Spent the night just west of St. Louis in a burg called St. Charles. It is an old town, known as the starting point for Lewis and Clark. Boy... every town west of the Mississippi has something to do with the L & C expedition! Had dinner in a neat, very old, downtown St. Charles, at an outdoor patio restaurant, where by sheer coincidence, Melissa saw an old friend from the community center. They were seated at the table next to us, and had just moved there a month previous.
Next morning we headed into St. Louis, 20 miles to the east. Wanting to ride the elevator up the arch at the river. When we got there, the river was up over it's banks, so high, that the statue of Lewis and Clark only showed the head of one of them holding his hat high like he was summoning help in a flood. Quite humorous. Just needed a life ring to finish the set up.
Checked out the Arch and looked at the lines qued up at each end. We got into the shorter line and discovered after waiting 15 minutes that it was just like the airport (all belts came off, any cell phones, cameras and metal parts in the grey tub, and you have to go through a metal detector). So we asked how long a wait from here (we were at the doors), the Ranger said... Oh... about 2.5 hours yet before you get to ride up. We cancelled our plans for the arch right there. it was about 99 degrees again that day.
Wandered up the street, a lot of cardinal fans in the downtown area, so we followed them toward the stadium. Thought about buying a couple of tickets for the game, even though the scalper said the seats were in the shade, we opted not to sit for hours in the 99 degree temps.
One last stop since we were in St. Louis. Drove up the street to find the A-B Brewery. Seems that there are a lot of people who want to do things on a Saturday in St. Louis, crowds again waiting for the tour at the brewery. But, we got tickets quickly and only had to wait an hour in air conditioning. Pretty neat place, very old, very clean, well maintained and landscaped grounds. Chris must buy a lot of buddy lights to pay for this place.
Chris, we found out where Buddy Light comes from... I'll stick with Miller Lite. 
Peace out. m&m
One of the highlights of visiting Denver was the trip to the zoo. lots of large animals, the temp was quite high that day, it hit 99 degrees. 
This big silverback came all the way across his environment to stand right in front of Melissa and I.
We wandered downtown for a couple of hours, got some pics of Coors Field for the girls. We've been pretty lucky on this trip, seeing the animals at the right times while travleing, etc... today we got back to the car with 4 minutes left on the meter, after seeing several meter enforcement officers on their rounds downtown. 
View from somewhere around the top of the world here at the Trail Ridge Pass.
And low and behold, more elk on the hillside on the way into Estes Park.
