Home > Full Speed Ahead > Archives > 2008 > July > 06 > Entry
Big win in the bottom of the ninth
We were so tired after Friday’s festivities that we slept until nine.
That was a mistake.
By the time we had breakfast, packed up, checked out and got to the arch grounds, it was nearly noon.
I stood in the long line for tickets to the tram and I watched as times posted for the next trip advanced further into the future: 1:55, 2:05, 2:15, 2:25. A lot of people had purchased tickets ahead of us.
I brought four tickets for the 2:25 tram that would take us to the top of the 630-foot monument.
Now we had two hours to kill while I worried about how we would make our 2:55 baseball game.
Like at the restaurant the night before, I had not anticipated the wait and the lines generated by the Fourth of July crowds. Neither had my daughters, who were as patient as they could be but still added to the stress by asking if it was time yet for our turn.
We watched the in-house movie, Monument to a Dream, about how the arch was built. The narration was wonderfully over-dramatic and relied heavily on the passive tense: “It was predicted that 13 of them would never make it this far, but not one man was lost during the task,” it said of the iron workers who clung to the outside of the monument as they built it up.
When they finished, “The thing was done,” the movie said.
The cool and dark theater and the 1960s Disneyesque documentary helped soothe my nerves, and the popcorn and cashews from the replica general store helped calm our grumbling stomachs. Security checks at the arch entrances created long lines just to get in. (Thank you terrorists.) We did not want to leave to eat and miss the tram in which he had so much invested.
Still, by the time we climbed out of the five-person tram car that resemble the cylinder to a clothes dryer, we were like Chevy Chase and his family at the grand canyon in the movie Family Vacation.
We looked out the window to the east, we looked out the window to the west, we turned around and caught the next train down.
We made it to the ball game in the top of the third inning and saw one of the best games I have ever seen. Cards win in the bottom of the night off a two run single by Rick Ankiel with the bases loaded.
Ankiel, a pitcher-turned-power-hitter and fan favorite also hit a solo home run in the sixth. The final score, 5-3.
What a game!
Bobby Burns is associate editor of Internet news and information at The Daily Reflector. A native North Carolinian, he grew up in St. Louis, Mo.
The Baity-Burns family in the tram car preparing to climb to the top of the arch.
A view of the ball game where we are supposed to be from the top of the arch.
Madison, Bobby and Abigail at the ball game.
With Stan the Man after the win.
This morning we are climbing back in the car and heading East. I will be posting lots more video, audio and photos when I can. I have recorded more than I can edit and post quickly in my limited time on line. But keep checking back for more cool stuff from St. Louis and elsewhere, including advise on ways to learn from our mistakes and successes if you plan to make a similar trips.
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