrow we will head for Gatlinburg where we will be staying at a condo for three nights. It's right on the edge of the Great Smokey Mountains and there is another cave that Linda is anxious to see.