Howdy! It’s day 2 of the tour, and man are we exhausted!! For a little insight, we have checked into our 2nd hotel, traveled to Colombia, MO and have spent hours driving today.
YESTERDAY: We started off the morning with some breakfast from a local diner just across the way, and quickly filed into “Doris” to head out to be the Ultimate Tourist in St. Louis.
First, we made our first stop at the Old Court House down town St. Louis and got a complete tour of the old courts room. This tour was so interesting because we got to actually understand why it was so unique thanks to our tour guide; the building was created to have a sound relayer in the middle of it so that the people all the way up (about 7 floors) could still hear the business going on. Throughout the whole courthouse was very patriotic and displayed the flag beautifully.
Soon after the courthouse tour we walked over to the famous Arch, excited & shaking in our boots to get to the top! The trams for the arch were crazy!! They were the size of the diameter of a kitty pool with 5 seats in each one (they kind of looked like a toilet!). After cramming into our trams we worked our way to the top and got to see the views from the arch! Did you know that the arch is 630ft wide?! It was also created to be almost as wide as it is tall, and that is even crazier! We learned that like OSU, there is a building height limit, and that of St. Louis is no taller than the arch, boy was AT&T cutting it close! The picture of my blog home screen is an actual picture I took of the arch while on the Mississippi.
After coming down from the arch we then went back under the arch to watch a historical movie about the building of the arch. Unfortunately, I fell asleep before the movie even started, dang! Moving right along, ALL ABOARD THE RIVERBOAT! This tour was long, but relaxing and filled with facts about the surrounding areas.
After the riverboat tour it was time to move on from downtown and explore a little agriculture. Next stop, Monsanto Research Facility! We arrived at about 3:15 (after two of the 3 fans were lost on the freeway) and began touring from the main building. The facility was very clean and professional, and of this tour I had no idea what to expect due to my lack of knowledge about the company and what they did. After the tour was finished, I really developed appreciation for GMO’s because they have done so much for our communities and will continue to help our world continue to grow and flourish. Unfortunately, we were unable to take very many photos at Monsanto due to their high volume of patented machinery and mechanisms.
The technology at Monsanto was amazing, my favorite part was the rooms that were climate controls; these allowed you to mimic the weather of another location.
Monsanto was really great to visit because I have never seen such high tech and cutting edge technology, but now that I have I can say that I am very thankful for it! After the tour end, we loaded back up and left for the hotel. Surprise, surprise, we were starving! Half of the group split, going to Mexican on one side of town, and the Old Spaghetti Factory on the other. We stayed another night at the MAC, and had to get up at about 6 to be up and ready for the day!
I promise to catch you up to speed tomorrow once I am fully rested and hopefully fully acclimated to the time change! Stay tuned for more updates on our trip from just another woman in agriculture, and be sure to follow our hashtags on facebook, instagram and twitter! Please send me any messages you have! I would love to share!
