Essentially the Only One

The Mississippi is in flood, unusual for November. I took the train downtown after work to catch these images.

Took the opportunity to get a little air and sunshine today at lunch time.

All I have to do is cross Kingshighway (not a trivial feat given the unfriendliness that 8 lane road affords pedestrians - at least there is a median) and make my way down into Forest Park.

So I took an hour or so and just wandered around.

Familiar sights and some a little less so.

Just a little note for any St. Louis readers looking for a roofing company. Do not use Don Berry Roofing. Absconding with a down payment after beginning and not finishing a gutter repair is not on, Don. I have reported your company to the Missouri Better Business Bureau who also seem to have had trouble tracking you down.

Sigh.

Another lengthy walk through Forest Park this lunchtime.

This took me around the Art Museum grounds, and it was at the base of Art Hill that I found this statue.

A grand memorial to Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, a German nationalist and physical education advocate. Not what I might have expected to find in a large middle-American park, but why not, I suppose. Clearly some locals thought sufficiently highly to have this expensive edifice constructed, and St. Louis has strong German roots.

Nonetheless, I found this celebration of this very 19th century figure a little creepy. Not least because the same ideals of physical fitness and Nationalist fervor where appropriated by the wholly evil movement of Nazism, even though Jahn was himself liberal (in the 19th century sense) and was not lauded by the Nazis. Perhaps it was the very Aryan shotputter on the left side of the memorial that gave me 'Triumph of the Will' twinges.

Regardless, it speaks to the utter devastation that Hitler left on what was a more noble sense of German culture that it is almost impossible to view such a statue without these overtones.

A lonely looking man sat on the steps of the memorial. A story here, I am sure. (Check out Allan's entry here too.)

A cloudy, overcast, and gray day today and that suited my mood very well. I've been feeling a little irritable and not quite settled this week. I noticed it yesterday when my weekly lunchtime friend, who can be rather rigid and set in her ways, irritated me a lot more than usual.

Today's lunchtime, I decided to take a walk down by the Mississippi River in St. Louis. Something I do from time to time. Usually, I stroll around the Arch park, but not this day.

I got off the Metro train at the Laclede's Landing on Eads Bridge as I normally do, but, seeking something a little differeent, decided to walk north away from the Arch. The river was very low, giving me a lot more room to wander.

I passed by the Admiral Casino riverboat. It looked almost deserted, but a few folks were coming or going. Very few really; the riverfront seemed almost eerily empty of people.

Continuing on I started to get well away from the tourist area and into an industrial region. Post-industrial I should say, for the building were in poor repair and looked semi-derelict.


I pressed on, for something rather bizzare caught my eye. It was a statue of an angel on a column, looking as if it belonged in a stately home rather than here in this wasteland.

Very strange.

There was a small, clearly 'green', small business newly built close to this statue, complete with a wind turbine. Signs of renewal here among the debris.I spent longer here than I intended. I found a strange beauty in this decaying landscape. It definitely lifted my mood.

Voters lining up at University City recreation center.
More voters lining up around the Heman Park meeting building.
Tower Grove Park at midday.

After the weekend's rainfall, the Mississippi River is at flood stage. At lunchtime today I decided to take a train trip down to Eads Bridge to see it at its height - or close to it anyway.

I got off at the East Riverfront Metro stop and began to walk back to St. Louis across the river.

A lot of debris was coming down with the flow, including a good number of uprooted trees. They looked small from the bridge but these were large chunks of wood. Nothing you want to get in the way of. I noticed that there was not a lot of river traffic. Probably the barges were laying low until the river settled a bit.

Much of the drift wood was piling up against obstacles stinking out from the banks. Here you can see it collecting near the Casino Queen riverboat.

It was a bright clear day, with crisp shadows. I decided to occupy myself taking a few shots of the Eads Bridge walkway with the outline of the railing.

I soon found myself thinking in terms of line and form and was happily looking for geometry that pleased me.

As I was doing this, I heard a honking behind me and little scooter whizzed across past and very close to me. I wondered why he was not on the road, but he yelled a cheerful 'hello' at me, so I didn't really feel that put out. Shortly there followed a rather grim looking power walker who didn't seem to be really enjoying the day as he should. Perhaps his encounter with the scooter was less friendly.

I walked further on and taking the photographs you see above. A large group of young people then came by, looking rather determined. I wasn't quite sure why, but gave them no further thought.

A little later, I ranged the camera in their direction and took this fairly unremarkable photograph.
Or so it seemed. Something didn't seem quite right about it. I looked up and the group was walking further away.

Not until I got off the bridge and looked at the screen on my camera in the shade could I make out this rather extraordinary pose. A young woman was leaning over the bridge railing, held up only by her feet hooked into the ironwork. My stomach turned when I saw it. I know she was alright because I'd seen her walk off with the group, but she'd done one of those stupid, yet strangely exciting youthful things that can lead to disaster but usually does not. But if she'd fallen... I'm too old to enjoy such stunts.

Laclede's Landing at 12:50 p.m.

The Mississippi in St. Louis at about 12:20 p.m.

Maybe we've reached the flood peak for St. Louis & the Mississippi River. Only a little bit of Lewis or Clark's head above the churning water today at lunchtime. I took this photograph from almost directly above, leaning (a little too much for my vertigo-friendly taste) over the railing of the Eads Bridge walkway.

Below is the more conventional shot. Not really very much different from yesterday's. Maybe an inch more of water.

Graph by NOAA