The Arch

Driving from DC to Oklahoma and back in four days is something I don't want to do too often. On the way back to DC this weekend I went the "middle route" through St. Louis, Louisville and Charleston West Virginia. It was a breeze until I got to West Virginia where the highway just kind of poops out in the mountains. The mountains were beautiful but I was dizzy by the time I zigged and zagged through the Monongahela National Forest to be suddenly deposited into the mad crush of Highway 66 in Virginia.

The only traffic problem enroute was a huge bottleneck in St. Louis where the transconentinental highway gets squeezed into a crumbling, narrow, one-lane ramp onto an old bridge over the Mississippi River. Well, at least it gives you a half hour to gaze at the nearby Gateway Arch. They should replace the Gateway Arch with a huge replica of a bottleneck - it would be more appropriate these days.

The Arch holds some memories for me I must admit. I was a teenager when my father took me up in the cylinder-like tram to the top of the Arch. I don't remember where we were headed when he stopped to show me the Arch. A few decades later I was under the Arch helping to manage a ceremony there to welcome the Japanese Emperor to Missouri. Then last year I took my son to see the Arch during a stop on the way to the East Coast. Will he take his children to see the Arch? I hope so.