The Trek, Part II

Day 2 Origin: St. Louis, MO Destination: Manhattan, KS (the little apple)

We woke up a little later than expected--we knew that our drive wasn't going to be too severe, so we allowed ourselves a little extra sleep. We also woke up and ended up having great conversation with Kim over bagels and tea, which was wonderful:) Thanks again!!! Once we made it out of the house, we headed straight back for the city to The Gateway to the West!

 

The sky was awesome, though a little ominous. We decided to take the trip up the arch anyway, I mean, it's the largest national monument in the US! Strong, durable (for at least the past 50 years...) we thought we could go up in the small elevator and enjoy the view from the top. But first we took a few artsy shots from outside. This thing was huge and cool.

The elevator things that we rode up in were small--as Robin bought tickets for us the guide asked if we were afraid of heights or claustrophobic, she replied no. He asked if I was, since I was standing a little ways back. She again replied no. He said that she should probably check with me because it was a big deal. Robin finally yelled to me and I confirmed my fearlessness, but his insistence made both of us a little weary--was this a scary ride? I remind myself of a pauper's son in England (or my idea of such a person) in this picture in the potentially claustrophobia-inducing, tiny, ovular elevator. The view was breath-taking and overwhelming. We watched a lightning storm in the distance--and even got to track it move across several miles. The view and ride were overall enjoyable, however, as the storm came closer to where we were the arch began to sway. It wasn't something you could see, you could simply feel it when you tried to stand still in one place. Once I pointed this out to Robin, we both began to feel a little uneasy. I also overheard a conversation that the storm was headed our way, and we decided we wanted to get out before we got caught having to drive through rough weather. 

Outside it was raining and we had to make a run for the car--down a huge flight of stairs. We had parked down on the street next to the mighty Mississippi River. I suddenly realized, as we were running back, that the mighty river was awful high--in fact it was flooding into the street at some places! I commented on this to a native and he simply stated that this happened on a regular basis...what we would've given to have such water in Athens last fall!

Robin and I up in the arch...

We drove out of the city in a hurry--racing the storm. We managed to outrun it fairly quickly. We continued on into Kansas and were welcomed with rolling hills and beautiful scenery. Then we happened upon Columbia right around lunch time. We decided that we should stop and see about this Mizzou campus. Earlier in our ultimate season we were scheduled to attend a tournament here. We had ensured our team that the drive was only 12 hours...it was a solid 12 if not more from Alpharetta. We decided not to go to this tournament at the last minute because of doubt from the team as well as unfortunate weather predictions. In the end, I think that decision was a good one. It was a looong drive and it snowed during the tournament and they had to play on turf fields. We're from the south, you want us to play in snow?! The campus was very well-manicured and beautiful in May. We also thoroughly enjoyed the town and the organic juice cafe at which we ate a delicious, healthful meal. 

Back in the car, we nearly ran out of daylight on our approach to Manhattan, KS. Turns out we had taken our sweet time getting to our destination. But the sky was amazing! We laughed about the Little Apple that we would be visiting that evening--but it turned out to be a fantastic experience. Our host, Kate Dillon, a student at Kansas State, and a close, childhood friend of my girlfriend, graciously welcomed us and took us to get dinner and drinks. Then we took a nice tour of the Little Apple that included bits of the Kansas State campus. We also got our full of her lovely dog, Harry. Pictures of him will appear in Day 3's post.