Off to St. Louis.

St. Louis 2006

Sep. 24, 2006 - 53 Photos

200 years ago, the great explorers Louis and Clark set out from the Mississippi river on a 3 year expedition to explore the Western territories in President Jefferson's great plan for westward expansion. In the past couple of days, I traveled to within 100 yards of their exact step off point on their great journey. Coincidentally, this weekend also marks the 200th anniversary of their safe return back to the St. Louis area.

For those of you who may not know. My dad recently took a job promotion with ConocoPhillips which has moved my parents from Houston to the St. Louis area. They are enjoying the change in scenery and the new job. It is a job that keeps my dad from flying all over the place which is much to his liking. They're also enjoying a new home in the country compared to the hectic day to day life in a city of 6 million people. This past week offered me the opportunity to fly to St. Louis and spend a good 4-5 days with them and experience the life and times of St. Louis and the surrounding areas as it is a part of the country I have not traveled to yet. I flew to St. Louis this past Tuesday with my parents picking me up at Lambert International airport. They don't actually live in St. Louis, they live in the outskirts of the Mississippi river town of Alton, Illinois. Incidentally, Alton has often been cited as being one of the most haunted small towns in America. Pretty interesting especially approaching Fall and Halloween. Over the course of the week, I was shown around the new house, and met some of the neighboors who all seem really nice. The property that my parents bought is surrounded by woods on all sides of the house except for the back, where the backyard gently slopes down into a private pond. There's a small pier out there with two row boats for anyone to use at all times as well. You can tell fall is in the air as well, as many of the trees are starting to change in color already. It's a very secluded area, and I can tell that it's much better for my mom than being in the city. She's a very earthy, woodsy, type person and I can tell she's really enjoying it. I also really like their house. It's a two story building with lots of windows facing the backyard and the lake. Mom is currently busy texturing the walls and trying to figure out which colors to paint it. There's all kinds of little projects in it to keep them both busy for quite some time.

On Wednesday, we ventured up the Mississippi river to a ferryboat town called Grafton. The town is surrounded by very high sandstone bluffs that the American bald Eagles will soon be migrating to to roost in winter. It's a prime eagle viewing location as well as other river sports and sightseeing. We ate some really good Mississippi catfish in a 100 year old Victorian Home that used to be the home of a Civil War colonel.

It wouldn't be a trip to St. Louis without a trek downtown to see the Arch. There were all sorts of festivities going on in the Gateway Arch celebrating the 200th anniversary of Louis and Clark's return as previously mentioned. Everywhere you looked was Louis and Clark stuff. Unfortunately we were also dodging bad weather as storms and tornado warning were in the area. However, we did get to spend around an hour in near the arch taking pictures and seeing the sights. Hopefully, on my next trip we'll actually be able to take the tram up inside to the very top of the arch for the great view. I wasn't able to do that on this trip, but there will be others.

And of course that wasn't the last I heard of the inclement weather either. Traveling back to Houston, I ran into a detour in Dallas as all incoming flights into Houston Hobby airport were cancelled. Not wanting to spend a night in the airport or a local hotel, I just decided to rent a car and drive the distance from Dallas to Houston. It's only a 4 hour drive and I much preferred the idea of sleeping in my own bed. The drive went without problems and I made it back into Houston and my apartment at 2am last night. I have also since gone to the Houston airport to get my checked luggage from the flight that finally made it in as well as get my car. It was a rough ending to an otherwise great trip. I'm sure Louis and Clark had many detours along their journey as well.

Back in Houston.

So I finished up my two months of away rotations in Emergency Medicine and now am back In Houston once more. The weather is turning more towards Fall everyday so it's not nearly as bad as it has been this past summer. My big thing to do was schedule my sub internship which is required for all graduates from Baylor. It turned out to be not so troublesome as I got the rotation that I wanted. Now I'm just kind of kicking back on a mini vacation waiting for that to begin. It's given me some time to get some things done around here at my apartment. I've also been able to attend the first two Aggie Football games, against the Citadel and Univ. of LA Lafayette. Next week, since I have the time, I'm going to fly up to St. Louis to spend 5 days with my parents and see their new place. Should be fun, as I've never been up there before. We also have the big football game against Texas Tech coming up soon again. That's always at least a little interesting.