Day 15: Lost in Opryland

Last day before we head home. After two-plus weeks and everything we've done, it feels like we've been gone forever.

We enjoyed dinner at the hotel restaurant/bar so much, we went back for the breakfast buffet, which was also pretty good. Then we drove by the Arch again, trying to get a better photo (which you can see on yesterday's post). Finally, it was time to hit the road. Only one goal for the day: drive to Nashville.

We got on the highway and immediately crossed back into Illinois. Feels like we're coming full circle, since we'd already passed through there two weeks ago at the very start of the trip.

We hadn't been on the highway very long before we got stuck in yet another traffic jam for 45 minutes. I have a theory about traffic jams (one that would be sorely tested today, but in the end still held true). It's like that scene in The World According to Garp where Garp buys the house after the plane hits it because its been "pre-disastered," with the odds against another one. In the end, we went through road construction four times today, but only the first one slowed us down.

Eventually, we got back underway through Illinois farm country. Again. If there's one thing we've seen more of than road construction, it's farmland. Saw lots of corn, as expected, but not a single bale of hay. So now I have no idea where Illinois stands on the whole small rectangle vs. large roll debate. That all changed, though, when we crossed into Kentucky, which was all large rolls all the way.

Halfway through Illinois, the thought occurred to me that we might pass through Metropolis, and sure enough we did. We had come full circle once again, since we had stopped by the Superman house on our very first day.

Gary, Indiana, and even Marceline to a degree, could learn a thing or two from Metropolis. By sheer luck of the draw, the name of their little town is most-closely associated with Superman, and they've embraced it whole hog. In addition to the giant Superman statue in front of the courthouse and official recognition by DC Comics, they also host an annual Superman celebration.

We'd visited the tiny hamlet of Metropolis a few years ago and I was anxious to see if it had changed any. Previously, it was was a little run-down (except for the statue). The Super Museum even more so. I was thrilled to see that things were much improved. 

The Super Museum has been repainted, the street lights all have hanging planters with fresh flowers (can you beat that?), and they even installed a tourist information booth next to the statue.

What's more, the outside of the booth answered my biggest question: whether or not the Lois Lane statue honoring the "First Lady of Metropolis," Noel Neill, had been installed. Sure enough, it had. Just a few blocks from Superman.

We were also surprised to see that the little town is growing. They've added a new hotel and new fast food options since we were there last. The annual Superman Celebration is clearly paying off. 

From there it was just a short drive past one of my favorite-named towns, 

Paducah, KY (which has an awesome movie theater, by the way), on our way to Music City.

We got there around 6:00 and checked into the Gaylord Opryland, which we'd only really seen from across the parking lot at the Grand Ole Opry. Now, we knew this place was big, but like Yellowstone, we weren't quite prepared for just how big. I started to get an idea when they gave me a map of the inside of the hotel.

We had plans to meet my old friend, Hal, and his daughter, Claire, for dinner. So, it was off to the room real quick to drop off our suitcase (just one -- we'd wisely consolidated since we only had one leg left to go) and freshen up. You know those freaky horror movies where someone is running down a long hall and the further they go, the longer the hall gets? Yep, that's what it was like going to our room.

The one thing that really puzzles us is how they manage to fill all those rooms, especially without a casino. There's so many restaurants inside and things to do, you could spend a week in there without ever going out. I mean, the Opry is popular, but it doesn't hold that many people.

Hal picked us up in the Magnolia section, which was clear on other side of the hotel. We actually got a little lost trying to find our way there. Later that night after dinner, I had to go back to the room for a few minutes, and really did get lost. Even tried to put my key in the wrong door. Luckily, an employee helped me get back on track.

Hal took us near downtown to The Pharmacy Burger Parlor and Beer Garden, one of the best new restaurants in Nashville with award-winning burgers. It was really crowded, so we had to wait just a bit, but surprisingly it was only 30 minutes, just like they said. They have a really cool automated system where you input your cell number and it calls you when your table is ready. That was awesome. The food was fantastic and the service was quick. Can't beat that. And can't wait to go back.

Afterwards, Hal took us on a quick tour of downtown, past Broadway (the main drag, not to be confused with the one in NYC), Music Row where all the producers' offices are, and the absolutely ginormous brand new convention center. This place is so unbelievably huge (shades of Gaylord), a street runs underneath it.

From there it was back to the hotel to explore. It's like the Bellagio with the layout of Caesar's Palace or even Wall Drug (confused). In fact, it's the biggest hotel in the US without a casino. As I said, this place is unbelievably ginormous. Imagine Disney World with a roof.

There's actually several attractions inside with DreamWorks characters. Marsha had her heart set on the narrated boat ride around Delta section, and luckily it was still open despite the website and hotel information telling us it wouldn't be.

The Delta section is actually filled with all live plants. At first we thought they were fake until our boat captain told us otherwise and showed us the banana trees growing fruit. Since it was night, it was too dark to get a decent picture, though. We'll have to go back in the daytime on our next trip. Walking around there made me think of being in Disney World at night. I couldn't help but think about how cool (literally) it would be if the park had a roof and was completely air-conditioned.

All in all, it was pretty magical and the perfect place to end our trip. Tomorrow, the final trek home.

Day 14.2: Gateway to the West

After leaving Marceline, it was just a few hours' drive through the rest of Missouri. All of which was mostly farm land, especially when our Garmin took us on a couple of little detours down two little farm roads that were practically one lane.

On our way to Marceline, we saw our second fire in the two days. The first was in Kansas, in the trees behind a farm. We had the big billow of smoke from several miles away, and several trucks riding past it, so we were sure someone had reported it. This second one was much smaller and was more of a "Hey, does that look like smoke?" As opposed to "Oh my gosh, smoke!" It was in a triangular median at an intersection. Smoldering hay that had been on fire was scattered all over the grass. Apparently, a tractor-trailer hauling hay had caught on fire because at the end of the median we saw the charred, smoking remains of the trailer. There was no sign of the truck itself, nor that anyone had tried to put it out. It looked like it had just burned out on its own.

Missouri clearly favors the large rolls of hay. Every inch that wasn't a city or town was covered in farmland. We saw a few bales of the rectangular variety, but not enough to dent the competition. 

The drive was mostly open highway and very little traffic until we got into St. Louis. Even then, all of the heavy traffic was going the other direction. This was fantastic for us, because we'd taken our time in Marceline (even cancelled our dinner reservations) and it was almost 7:30. We were hoping we'd have some time to do a few things, so we went straight to the Arch without even checking into our hotel (we hoped for the best on the chocolate).

As we got close to downtown, we kept wondering when we'd see it, then all of a sudden we did. Our initial view was blocked by some trees. From that point on, we had no trouble seeing it as we just got closer and closer. We parked in the parking deck with no problem (which, fortunately, was reasonably cool) and went straight to the park.

Wow, you just can't believe how ginormous this thing is. I mean, it's just amazingly huge. Far bigger than we expected. We kept trying to take a good picture, but I think you have to get like six miles away to get the whole thing in.

The best you can hope is to just get a section, preferably with the curve so that you can tell what it is. It's really mind-boggling when you walk around and look at it from below. I just had to know how they built the thing.

We also saw the Eads bridge, built by Andrew Carnegie. It was a marvel of engineering when it was built in 1874, the longest arch bridge at the time. People were afraid to cross it, so Carnegie sent an elephant over it first, based on the popular belief that an elephant won't trod where it's not safe. I recognized it right away, having recenty learned about it on The Men Who Built America.

The actual name of the complex is the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (Jefferson being Thomas Jefferson), with the Arch being the centerpiece. It looks across the Mississippi River, showing the way West. 

Amazingly, the visitor's center is completely underground, beneath the Arch. It's quite big, too. Since it's a National Park, we had to go through security and empty everything out of our pockets.

I was the only one who entertained the thought of going to the top, and even I was iffy on that. But it was a moot point. Tickets to the top were already sold out for the day. We wanted to see the "making of" movie and rushed to get tickets. Unfortunately, the line moved very slow, but luck was still with us and we made it just before the lights went down.

The movie was absolutely fascinating. The construction crew built both sides of the Arch at the same time and then met in the middle. It was built in pre-made sections, stacked up and welded in place as they went along, inside and out. From a distance, the joints look smooth as a baby's behind. But when you look at it up close, you can see (and even feel) the welds.

When they were building the two sides, eventually they got too high for the cranes and had to attach building platforms to the backs of each side of the Arch. The tracks couldn't cover a whole side, so every time they moved the platform, they'd have to take track from the bottom and move it to the top. Then when they were done, they had to reverse this process to get the platforms back down.

The biggest challenge was the top sections. Once they got past a certain point, the two sides of the Arch leaned too far inward to be stable on their own. So, they had to add a span between two that also acted as another work platform to install the remaining sections. Half the job was building all the apparati just to build the Arch, all of which then had to be disassembled afterwards.

The most dramatic part was the installation of the final section, which was pretty tiny compared to all the rest. First, they had to spread the two sides (which also didn't quite line up) apart a few extra feet and raise the final piece up by crane attached to the span. Because of all the tension, they had to hose down the installation area to keep it cool and only had a short window to get it done. Even though we knew how the story ended, it was still a real nail-biter.

The oddest part of the movie is that it was made in the 1960s, when the Arch first opened, and hasn't been updated since. It's really dated, with overly stern narration and a bad Mannix/Kung Fu movie soundtrack. We got quite a kick out if that.

But the best part of the visitor's center was the great Lewis & Clark section on Westward Expansion. The first thing you see is a rough-hewn statue of Thomas Jefferson looking off to the distance. Behind him is a large, round room that honestly tells story from both sides. It gives equal attention to the explorers and Native Americans.

The room was full of both simple and elaborate displays that told all about the Native Americans, the explorers, and the settlers. There were also several animatronic figures in front of painted backdrops that would talk directly to you, though most of them were covered up because they were out of order. The Red Cloud animatronic seemed to be the only one working and immediately reminded us of the Old Tonto scenes in The Lone Ranger. Honestly, I think the whole area would be better served if they just took them out. It really didn't match the quality of the rest of the displays.

The best part was the circular back wall covering the Lewis & Clark expedition, with giant photos from various locations and quotes from their journals, typos and all. Most of the locations were all places that we'd just been in the last two weeks, so it was like re-living our trip all over again.

By that time, it was after 9:00 and we were getting pretty hungry. We wanted to eat somewhere nearby, but we were exhausted, too. So, we decided to just go check into the hotel and eat there.

The hotel had a great classic hotel bar, all mahogany wood with a mural of jazz musicians along the ceiling. The menu was simple and just what we wanted, served by the bartender/waiter, who was fantastic. We got there just in time, since the kitchen was only open for twenty more minutes. Just what the doctor ordered for a good night's rest. Only one more stop before home.