10/01/10 – A Big Arch Can Make a City

Today was a quintessential crystal clear sunny fall day. I was off to a rocky start after experiencing the worst shower of my life. A Pinko Commie in Mt. Vernon, IL installed a shower head that blasts a mist like the ones you see on patios in Arizona to cool off in the summer. You simply can’t get wet with this contraption and it’s impossible to rinse in a mist. This was the final straw for the state of Illinois; I’m officially declaring it the worst state I’ve visited. Everything here is more expensive than in neighboring states; the junk fees added to my motel bill were 33% of the total cost, gas is more expensive, you have to pay to drive on Federally funded roads and the shower Nazi’s are here in force despite the fact that there’s water everywhere. If the government needs a place to resume nuclear bomb testing, I vote they do it in Illinois.

I headed-out with shampoo residue still in my hair and stopped after 30 minutes to take a business call that ended-up getting rescheduled and then never happened. I rode into St. Louis and parked right in front of the big stainless steel arch. An older Australian couple walked by and Paul told me how much he loves the FJR 1300 motorcycle. We ended up spending the afternoon together. Paul had a 2003 FJR, but after many miles he bought a Honda GoldWing touring bike and he already has 75,000 miles on it. They are traveling around the U.S. in an RV and they started their journey in Death Valley, CA.

I watched an antiquated movie about the construction of the Arch back in the early 1960’s that had narration and a symphony soundtrack that sounded very dramatic like the early NFL Films. What really shocked me was the complete lack of safety procedures; the iron-workers wandered around 600 feet up, smoking cigarettes with no hard-hats or safety harnesses. They expected up to 13 casualties during construction, but there were none. The arch was built in 2 ½ years as a National Park and was totally funded by the Federal Government as a tribute to Western Expansion of the U.S. The park is dedicated to Thomas Jefferson. I saw a sculpture there by Frederic Remington that was identical to the ones I saw in the museum on the River. What a great idea; getting the Federal Government to finance a huge landmark to draw people into your city. The views from the top are phenomenal.

When I was in Montreal, I spoke to a gas station attendant who said “Why to you want to go to Quebec City? It’s boring and I prefer the high stress level of Montreal”. If you spend some time in VT, TN and NC, you will instantly see that the pace of life and the pace of speech is slower and it’s relaxing compared to NYC, Illinois or CA. I’m not a poster-child for low-stress, but it’s certainly nice to visit places like Nashville that let you feel low stress for awhile.

Tomorrow I’m planning to head west on Route 66 and stopping in Nixa, Mo to see a former colleague’s parents who have been riding BMW motorcycles with a sidecar for over 60 years. They recently retired their old bike and got a new one after nearly 300,000 miles!