Travelogue: St. Louis

When last we left our technomadic adventurers, they were heading out of Atlanta towards St. Louis…

I’ve never really been to much of the midwest, besides Chicago and Champaign, IL before. And honestly, I really never previously had much of a desire to visit them – hearing less than exciting tales from friends who grew up or lived there. So we passed through Tennessee, with stops in Chattanooga and Nashville. We cut through Kentucky under the dark of night, so unfortunately I didn’t get to see much of that. And then we crossed through Illinois, arriving at Chris’ folks house outside of St. Louis around 3am – arriving to a very excited mom who had been waiting up for our arrival.

I have to admit, I had low expectations for St. Louis upon my arrival. I had an impression of it being old, crime ridden and nothing of note other than an arch. The last week has totally changed my opinion. I experienced several firsts during my visit – from first tastes of food, adventures and baseball!

Thursday – Columbia, IL

On Thursday, Chris’ mom gave us a tour of their suburban town of Columbia, IL, ending the day with dinner at their country club to celebrate her upcoming 60th birthday, along with Chris’ grandma. I got a tour of their beautiful home, which is on a large lot with a pristine garden that was on par with living in a park. It was a gorgeous environment for working with my wireless connection outside in the shade.

I also got to try roped provel cheese, apparently a St. Louis area speciality. It was super yummy on the salad we had for lunch.

Friday – St. Louis, MO

After working most of the morning, Chris, his mom and I went into St. Louis where they showed off Forrest Park – an uber cool park with lots of free community resources. Including a zoo, amphitheater, museums and more. We went to the zoo, which was awesome and totally amazing that it’s completely free. They had one of the best penguin exhibits that I’ve been to – very open, and the penguins come right up to you. I even got drenched by one.

After the zoo, I got a tour of Chris’ college – Washington University. We then hooked up with Chris’ super cool aunt and uncle who just moved into a loft in downtown St. Louis that used to be a shoe warehouse. They have an awesome view, including the old AT&T building that was filmed in Ghostbusters that the Stay Puff Marshmallow man climbed. We had wine, and then dinner at a quirky Mexican/Cuban patio restaurant with wonderfully cheesy live music. It was super yummy. After dinner we went to the famous Route 66 destination of Ted Drewes Frozen Custard. The crowds gathered there were unbelievable.. but I can see why, it was very yummy.

Saturday – Monday – Lake of the Ozarks

Saturday morning, we picked up Chris’ grandma and headed towards her lakehouse in Lake of the Ozarks, where Chris’ father was already down at for a reunion. We also joined another aunt and uncle for the weekend. It was totally stunning there, and we had such a relaxing time. We had an awesome view from our bedroom. Chris’ uncle had brought down his Sea Doo, and I had my first experience with a personal watercraft. It was super cool fun, and I even got the guts up to take it out on my own. Zoom!!!!

Other notable things from lake: I got to spin fire and LEDs for his family and Chris got some amazing shots with the lake behind me, dinner with his parents on our last evening with lots of live music and just lots of quality time getting to know his family.

Tuesday – St. Louis

Tuesday was getting ready to hit the road again – including scraping love bugs off of Tab & Jeep from our FL exodus, doing laundry and restocking things. After that, Chris’ dad dropped us off in St. Louis with the super cool aunt. We hung out with her for the afternoon getting a tour of downtown St. Louis. We visited the city museum and the arch and had a great walking tour (my favorite way to tour a city).

After an great sushi dinner, we joined up with Chris’ parents at Busch Stadium for my very first baseball game. What an amazing experience – the energy of the crowds, the fireworks, the beer (and drinking games we played) and the whole atmosphere was wonderful to take in. The Cardinals won (beating out the Pittsburg Pirates) – making this the perfect ending to my introductory visit to St. Louis.

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I’m highly impressed with St. Louis and it has been added to my list of all time favorite cities. I’m also grateful for the opportunity for so much quality time with Chris and getting to know his family.

Wednesday – Transit to stop-over in Oklahoma

We left out of St. Louis Wednesday morning, heading southwest towards Oklahoma. We overnighted just west of Tulsa in Prue, at Walnut Creek State Park on the Osage Indian Reservation. We rendezvoused with who was in Oklahoma visiting family. It had been two years since I had seen her during my visit to NC after she had major surgery. It was wonderful technomadic serendipity that we were able to arrange the rendezvous, and we had a very pleasant evening catching up at our waterfront campsite along Keystone Lake.

Thursday – Transit to Austin

And now we’re heading south towards Austin – where we’ll be staying with my brother and his wife for the next weekish.