St Louis - gateway to the east
Trip Start
Apr 18, 2007
1
18
173
Trip End
Oct 16, 2007
St Louis,
Missouri,
United States
Friday, May 4, 2007
The museum was an impressive building and housed a large exhibition about Charles Lindbergh who made the first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic from NYC to Paris.
Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 - August 26, 1974), known as "Lucky Lindy" and "The Lone Eagle," was an American pilot famous for the first solo, non-stop flight from New York to Paris in 1927 in the Spirit of St. Louis. In the ensuing deluge of notoriety, Lindbergh became the world's best-known aviator
Lindburgh Plaque
. Lindbergh gained sudden great international fame as the first pilot to fly solo and non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean. He flew from Roosevelt Airfield (in Garden City, New York) to Paris on May 20 - May 21, 1927 in 33.5 hours. His plane was the single-engine aircraft, The Spirit of St. Louis.
People had disappeared in the past trying to win the The Orteig Prize, a $25,000 prize offered in 1919 by New York hotelier Raymond Orteig, a Frenchman, for the first non-stop flight from New York City to Paris, so he was incredibly brave in undertaking the challenge.
The interesting thing for us was that he couldn't see out the front of the plane as it contained a huge forward fuel tank.
The museum also housed a history of St Louis.
When we left the weather was still awful >> we seem to have had a three day continual rain-storm which certainly explains why the fields were so green coming up here in 80F heat
MJ next to copy of The Spirit of St Louis
. So we put off going to see the Arch until tomorrow and went back for a picnic in the hotel (plus the ongoing fitness workout that continues wherever we find a gym in the hotel).Late afternoon we headed back to our favourite Mall to see Disturbia - which was also very good - in another very empty cinema (everyone is off watching Spiderman3).
Afterwards Chrissie, suffering from retail-withdrawal, HAD to go shopping. The Mall is rather like stepping into a movie for us and an experience in itse;f. A very disappointing meal in Tony Romas - "greatest ribs in USA" - NOT. We will be issuing our very own "Places to eat in the USA" after the trip, at the moment Texas Steakhouse is ahead by a mile.
