On my journey from Nashville to St Louis, Missouri I could see some evidence of the flooding from the heavy rain they've had in the midwest out here. And I'm still very far from the submerged places I've seen on TV. When I came into the city the famous Gateway Arch was clearly visible rising far above everything else.

The hostel was a little rustic but was appropriately called the Huckleberry Finn Hostel. I had started reading that book on the bus ride and was in the area of the country in which the tale was set. The other guests were nice though.

I spent most of my day in town at the arch. They're not being dramatic when they say the tram capsules to get to the top are claustrophobic. They're like Dr. Evil's egg-shaped escape capsule and fit five people. The views from the top are pretty good but having done a few tall structures already on this trip it was nothing special. The most interesting thing I saw was a few street lights sticking out of the Mississippi, which I thought was odd. Then I noticed a stop sign and some bollards. Looking on my map I determined there ought to be a road down there between the arch and the river. So the Mississippi has risen however many feet to the top of its banks and then about three feet further up the stop sign!

In the giant bunker underneath the arch there are two movies you can pay extra to see. One is a 30 minute documentary on the construction of the arch in the 1960s. I think that is when the film was made too because of the quality of the picture and the amusing tone of the narrator. It was still interesting though. In contrast the 45 minute Lewis & Clark film was fantastically produced, either by National Geographic or Discovery Channel, and I loved it. They're my newest heroes... although slightly less Lewis because a few years after returning he got depressed and killed himself (allegedly).

Aside from the arch there's nothing really for a tourist in St Louis. There's a cool area with several bars and restaurants near the river. And the downtown area at least had people buzzing around it, even if there wasn't much besides the occasional restaurant to break up the office buildings. I had to walk 18 blocks west to Union Station to find some shops and get myself the Missouri souvenir I needed. And it turned out there were no trains running from the station. In fact the Amtrak station was a few blocks across and they stopped running trains from Union in 1974. It is a magnificent structure though, built in the glory days of the railroad in America. The original waiting area is now the Hyatt hotel's reception so I took a peek in there and it was fantastic. The architect was engaged to build a grand station because at the time St Louis was the rail link between the east and the emerging west. I saw a really nice stained glass window showing this and snapped a photo of it so take a look.

I thought I would try walking across the bridge to get a look back the St Louis skyline. It was okay and only that good because of the arch. By the time I got to the other side of the bridge I was in Illinois. Since I was there I decided I should at least touch Illinois soil and the only soil there was a casino so I fancied checking it out to compare it to others I've been in over here. They have really tight security there and were checking ID for everyone under 30. They wouldn't take my driving license so I had to pull out my passport for them. I had just been to an ATM and it did occur to me that walking into a casino with $700 in my wallet wasn't the smartest thing to do. I went crazy and by the end of 30 minutes I had blown a whole ten bucks. I don't know what came over me.

To recover from my devastating losses I drowned my sorrows in a dinner in the restaurant and then my drinking problem dwarfed my gambling problem and I drank an entire bottle of beer as I ate my buffalo chicken burger that wasn't very good and certainly not as good as the one I had been unable to finish in Austin, where I was very disappointed with myself because that one was so good! I did find an American who could take sarcasm though, after my failure in Natchez, MS. My waitress asked me where I was from and I told her and I said "I came all the way over just to come to your casino" and she scoffed and replied "yeah, right". Hurrah!

By the time I left it was dark so I got a good view of the St Louis skyline at night. It was much like the daytime view but darker and with little lights all over it. Strangely the arch almost disappeared in the blackness because the outer skin is stainless steel so it just reflects the blackness of the sky. After I'd fought my way closed-mouth through the thousands of moths on the bridge I stood at a lonely bus stop for more than half an hour waiting for my bus and checking each passer-by out nervously. Actually there were a lot of normal people walking around and only one person asked me for change. I told him I needed it for the bus.

The best thing to happen to me in St Louis was at lunch. I was updating my journal at the bar in a bar and the barmaid knocked over my bottle of beer. It sloshed over the right hand page of the book and onto my leg. Fortunately I was writing on the left page so I could just tear out the right-hand page and not lose anything more than two sides of space. The girl was very apologetic and got me a stack of napkins to dry myself off with. I told her not to worry, that accidents happen and she should get me a free beer to make up for it. She did. So I got a free beer out of it and she only spilt about a quarter of the first one!

There would probably be enough to keep me occupied for a second day in St Louis if I were to venture out into the suburbs and see the zoo and stuff. But I was happy to move onto Chicago next.