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Tags: Missouri Travel / Memorials / Architecture Travel / National Parks / → All Tags

St. Louis' Gateway Arch Looking To Have Some Work Done Before Turning Fifty

Now that Southwest Airlines has announced that they are all about St. Louis, the city is eager to get to work on their most famous attraction. After all, with an influx of new visitors thanks to cheap flights, the city needs to show off its offerings. Late last week the National Park Service released an almost 300 page set of plans dealing with the future of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial—that’s the Gateway Arch for those less familiar with its full name.

The park service is looking to preserve and maintain the grand lawn area beneath the Arch and wants to add some snazzy new stuff to the north and south ends of the area. The entire memorial is almost 100 acres large, so they have a lot of room to play with. One of the biggest updates would be to expand the park across the Mississippi River. That would provide East St. Louis with a little Arch love, and would allow the Arch to be better connected to the downtown area. Certain blocks downtown could be cleared to allow for new walkways for pedestrians to check things out.

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Tags: Labor Day Travel / Festivals / Events / Missouri Travel / Summer Festivals / → All Tags

Celebrate All Things Oregon Trail At A Mizzou Festival

It’s hard to believe, but the end of summer is just around the corner. That’s why it’s time to start thinking about your Labor Day plans, so you can make it a priority to attend this year’s SantaCaliGon Days Festival in Independence, Missouri. If you preferred Oregon Trail to Number Munchers back in computer lab class, this festival is right up your alley. It celebrates the heritage of the Missouri town as the starting point of the Santa Fe, California, and Oregon Trails. See, the name of the festival does make sense.

More than 225,000 people hit the streets to take in the sights, sounds, and smells of this Labor Day festival. Of course there’s a carnival to entertain the kids and kids at heart, and it opens on September 3 so you can get an early start to your holiday weekend. Just remember to dedicate some time to practicing for the Watermelon Seed Spitting Contest, as you’ll want to make your family proud.

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Tags: Obama-Around-The-World / Presidential Travel / Barack Obama / Baseball / → All Tags

Buy Obama Some Peanuts And Crackerjacks In St. Louis

Whether or not you're planning one of those tour-the-USA's-major-league-ballparks vacations, perhaps you'll want to add St. Louis' Busch Stadium onto your Midwest road-trip now that President Obama has taken the mound.

That's right, last night during the All-Star game, Barack dressed down in jeans and a Chicago White Sox jackets—yay for repping his home team—and threw the ceremonial first pitch to Albert Pujols of the Cardinals. Although he had warmed up on the White House lawn this weekend and was accompanied to St. Louis on Air Force One with Willie Mays, Obama said of his pitch: "Now, there was no clock on it, I don't know how fast it went - but if it exceeded 30 miles per hour, I'd be surprised, but it did clear the plate."

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Tags: Beer Festivals / Beer / Summer Festivals / Missouri Travel / → All Tags

No Busch Light At The St. Louis Brewers Heritage Fest

It’s pretty clear that the folks in St. Louis take their beer pretty seriously. After all, this is the proud home of Budweiser, as long as you just forget about that whole InBev buyout thing. That’s why it’s a pretty safe bet to predict that the 2009 St. Louis Brewers Heritage Festival is one of the must-do drinking fests of the year.

There’s three different schedules over the weekend of June 5 and 6 that all take place within Forest Park, but unless you’re hardcore we’d only recommend throwing down for one of them. Tickets start at $30 and cost $35 on the day of the event. It’s a pretty good deal as it grants you access to unlimited sampling of over 60 different beer styles, live music, and a commemorative glass.

Brewmasters will be on hand from some of the nation’s most well known breweries, as well as some smaller ones. We’d head straight to the Trailhead Brewing Company booth, in hopes of downing a few samples of a hoppy ale. Just remember to bring a couple bucks in case you get the beer munchies, as there’ll be quite an assortment of food vendors as well.

Related Stories:
·St. Louis Brewery Heritage Festival [Official Site]
·Beer coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Official Site]

Tags: Strange Scuba Spots / SCUBA / Scuba Dives / Missouri Travel / → All Tags

A Mine Shaft Scuba Adventure Awaits In Missouri

We were tipped off as to this scuba Missouri spot by Travis Marshall, a freelance writer who specializes in scuba diving/watersports and adventure travel coverage.

About an hour outside of St. Louis sits what was once the world’s largest lead mine. For years, things inside this big hole in the ground were business as usual, as workers came and went through its myriad tunnels and passages during the course of a regular workday. It’s difficult to imagine now, that any of the miners would think their daily office would eventually be turned into a unique scuba location.

Once work ended at the Bonne Terre Mine, the owners turned off the pumps that kept things dry, and sure enough the place filled with crystal clear water. Divers come year-round from all over to check out the billion-gallon lake resort, with specific attention to viewing underwater artifacts from years past, thanks to the 100-foot visibility.

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Air Chase! Grand Theft Cessna Ends Safely In Missouri with One Arrest

This is why we don't leave our keys in parked planes: A Cessna stolen from a Canadian flight school last night landed safely on a Missouri back road last night after a six-hour flight over four states. Canadian citizen Adam Leon was arrested on the ground after fleeing the plane on foot.

Leon took off from Ontario's Thunder Bay Airport around 3PM and crossed into Michigan's Upper Peninsula. F-16 fighter jets met him when he crossed into Wisconsin, where his flightpath caused the evacuation of the state capitol building in Madison. Suspected to be low on fuel, the pilot, a flight student who later told state troopers he was hoping to be shot down, was able to land the plane on Missouri Highway FF around 9PM, where he was apprehended after hitching a ride to a convenience store. That's right, Midwesterners are so nice they will give you a ride even after you put the scare into Homeland Security.

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Tags: Rental Cars / Enterprise / Green Travel / → All Tags

Enterprise Adding 5000 Hybrids, But Would You Rent?

Is going green good business? Amid an industry-wide slowdown on car rentals, Enterprise announced it was adding 5000 vehicles to its fleet -- specifically, hybrids.

The company also announced they would create 80 "hybrid locations" or rental desks with a better than usual selection of hybrid cars in highly-trafficked areas. They're not the only company buying (Dollar just announced it signed a deal with troubled manufacturer Ford), but Enterprise is effectively betting that gas prices will rise again -- and their fleet will be uniquely protected from those potential fluctuations.

We think some hybrids like the Prius, above, are pretty cute. But choosing to rent a hybrid drastically limits the pool of cars you could get at any given location -- and what if you get an ugly one? Still, the gas savings could make your trip a much more cost-effective one. Have you rented a hybrid on a trip?

Related Stories:
· Rental car slowdown hurts automakers [AP via San-Jose Mercury News]
· Enterprise Adds 5000 Hybrids To Its Fleet Of Fuel-Efficient Cars[Sustainablog]
· Five Humiliating Rental Cars To Ruin Your Vacation [Jaunted]
· Enterprise's Sweet Weekend Rental Deal [Jaunted]
· Rental Cars coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: geognerd]

Tags: Teddy Graham Travel / Travel News / → All Tags

Kansas City: The Ultimate Teddy Graham Destination

Everyone enjoys Teddy Grahams, but does anyone ever say, Hey, I'm going to go to the store to buy Teddy Grahams? No, they make late night runs for Peanut M&M's or Oreos--or more booze. Jenna from HotelChatter explains how KC is the same as a they're-pretty-good box of cookies.

When Kansas City was named one of Smarter Travel's 5 Destinations to Watch in 2009, I--much like you--was a little bit... confused. Certainly I'd agree that there's nothing wrong with Kansas City--I'd gone once before and found it to be perfectly lovely (and the November foliage was spectacular)--but suffice it to say ol' K-C-Mo wouldn't be the first destination to dance into my head if I were fantasizing about my next getaway.

But it just so happened that I had another trip to KC scheduled for New Year's Eve--the crowds and the cold on the gritty NYC streets had gotten the best of me by year's end--so I headed into the great Midwest with an open mind and a pleasant attitude in tow, ready to embrace all the supposedly up-and-coming destination had to offer an East Coaster.

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Tags: George Clooney's Mustache / George Clooney / Movie Travel / STL / → All Tags

The Soup Strainer Jets To St. Louis

George Clooney has booked Lambert-St. Louis International for his latest project, "Up in the Air," now that filming has wrapped on "Men Who Stare at Goats." The former home of TWA, the airport's now probably best known for its haunting ghost terminal.

While production crews are still figuring out where exactly they'll shoot inside STL, Clooney says the whole city could star in the movie, the story of a corporate downsizer on a mission to bank 1 million frequent flier miles. Jason Reitman of "Juno" fame is directing.

While the city is thrilled to have the production coming to town, Lambert's hosted movie stars before: Matt Damon visited the airport in May for work on Steven Soderbergh's newest, "The Informant."

Related Stories:
· Clooney to Film Movie in St. Louis [AP, via IHT]
· Jaunted on Location coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: The Insider]

Tags: Possible Presidents / Barack Obama / Political Travel / Google Maps / → All Tags

Where Was Obama's 100,000 Person Rally?

Possible president Barack Obama drew 100,000 people to downtown St. Louis today, which doesn't prove he's going to win on November 4 but certainly shows there isn't much else going on in the city. (At least today!)

The rally was held at the Gateway Arch, which is officially part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, a national park created in 1935 by Franklin Roosevelt.

Seen in the background of this stunning AP photo is another part of the park that doesn't get nearly as much press as Eero Saarinen's gleaming arch. The Old Courthouse was home to two decisions that precipitated Dred Scott v. Sanford, an important decision on women's suffrage that led to Minor v. Happersett and it's the place that Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis was admitted to the bar.

Related Stories:
· Possible Presidents Map [Jaunted]

Tags: Possible-Presidents-Map / John McCain / Barack Obama / Sarah Palin / Joe Biden / → All Tags

Possible Presidents Travel: Meet Me in St. Louis

Get ready for the big show! Tonight, vice presidential candidates Sen. Joe Biden and Gov. Sarah Palin go head to head on campus at Washington University in St. Louis for the only scheduled Veep debate. And the question everyone's asking is, "Can they prove the naysayers wrong?"

Will Palin show a higher level of preparation than she did in news clips released from her interview last week with Katie Couric? Will Biden keep himself from stumbling and accidentally (and repeatedly) inserting his foot in his mouth? We'll just have to find out. Either could happen, even in 90 seconds of answering time.

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Tags: Possible-Presidents-Map / John McCain / Barack Obama / Joe Biden / Sarah Palin / → All Tags

Possible Presidents Travel: Hey! Must Be the Money!

A Harris poll last week found that 54 percent of Americans believe the economy is the most important issue in this election, with health care a distant second at 21 percent. (The war in Iraq took third.) So after Friday's national-security-themed debate, the candidates came out swinging with critiques of how their opponent might clean up this domestic mess in his first term.

Senator Barack Obama suggested to a Westminster, Colorado audience that his opponent's fondness for gambling may lead to a certain recklessness in not pushing for further regulations on the banking and mortgage industries. He heads to La Crosse, Wisconsin tomorrow before flying back to Florida (where he prepped for last week's debate) for two rallies with former President Bill Clinton.

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