Dateline: St. Louis, Missouri, September 11, 2014
9/10 Woke to threat of rain. Decided to head for St Louis 100 miles distant so got extra night in Clayton. Rain came, plenty of rain, so I left the interstate and drove highway 40 as much as possible, stopped on a section of National Road and at a deserted gas station
arriving for an early check in at the fabulous Hampton Inn Clayton- St. Louis -Galleria area. This hotel is brand new and the people are soo nice. Anyway hope to see my youngest daughter, Emily, tonight. She went back to school in July to take a couple of summer courses and so I haven’t seen her for 2 months already. She tends to be a woman of few words so it’s hard to tell from this text how excited she is to learn I’m in St. Louis a day early: “Okay well I have class until 2:30 and I have to take a quiz at 6:30.” But she’s excited I’m sure.
I did get to see her I just came over and visited and gave her the treats I had brought, told her my tales of the road. I’m not sure what I’ll do for my Missouri challenge but I’m hoping she’ll join me.
September 11- Up early and watching tv, I learned of a 21 mile March to the Arch starting at 9:11 am. I knew I had found my challenge, but I couldn’t think how I would get to the start and back- didn’t know there were shuttles and didn’t want to miss a whole day with Em- so I did what all moms do when they visit their kids at college- I went for groceries. I got all the staples and even some pots, and I kept it all in the car and returned to the hotel, still yearning to March to the Arch. Here is a description of how the March got started, from the website of St. Louis Public Radio:
“The annual Sept. 11 March to the Arch started in 2002 when Bo Drochelman took the American flag from the front porch of his Kirkwood home and walked to the Gateway Arch.
“It wasn’t well planned, I can tell you that,” Drochelman said. He wanted to do something that would honor those who died on Sept. 11, 2001, and was a personal sacrifice. So he left a note for his wife, and started walking.
Perfect- I didn’t have a plan either, but here I was, in St. Louis, on September 11, and that became my plan. I consulted with basically the entire hotel staff and called Bo Drochelman on his cell phone. He said, “Yup, we are marching,” and gave me an approximate time to catch up with them near my hotel. I grabbed my little American flag out of the back seat of my car and took the hotel shuttle to the 10 mile point and met up with the group, led by this ebullient and incredibly fit retired Marine. It was just about noon. I called my daughter, who said she would try to meet us when she got out of class.
I met a lot of fellow marchers: Maria, a woman about my age, grown kids, on her second March to the Arch, and she told me she is in the same place in her life, wanting to achieve something for herself, now that her 5 kids (5!) don’t need her in the same way. This quest strikes a chord in everyone I speak to. I think I may be onto something. Peter, who carried my blue shirt and Em’s t shirt the whole way. Kevin from Kearny, NJ. Chris, a first time marathoner, young father. Dana and Arlene, both significantly overweight, both doing the full 21 mile distance, who together have lost 80 lbs. since January- one of them a retired marine. They were hurting, but such an inspiration.
Met up with Em, who had to hustle and there was understandable confusion about the meeting place for two moving targets. I had to wait for her, then we both had to hustle, catching up with the others at the Missouri History Museum rest stop. Em hadn’t eaten anything all day, but a fellow marcher kindly gave her a banana and a power bar. She did 7 miles plus the long walk to meet up with us.
We met Sarah, a physician’s assistant who has worked with homeless girls. Shared much of the walk with her. She was herself a Washington University grad and a lifelong St. Louisan so she added much to our understanding of the buildings we were seeing.
Many drivers honked and waved, people on the street were cheering for us, and our group of about 200 marchers steadily advanced to the Arch, despite the pain in our arches.
At some point in every “dreadful hike,” there comes the point when it is just time for it to be over, and when Emily hit her stride and started passing everyone, I knew what she was thinking. Sarah caught up with us with difficulty and told us about some historic sights, including a nude fountain, the two major figures representing the Mississippi and the Missouri, the great confluence that is St. Louis. I said, “Which is the man and which the woman?” Sarah said “Well you can got over closer and check if you need to.” I said, “No that isn’t what I mean- which river is male, which female?” And when that is incredibly funny, you know you are incredibly punchy.
The Arch became more and more impressive as we approached:
It’s taller than the Empire State Building and truly stupendous. Upon arrival, we all touched the Arch, and a singer who sings the National Anthem for the St Louis Blues sang it for us. Next, we all sang God Bless America and shared a moment of pride in our accomplishment and our unity.
Exhausted, Emily and I took the subway back to my hotel, unloaded the groceries at her apartment, and tried to eat dinner at Barcelona, but Emily was holding up the wall of the restaurant with her head and I was falling asleep in the chair. A fitting tribute to our 9/11 heroes, a solid challenge met, another state in the bag, and something I hope to share with my daughter again in 2015.