The STL

Frozen custard outside of Ted Drewes!

After leaving Louisville and our stops along the way at Corydon for a BPT, and Santa Claus to see Jay Cutler, we were on our way to St. Louis!  Southern Illinois was pretty flat, boring, and had a lot of winter wheat!

I beleive this was taken near the Boathouse in Forest Park

Our Air Bnb in St. Louis was kind of cool as it was an old high rise apartment building but the unit had been recently revamped, so was pretty nice inside.  It was near a bunch of hospitals in the Central West End are of St. Louis, so there were places to go within walking distance.

The Blues had just won the Stanley Cup, so all of the fountains were blue!

After arriving, we caught up on some laundry, and Bish and the girls got in a workout in the gym downstairs (while I took a nap).  We walked down the street a ways and found a public house to have dinner and a few beers.

Selfie in the to of Arch.

On Wednesday we went into downtown and did the St. Louis Arch!  Part of the process was to watch a movie on the design and construction of the Arch.  I didn't realize how young the Arch actually was.  It was finished in late October, 1965.  On our MHS 86 senior trip, we went to St. Louis and did the Arch.  I didn't realize it was only 21 years old at the time.  The movie about the construction of the Arch was amazing!  I did not realize what a feat of engineering it was to put the thing together!

We saw a giant angel cloud in STL!

After watching the movie, and touring the museum area where we learned about St. Louis being the Gateway to the West and more about the design and construction of the Arch, we finally got in line to go up into it.  Bish was not in a good spot as she is afraid of heights and was trying to keep calm as the build up of getting in the little cars approached.  A guy in line behind us starts to tell her of how the car spins around once you are on top, and then he was nice enough to tell us he had no idea as he'd never been up in it!  Once we got to the top, she realized it wasn't that bad of a trip at all, and the 630' in the air really wasn't a big deal since you were enclosed in a tiny space up there.

Waiting in line to take the pod back down at the arch.

After a fun lunch in downtown, we went to Budweiser Brewery for a tour.  The place is HUGE!  Unfortunately, the next free tour wasn't for 2 hours, and we weren't willing to wait 2 hours to see a Butt-wiper tour.  We did a drive through tour of Washington University of St. Louis as Bish's neice Colleen went to school there.  It was a very pretty looking campus.

Go Blues!

That night we met Bryan Buck, a Purdue FH friend, for dinner nearby in Forest Park at the Boathouse.  Buck was a roommate of mine when I lived at Farmhouse Fraternity at Purdue.  He has lived in STL for 20+ years, and has made it his home.  He still makes it back to Purdue to see his parents and attend a football or bball game occasionally.

Forest Park from on top of our apartment building.

After dinner, I had to take everyone to the infamous Ted Drewes for frozen custard!  Everyone thought it was good, but they all concurred that if the lines had been longer, it might not have been worth the wait.

Scooter rides

We got up the next morning and rented Lime scooters and rode into Forest Park.  One of us took a tumble on our Lime scooter and skinned up a knee!  They do recommend you wear helmets when riding!  After scooters, we hit the road headed for the lovely Branson, MO!

Dork out front!

As we started driving out of STL, I realized an old freind from MHS lived somewhere West of STL, but didn't know where.  So I looked him up on FB, and figured out we could stop by and say hi to Blaine Leifer as we drove through Lebanon, MO on I44!  Before stopping to see Blaine, we HAD to stop at Uranus, MO for a few good laughs!  It's a roadside attraction that is about as cheesy as one can get.  You walk in the door and all of the emplyees say "Welcome to Uranus!"  And then when you walk up to the fudge counter to take a look, the lady behind says "Would you like me to pack your fudge for you?"

Uranus became the "butt" of all jokes for the rest of the day!