II: Gateway to the [Mid]west
Hello and welcome (back)! This is part II of my 2021 Great American Roadtrip(tm) blog. You can read part I here.
With two national parks down, we headed northwest from Mammoth Cave towards St. Louis, unexpectedly driving through the southern parts of Indiana and Illinois. In doing so, we entered the second part of the trip, transitioning from the South to the Midwest, a part of the country I’ve never been to before.
St. Louis
St. Louis was a treat. It was quite reminiscent of Richmond, from the charming brick houses of Soulard (pronounced “sue-lard”) which took me back to Church Hill, to the looming relics of industry and warehouses, to the absolute loveliness of the tempo and friendliness of a mid-sized city. I know the whole amicability of the Midwest can be such a trope, but boy, does it ring true. And funnily enough, it all started at a laundromat.
Soulard Soap, in the heart of the neighborhood of the same name, has been owned for the past 28 years by Raz and Jerry. It was our first stop in the city, as we were quite overdue for some clean clothes. But as soon as I walked in, I was greeted by Raz, who was just as chipper and welcoming as can be. .It felt as if I was being welcomed into their own home. She gave me a tour of the place, and even gave me some free detergent when I forgot to configure the washing machine correctly.
When I told her I was going to join Lena at the nearby Soulard Coffee Garden for breakfast, she even walked me all the way to the cafe from the laundromat, enriching me with the history of St. Louis’ oldest neighborhood. After breakfast, when Lena and I returned to dry our clothes, Raz and us chatted some more. We learned about St. Louis style pizza (topped with a processed medley of cheeses), her son hiking the Appalachian Trail, the cupcake shop across the street that had won Cupcake Wars, her other son who opened up a St. Louis style pizzeria in Austin, and the history of their laundromat, including purchasing the building several decades ago. During our chats, several customers said hello to Raz as well.
Sure, a laundromat can seem pedestrian and bothersome. But the delightfulness of peering into the place and people of a longtime de-facto community spot and staple was invaluable for me.. If you ever find yourself in need of a laundromat in St. Louis, please say hi to them for me!
The second bout of friendliness in the city was seeing my old Frisbee captain Danny. He showed us his side of St. Louis, from his favorite brewery to his soccer mates at the bar that sponsors the team. Even though we hadn’t seen each other in half a decade, getting to catch up and see the city through his own eyes was beyond fulfilling.
Another fun bout around the city involved walking around the charming Delmar Loop, which had a Hollywood-esque walk of fame for the city’s famous and influential, and a statue of rock-n-roll legend Chuck Berry. We also went to try a St. Louis staple, Frozen Custard, at Ted Drewe’s, which was thick with vintage American nostalgia. A tiny walk-up building with free-love 60s font wrapped around it and a green Neon “root-beer” sign up top at dusk made me long for my high-school days as a teenager. If there was ever a “spot”, this was it.
Gateway Arch National Park
But of course, this is a national park trip. So let’s talk Gateway Arch, which I am sure is America’s smallest national park. Smack dab between downtown and the Mississippi River, the Arch is 630 feet tall, and equally as wide, a symbol of America’s westward expansion. Look through Arch the other way and you see the old courthouse, which is where the pivotal court case Dred Scott. v Sandford was held. It was yet another bungle that led America to the Civil War. The case concluded that the U.S. Constitution had no provisions that allowed black men full and unalienable citizenship. Sometimes, this country just feels like it’s racism all the way down.
Below the Arch is a charming and interactive museum talking about that court case, St. Louis’ role in American expansion and as a hub for trading furs and other commodities, and how Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen came to design the winning entry in the contest to design a memorial on this land. Sadly, we were not able to go up the arch, as tickets were sold out for the next week.
Well, that’s not entirely true. As the last tour to go up was about to happen, Lena went to go ask fruitlessly one last time if there were last minute no-shows. I was meandering near where the visitors entered to go up, and the ticket man asked me if I needed help, to which I said no, we are just hoping someone cancelled. He winked at me, and told me to wait a few minutes. Next thing you know, he ‘took our tickets’, and we were heading up the elevator-gondola hybrid up to the top of the Arch!
A great stroke of luck, if I say so myself. The view was as great as our fortune. Among the Mississippi, downtown, and far-away vistas, we also even could squint our eyes and see a pitch being thrown at a Cardinals game. How cool is that?
Next time: the Indiana Dunes, Chicago, and Madison!
