As I spent a couple days in a basement room of an AirBnB in Chicago that barely provided anything, I left the city to head down to St. Louis via Amtrak. I had been this track in the reverse direction, having come to Chicago from San Antonio about a year ago. I had seen St. Louis then but the only thing I remember is the river. This time I was ready to explore a little more about this city.

I've traveled to too many US cities and all of them look dull to me. Most of them have at least one skyline, and distributed over an area. But what was so different about St. Louis was the large Arch which was very close to the train station. Who built this Arch at what time and for what reason? I was determined to learn more about this building but sadly I never did.

I had always wanted to stay in St. Louis at least for a bit because they have the St. Louis Chess Club.