EAA Air Venture 2009

July 2009 and it is time to polish my wings and get ready for the ultimate aviation lover's meeting in Oshkosh.

St Louis

Here is a short report concerning my trip to Missouri and Illinois. With one of my friends from Florida, we elected to visit the city of Saint Louis and then go West to visit the Ozarks. The flight to St Louis was a short one hour and fifty minutes hop aboard a Boeing 717-200.

Roadtrip to the Ozarks

First on our visit was the Gateway Arch, the iconic monument of St Louis. Also known as the Gateway to the West, it was designed in 1947 by Eero Saarinen as a tribute to the expansion to the West.
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The geometric shape of the arch is described by the hyperbolic cosine function. This function typically describes catenary and inverted catenary.

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An inverted catenary that supports its weight is only in compression with no shear and therefore its shape is ideal.

The Arch in the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial

From the top of the Arch, the visitor will enjoy an incredible view over the surrounding area. To the North, the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, to the East, the state of Illinois. To the South lays the Mississippi river and finally to the West lays the city of St Louis.

St Louis from the top of the Arch

During the day we also went to the Annheuser-Busch brewery that manufactures Budweiser beers, to the Union Station that used to be St Louis major railway station and that has been transformed in a vibrant neighboorhood with restaurant ans shops and finally to Forrester Park where the 1904 World Fair took place to celebrate the purchase (or not) of Louisiana.

The next day we headed West to St James and the Ozarks Riverways. After spending a few days in the city, going to the countryside brings a lot of fresh feelings. The Ozark riverways is home to several fresh water sources and is best viewed by renting a canoe and paddling down the Current River.

Countryside in the Ozark

Finally, we decided to celebrate Independance Day by visiting the Meramec Caverns. The Meramec Caverns were formed by the erosion of large limestone deposits over millions of year. They were used to extract saltpeper for the manufacture of gunpowder during the Civil War. In the 1870s, the caves were used as a hideout by famous outlaw Jessee James.

Stalactite formations in the Meramec Caverns
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A short movie is available here for your enjoyment. Have fun!

Charleston

Below are a few pictures taken during my trip to South Carolina. From Atlanta, we drove East to Augusta and Columbia. After Columbia, we reached Congaree Swamp, a huge floodplain that gets swamped a few weeks every year and which is home to bold cypress trees of incredible size.

Large Trees in Congaree Swamp

Next was Charleston, a nice and typical laid-back Southern city with old-fashioned ante-bellum houses. It is also home to Patriot Point which features an aircraft carrier full of US Navy aircraft as well as a submarine. I went there in 1986 when I was four years old. Apparently I did show a lot of interest for what I was seeing at that time especially gazing at the aircraft and the arrestor hooks and cables.

USS Yorktown mooring in Charleston

Loitering on a jetty on Folly beach, we witnessed a baby shark being caught by an angler. Actually we saw several anglers getting sharks. Makes you think quite a bit since the end of the pier is just a few hundred meters off the beach where people were swimming...

A baby shark caught off the beach in Folly Island

Finally, we ended the trip with a visit to Beaufort (where there was no wind...) and to Hunting Island that is home to an interesting state park with waters that are so warm we could spend the whole day relaxing and drifting in them.

White Sand beach on Hunting Island