I feel the need, the need for speed!

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We awoke in St. Louis today, and of course the first thing we had to see was the Arch. We caught a glimpse of it last night when we drove in, but were surprised to see that it wasn't lit up at night. This morning was a much better view. It was huge, just like you'd expect, standing over 600 feet tall. We climbed about 65 stairs leading up to the base of the Arch, and were able to walk right up and touch it. It's made of metal; we had always assumed it was made of stone, granite maybe. But it was clearly metallic pieces, welded together. And it wasn't a rectangular object; it's a triangle...hard to explain; you'll see in the pictures.

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One thing we were especially surprised to learn was that people can actually ride an elevator up to the top and look out from the Arch. The elevator, which takes four full minutes to reach the top, has to move in a stairstep fashion due to the arc of the structure, and we heard that it gets kind of wobbly at the top. Since it was a particularly windy day, we opted to just admire it from the ground.

Another highlight was a neat museum area beneath the Arch, with theaters and museums and other fun attractions. One particularly neat thing we saw was a 3-D wall depicting other American structures, comparing height. You'll see that picture here. It was neat to look at them all and realize that we'll be seeing most of them on this trip.

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The rest of the day was spent traveling across Illinois into Indiana admiring the farmland. On a random side note, we also found the birthplace of the Coca-Cola bottle.

We came into Indianapolis through the beginnings of a thunder storm, found a little diner and ate some bad Italian food. It's pretty busy at the hotel due to the Brickyard 400 Nascar race that's held here at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (the Indy 500 track). The race is in two days and the whole town is geared up for it...no pun intended. More tomorrow!