Close Encounters of the Tram Kind

Hey, this might actually be my last vacation blog entry! Holy crap! That means I actually have to work today. Can I start crying now? Anyways, as you can probably tell, this is a picture from the top of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, a.k.a. the Arch. The Coach and I had been to the Arch before, but we didn’t go up it because we had the Little Dog with us. This year, however, we were able to leave the Evil Kitten in the hotel room and make the trek down to the park.

It was not without incident. It was raining out and there was lighting and I told the Coach that I thought it was a waste of money to go up in the thing, but he insisted so we loaded up in the car (not Sally) and headed out. Grrr. Of course, it started to rain harder as we drove into St. Louis and some chick rear-ended us. Lovely. Luckily there was no damage to the car, but I had a raging headache for the next day and a half. It was still pour when we made it to the parking deck (after getting lost and driving into Illinois). It cost us $6 to park. You’d think if you’re paying all that cash to get up in the Arch, they’d validate your parking or something. {Sigh} Seriously, this is the most expensive National Park we’ve been to.

By this point, I was in an evil, foul mood. The Coach went up and spent $14/each for the ride to the top of the Arch and the documentary. Yes, it actually costs money to watch the documentary about how the Arch was built.* The film was adequate – it was old and had a funky ass soundtrack, but it did clear up some questions like “How many people were killed making this Arch?” The answer: None. I find that remarkable because none of the people in the film seemed to wear safety gear. The best part of the movie was the trivia beforehand. A group of teenagers came into the theatre and sat right in front of us. The Coach and I knew pretty much all of the trivia questions. At one point, the kids were telling each other to listen to us because we were smart. Yes, sometimes “nerdly” knowledge can transcend the generations. LOL!

After the film, we lined up for the North Tram, tickets in hand. We were put in a pod/egg/tram/whatever with a girl and her mother. You can really tell who the Midwesterners are when you are traveling, because they are the ones who always want to tell you their live story. Actually, I was a bit worried at this point; the girl was talking about her fear of heights and her eyes looked like they were going to pop out of her head. Once we were in the pod, she mentioned taking Japanese lessons so we asked her to translate a few words. By then, we were at the top of the arch and she was fine. Phew! Of course, we could hear the girls in the pod in front of us screaming at the top of their lungs. Now that was just annoying. No one could have been that scared.

Luckily the weather had cleared up by the time we reached the top, so we could actually see out the windows. We took all the requisite pictures. You know, the one with the sign that says you are 630 feet above ground. The observation room sure was tiny; the Coach could touch the ceiling without extending his arm the whole way. According to the park service, that room can hold up to 100 people. Right – maybe if they are all skinny little mutant model girls. Anyways, we spent about 15 minutes before deciding to go back down. This time, we had our little space pod thing all to ourselves — and again, we heard those damned girls screeching and squealing all the way down. Yes, that was still annoying. Overall, the experience started out bad, but it ended up okay. I can’t say that I would actually spend the money to go back up in the Arch again. It’s one of those things that you only really need to do once.

And on that note, I should get dressed and go to work. Must finish syllabus. Must fill out a questionnaire for an award that I was nominated for. Must deal with grad student problem. Yes, vacation is truly over. I guess that’s fitting for Friday the 13th, huh?

*$3 for park entry fees, $4 for the film, and $7 for the tram ride.