Chapter 19 Forest Park, A most commodious host, Milestones

I am now wholly dependent on my google mapping to find a bicycle route using city streets to penetrate the city.  The traffic is getting thick, I follow bike trails where possible but eventually resort to riding on sidewalks to stay out of traffic.  The afternoons are still perversely hot in the high 80's and the route is hilly so my progress is slow and arduous.

Ted and Jocelyn and some really tall guy

 By early evening it starts to rain,  I call it quits and head for nearby Ladue, a inner suburb and the home of Ted Fundikos and his wife Jocelyn , my hosts for the night.  They have two teen daughters and two siamese cats who are intensely interested in Murphy.  We keep them apart as Murphy is not socialized to cats and would cut short my welcome if he got the chance to retrieve one.  The cats keep jumping up to get a glimpse of him through the door window separating them.  Ted is a real estate developer working on developing a youth hockey complex for St. Louis and Jocelyn was once an actress (made a living for 17 years) in LA. She is currently writing a novel.  I learn a great deal from both of them about their pursuits.  Ted is also a serious cyclist who recently returned from Colorado where he undertook a series of high altitude bike climbs in the rockies including one up Mount Evans, a 14,000 footer accessible by pavement. I am being exposed to some real adventure junkies these days which make my efforts look pretty humble.  The next morning brings some serious rain and thunderstorms but my hosts graciously allow me to wait out the worst in the comfort of their kitchen.

Forest Park Art Museum

The "Crystal"

Determined to make progress, I set out for Forest Park despite frequent downpours trapping me under bridges and canopies along the way.  Forest Park is an urban park in St. Louis that is larger than New York's Central Park.  It is beautifully landscaped and studded with museums, fountains, flower beds, gardens and recreational facilities. It was the original site of the World's Fair and Exposition in 1904.  My original plan to blow through it is instantly scrapped when I realize this place deserves more time.  It is amazing despite the rain and I intend to see as much of it as possible.  I sample some of the museums (refuge from the rain) and Murphy was on a first name basis
with the museum security guards as he waited under their canopies. Since I made so little progress my hosts from the night before invited us back for another night despite our soggy condition.  It rained most of the night but it finally tapered off come morning.

The Gateway to the West

Posing Princesses

 Bums who are posers.

I made a dash for the St. Louis Arch reaching it by mid afternoon.  Currently it is surrounded by a construction project to rejuvenate the grounds so the tourists were herded like cattle by chain link fence pathways to the base.  I make a point of visiting it as it is the signature symbol of the city.

City Museum

 A lesser known but a more fascinating place to visit is the "City Museum".  In a word : wonderfully bizzarre. In a former downtown shoe factory, some wealthy artist created a fantastical playland of found objects (like jet fighters and steam shovels), organic sculptures, tunnels, hamster habitat-like crawling tubes snaking through the air and architectural ruins all interwoven together. It spills outside as well and even has a carousel on the roof next to the school bus that cantilevers off the parapet 5 stories above the ground.  People including adults are crawling all over and through everything trying to keep up with their pizza fueled children. I have never seen anything like it. As an architect my biggest sense of wonderment is how they ever got this place approved by the building inspector. It is worth a visit even if you don't have kids.