M&P+4
April 11th, 2006, 09:34 PM
We headed south for St. Louis Wednesday night – stopped in Madison along the way to see an Air Force buddy of mine for about an hour and then drove just south of Rockford for the night. We arrived at St. Louis just in time to catch an early showing of ‘Deep Sea 3D’ at the IMAX theater. If you get the chance to go take it – they did a great job with it. The 3D effects will make you want to reach out and touch the fish.
After the show we found a room and headed to St. Charles to find Midwest Dive and sign all the necessary release forms – Bob was there and made sure we dotted our I’s and crossed all the t’s. I half expected a disclaimer about the effects of pizza in the hands of an untrained consumer – but….there was no pizza so I guess it wasn’t necessary. J It was suggested to try out Louis and Clark’s restaurant so we headed there for supper – nice atmosphere and good food.
Thursday morning we headed to the Arch for a visit and got a good view of the new ballpark. It must have helped because I see they managed to beat the Brewers for the first game. Here’s a picture of it from the Arch –
We had lunch at the Fish Market – another great atmosphere and terrific food. This was probably the best food we ate the entire trip. We spent the rest of the day goofing off. I have to say (not that I’m a world traveler) St. Louis has to be the nicest big city I have ever been to. Everyone we ran into was friendly and helpful – and amazingly enough (this doesn’t happen in the Twin Cities or Chicago) if you put your blinker on to change lanes people actually let you in!
We stayed in Crystal City Friday night on Bob’s advice so we wouldn’t have to drive as much in the morning to make it to the mine by 7 am. Thanks for the advice Bob –
We arrived at the mine at 7 am and checked in – watched the safety video and listened to the briefing. Our first dive was about 8:30 – they had us do a quick check to make sure we could clear our masks and could buddy breath and then started the trail. Total dive time was 46 minutes. We were supposed to stay above 40 feet – not necessarily the easiest thing to do – I hit 52 feet once. I was pretty disappointed with the first trail – and trail 2 wasn’t much better. It was a 46 minute dive with a little more structure than the first trail but still pretty dull. I understand that they are both largely check out dives and they need to be completed. I just thought there would be more things to see than a drill and an ore cart or two.
Dive three was trail 4 – a much more enjoyable dive. The group we were with did OK for air consumption so we managed to get 65 minutes out of it. I was happier with this one and Denise would have been too if her new semi-dry would have been at least ‘kinda-dry’. We have to figure out a way to get the neck sealed up a little better.
We stayed in Farmington Saturday night and took in a movie at the theatre across the street from the hotel –
Sunday morning we met at 8 am and were diving by 9. Trail 3 was by far the best dive of the bunch. There were only three of us diving and we moved along at a leisurely pace. We made a 56 minute dive out of it and probably would have gone longer but I had some trouble with my right ear about 50 minutes into the dive. I have never had that happen to me before – it wasn’t painful but I couldn’t clear it. I almost wonder if it wasn’t a reverse because it happened when we were in about 20 feet of water after being at 50 feet.
We were on the road by 11 am and arrived home by 8:30 pm. Roads were good and traffic kept the pace up the entire way home with the exception of the tolls north of Rockford. 600 miles in 9 hours is a good time for us.
All together a great trip – I’m glad we had to opportunity to spend some time in St. Louis and dive Bonne Terre. My only regret is that we weren’t able to hook up with more of you – hopefully next time.
Lyle and Denise
After the show we found a room and headed to St. Charles to find Midwest Dive and sign all the necessary release forms – Bob was there and made sure we dotted our I’s and crossed all the t’s. I half expected a disclaimer about the effects of pizza in the hands of an untrained consumer – but….there was no pizza so I guess it wasn’t necessary. J It was suggested to try out Louis and Clark’s restaurant so we headed there for supper – nice atmosphere and good food.
Thursday morning we headed to the Arch for a visit and got a good view of the new ballpark. It must have helped because I see they managed to beat the Brewers for the first game. Here’s a picture of it from the Arch –
We had lunch at the Fish Market – another great atmosphere and terrific food. This was probably the best food we ate the entire trip. We spent the rest of the day goofing off. I have to say (not that I’m a world traveler) St. Louis has to be the nicest big city I have ever been to. Everyone we ran into was friendly and helpful – and amazingly enough (this doesn’t happen in the Twin Cities or Chicago) if you put your blinker on to change lanes people actually let you in!
We stayed in Crystal City Friday night on Bob’s advice so we wouldn’t have to drive as much in the morning to make it to the mine by 7 am. Thanks for the advice Bob –
We arrived at the mine at 7 am and checked in – watched the safety video and listened to the briefing. Our first dive was about 8:30 – they had us do a quick check to make sure we could clear our masks and could buddy breath and then started the trail. Total dive time was 46 minutes. We were supposed to stay above 40 feet – not necessarily the easiest thing to do – I hit 52 feet once. I was pretty disappointed with the first trail – and trail 2 wasn’t much better. It was a 46 minute dive with a little more structure than the first trail but still pretty dull. I understand that they are both largely check out dives and they need to be completed. I just thought there would be more things to see than a drill and an ore cart or two.
Dive three was trail 4 – a much more enjoyable dive. The group we were with did OK for air consumption so we managed to get 65 minutes out of it. I was happier with this one and Denise would have been too if her new semi-dry would have been at least ‘kinda-dry’. We have to figure out a way to get the neck sealed up a little better.
We stayed in Farmington Saturday night and took in a movie at the theatre across the street from the hotel –
Sunday morning we met at 8 am and were diving by 9. Trail 3 was by far the best dive of the bunch. There were only three of us diving and we moved along at a leisurely pace. We made a 56 minute dive out of it and probably would have gone longer but I had some trouble with my right ear about 50 minutes into the dive. I have never had that happen to me before – it wasn’t painful but I couldn’t clear it. I almost wonder if it wasn’t a reverse because it happened when we were in about 20 feet of water after being at 50 feet.
We were on the road by 11 am and arrived home by 8:30 pm. Roads were good and traffic kept the pace up the entire way home with the exception of the tolls north of Rockford. 600 miles in 9 hours is a good time for us.
All together a great trip – I’m glad we had to opportunity to spend some time in St. Louis and dive Bonne Terre. My only regret is that we weren’t able to hook up with more of you – hopefully next time.
Lyle and Denise