Miles Travelled: 1,514
Current Location: Topeka, KS
We stopped late last night so we were unaware exactly how country the area we were in was. That question was answered this morning when I looked out the hotel window and saw a buffalo out back.
After a great buffet breakfast we made the short drive into St. Louis. It was surprisingly easy to get to the Gateway Arch. We parked close to the Arch and walked through a park to get there. The monument is unbelieveable. One of the coolest pieces of architecture I have ever seen.
All of the museum areas are located underground underneath the arch. We watched a 1/2 hour documentary on how the arch was constructed. That got us really excited to take the tram to the top. However, once we got up there it was kind of a bust. The view was great and Laura took a couple of really good pictures but we only stayed up there for a few minutes before heading back down.
Click here for the full Gateway Arch photo album
When we were done at the arch we headed to the Budweiser Brewery for their Brew Master tour. We were part of a small group and our tour guide took us all over the facility. It was incredible. The numbers and quantities that are being produced there on a daily basis are staggering. They have 10 acres of warehouse space filled with beer. If they stopped producing beer those warehouses would empty in just 18 hours. Before anyone posts any jokes about the hats, glasses and headphones, please note that they are mandatory on tour.
Laura and I agreed that the highlight of the tour was packaging facility which is a series on canning and bottling lines that fill, cap, label and pack the beer. The can line we saw packages 1,950 cans per minute. The bottle lines run about 1,400 per minute. There are multiple lines and they pretty much run 24/7.
In addition to the packaging facility we also toured each step of the brewing process and even the Clydesdale stables. The horses are very impressive up close. There are more than 220 of them in the Bud family around the world. The most noteworthy fact from this part of the tour was the harness that each horse wears. They weigh around 130 pounds and each one is custom made at a cost of approximately $10,000.
The tour ended with a sample directly from one of the tanks that just finished brewing. They put a little mini-tap and you fill you cup right from the tap. I felt like Doug Mackenzie from Strange Brew. Our guide told us the tank is so big that if the left the pour tap open it would take 226 days to empty.
Once the tour was over we got to go to the visitors lounge and sample all the different Bud brands. Unfortunately we had to get on the road so we were not able to take full advantage of the free beer. Five stars for the tour. A really great experience.
We headed out after the tour to see how far we could make it tonight but our hectic schedule finally caught up with us and we crashed just before Topeka, Kansas. We got off of the highway and booked a Best Western. From the little bit we saw I would say that Topeka is the most boring city in the country.
Click here for the full Budweiser Tour photo album
