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)