Day Twenty-Seven: Day Off in Saint Louis

Jane and I spent much of today exploring the city. Much to my amusement, I discovered that Saint Louis has a fully functional light rail system, using high-platform light rail vehicles that are mostly identical to the rolling stock Pittsburgh uses. The Metrolink, as it is called, re-uses old railroad right-of-ways over the Eads bridge and in Missouri, so it must have been comparably cheap to build.

We visited the St. Louis arch, Big Shark cycles, and the St. Louis Zoo.

The arch has a viewing platform at the top of it. To get to the top, you ride in an elevator-tram, which contains eight small pods each holding five people. From the top, about 650 feet above the ground below, there is an excellent view of the city, of Illinois just across the river, and of the overflowing Mississippi river. The river was still high enough to completely bury trees and roads that are usually at the river's edge.

I wanted to try a new seatpost, since, as a result of overtorqing over the years, my Roubaix's seat post has a kink in it and clicks when I ride. I tried a new (carbon) seat post, but that did me no good, as the clicking didn't go away, the offset was wrong, and I wasn't able to return it before I left. Thumbs down. I just hope I don't need to replace that Roubaix frame after the trip. There are some small cracks at the top of the seat mast, under the seatpost clamp, and I've never been able to get the seatpost torqued just right on the frame. Carbon compound helps, but doesn't solve the problem: it's either slipping or clicking.

Jane and I then spent a sweltering afternoon at the St. Louis Zoo, a huge zoo in the middle of Forest Park with many animals. We ran out of photographs, since the camera's batteries died.

All in all, it was a good day off.