Bloggers Daniella Maney, ‘20 and Mark McPhillips, ‘20 embarked on a road trip this summer with their friend Samuel Piller, ‘20 before coming back to Conn. We will publish a series of posts about what they experienced along the way.... (Read Post 1)
The curtains covering giant windows overlooking Saint Louis were flung open by Mark as a cue for Samuel and I to wake up and smell the coffee that was freshly brewing on the dresser. Our main objective in Saint Louis was to walk the 630 feet up to the top of the Saint Louis Arch, which is actually the same distance wide as it is tall. But before we started this trek, we went to the Old Courthouse across from the hotel, which the night before I noticed was on "Dred Scott Street." I had a flashback to my junior year of high school when we studied the Dred Scott v. Sandford in AP U.S. History. At the Old Courthouse I got a refresher on the case, in which Saint Louis resident Dred Scott sued for his freedom from slavery. It was amazing to be in the exact room that the lawsuit was first brought to the court, and to read all of the museum-like plaques about Dred Scott and his wife Harriet Scott.
After brushing up on our history, we bought $13 tickets to be taken 630 feet into the air. We walked from the Old Courthouse and took a picture in front of a green screen for a photo 'in front of the Arch' (that we have yet to buy, were still thinking about it). We stepped into very small egg-shaped pods that reminded Samuel of the show Mork and Mindy as he kept saying "Nanu Nanu" — a quote from the show. The pod ride to the top of the Gateway Arch took about five minutes. As someone who used to be very afraid of heights, I probably would have freaked out if the windows were bigger. The small windows gave a sense of being a little closer to the ground than we actually were. We stayed up top for a little while, and Mark got a good photo for his Instagram. Then we took another egg pod down the other side of the Gateway Arch. The descending trip was faster, and a little scarier. After leaving the Gateway Arch we checked out of the hotel (sadly, it was really nice) and headed back on the road towards Mark's big destination: Kansas!
Wisdom that the road told me to tell you:
1) Samuel gets very thoughtful/deep after a couple hours of driving.
2) Snapchat maps came out right before our road trip and it’s wild to see how far away we are from our friends who are all concentrated along the East Coast.
3) Don't return your hotel key until you leave the parking garage.
4) Tourist attractions are cool but only for a short amount of time.
5) It always rains during my driving shift.
6) I have no idea where I am going to do my laundry.
7) Midwestern accents kind of sound similar to Southern accents.