Saturday, June 27, 2009

St. Louis Arch & Museum of Westward Expansion

The famous St. Louis Arch at ground level. Photo by Skip Hawkes

ST.LOUIS - Today, Saturday, June 27, we took a ride by tram up to the top of the St. Louis Arch 630 feet above ground. There you can see the city of St. Louis and the surrounding areas, as well as a portion of the Mississippi River.

Busch Stadium from the top of the Arch. Photo by Skip Hawkes

Some of the St. Louis skyline from the top of the Arch. Photo by Skip Hawkes

The photo gallery contains photos from the Museum of Westward Expansion, which is underground below the Arch, as well as many photos of the St. Louis skyline and beyond.

Friday, June 26, 2009

My visit to Saint Louis, Missouri

Busch Stadium, home of the St. Louis Cardinals major league baseball team, is located on Clark St. in downtown St. Louis. This is a view from I-64 as you pass by. (Photo by Skip Hawkes)

ST. LOUIS, MO - During the week of June 21-28, I traveled to St. Louis on a work related visit. Most of the week, so far, has been spent working in an industrial scrap warehouse which is located in Madison, Illinois. This is where any thing to do with metals, iron, batteries, etc. (PC's, computer boards, transmissions, electronics of all kinds, and telecommunication systems to name a few)wind up. All of these scrap items are packed up on pallets, and shipped out to refineries and foreign countries to be recycled into many of the NEW items we purchase today.

I spent most of my time in the warehouse, which was 100+ degrees every day. I sorted through many of the items headed to scrap, and with some help from one of the warehouse workers pulled over 2,500 pounds of merchandise to be trucked to Maine (5 pallets) to be sold on eBay.

The first thing you see as you enter the spacious warehouse. On the right is Rick, the warehouse manager, and those three wrapped pallets are heading to Maine . (Photo by Skip Hawkes)

Here are few other photos heading to work, inside the warehouse, and from the other side of I-64 on the way home.

Morning traffic on I-64 at 7:50 am. (Photo by Skip Hawkes)

Interco Trading Company is where I spent the week working. (Photo by Skip Hawkes)

PC's wrapped and headed to scrap. (Photo by Skip Hawkes)

The very large compacting machine. (Photo by Skip Hawkes)

My friend Jose, who worked with me all week and did much of the packing of the merchandise headed to Maine. Jose is Mexican and speaks hardly any English, but with written words and hand signals we communicated pretty good. (Photo by Skip Hawkes)

The St. Louis Gateway Arch seen from I-64. The Arch is 630 feet tall and 630 feet wide at the base making it the tallest monument in the United States. Construction on the Arch began in February, 1963, and was completed in October, 1965. The Arch was opened to the public on July 24, 1967. (Photo by Skip Hawkes)


Saturday, April 18, 2009

2009 Kenduskeag Stream Canoe Race, Trevor MacLean overall winner

Overturned crafts became a familiar site at Six Mile Falls Saturday during the 43rd Annual Kenduskeag Stream Canoe Race. (Photo by Skip Hawkes)

Saturday morning in Kenduskeag Village, the 43rd Annual Kenduskeag Stream Canoe Race kicked of at approximately 8:30 a.m. A final count of 510 boaters participated in the 16.5mile race from Kenduskeag to the downtown Bangor finish line.

(Photo by Skip Hawkes)

Five crafts were released every one minute with the final boaters taking off around 9:30 a.m. The low water slowed things down along the course, with the first official participants coming through Six Mile Falls at approximately 10:15 a.m.

(Photo by Skip Hawkes)

Trevor MacLean of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia was the overall winner of the race, the fifth time in eight races MacLean has won. He paddled his kayak in 2 hours and 17.58 minutes to the finish line. Robert Lang, from Rothesay, New Brunswick, finished second in the race with a time of 2:22.45. Lang, an 11 time Kenduskeag Stream champion, has finished second two years in a row.

(Photo by Skip Hawkes)

Steve Woodward (Cumberland, ME) and Jeff Owen (Orono, ME) were the top canoeists, finishing first with a time of 2:29.08.

All of the photos in the photo gallery were shot from atop Six Mile Falls bridge.

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