Gary Goes to Indiana

Went to Indiana for 3 days this week to kick off a new project in the small town of Mt. Vernon. Lot's of Mt Vernon's. On my bike trip I was stopped by the sheriff in Mt. V. Missouri and we drove through Mt. V. Illinois on the way to Mt. V. Indiana. I noticed that a lot of cars have an "In God We Trust" Indiana license plate. Then we found a Ten Commandments monument on the courthouse lawn. Lot's of homes and businesses had them posted too. Maybe ACLU hasn't made it there yet. More power to the people there!! The town is right on the Ohio and lots of farming going on. Lots of rain too. Their annual rainfall is 40 inches and they have already had that much so far. We got 3.5 on Tuesday night.

We got back to St. Louis early so we took a quick tour of the Gateway Arch. It's an awesome structure with outside skin of stainless steel. The tram going up is made up of 8 cars that are little egg shaped cans that hold 2-5 people depending on size. As the tram goes up the cars adjust to keep you vertical. The top is 630 feet up and there are a bunch of little windows where you can view the city or the Muddy Mississippi. It was a great experience. My pass is good for 7 days so I could go back!!

Flying in and out of St. Louis is depressing for an aviation aficionado. The old F-15 McDonnell Douglas plant is closed and less than half of the gates at the terminal are in use. It used to be wall to wall people and the gates were all full of planes of all sizes, including the jumbos, with destinations all over the world. Now the biggest plane is a 757 with most being 737's and regional jets and there is no waiting to takeoff. 65%of the businesses in the terminal are closed and by 9 PM the whole place starts looking like a ghost town.Just not like the good old days.

OK, I'man official "Blogger" and I don't even have blogging shoes!