Got this lovely postcard from Missouri! Front and center is the Gateway Arch of St. Louis, the second-largest city in the state (only second to Kansas City – yes, Kansas City is a city in Missouri, not Kansas!). St. Louis is located on the eastern side of the state, right by the Missouri River. Actually, lemme share with you another postcard the senders of this one sent to me in 2019! https://apostcardforyou.com/2019/07/show-me/ – here you can see a gang of facts about the state, coupled with another gang of facts written by yours truly. But of course, I’m not going to leave the effort of this post entirely to the words of the past – allow me to share a bit more! A pretty fun fact that I just recently learned: the Gateway Arch has an elevator in it that brings visitors up to its nearly 200-meter peak. Now if you look at the arch… yeah, fitting a vertical elevator logistically just does not work. What brings people up to the top is actually more like a tram. So you go through the museum, get your tickets and wait for your assigned tram in the loading area. The tram is like a small capsule that can sit five people – imagine it like a Ferris wheel. When you get to the top, you can look out through small windows at the cityscapes surrounding the arch. Given St. Louis’s proximity to the border of Illinois, both sides of the lookout will present you with a view of a different state! You can stay as long as you want at the top of the arch (there’s plenty of room, unlike the capsules which could get pretty cramped), and you can go down on the next tram at your leisure. I just love how what I thought was a simple elevator ride is actually more like a miniature journey, complete with “boarding passes” and even having to go through security. Makes me miss traveling haha. Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness always, Irma, Rob & Izzy!
