Day 2 Saint Louis

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Worst night sleep on the trip. Cars, trucks, trains, motorcycles, church bells all night long! I never dreamed I could be so annoyed by church bells.  Never again will Jack be allowed to pick the campground.  Oh well, the spot is close to St. Louis.  Got up and headed out so we could get to the St. Louis zoo by 8 so we could pet the stingrays for free!  They are so cool and so graceful in the water, very soft to touch.  We spent 3 ½ hours at the zoo.  It was a wonderful zoo.  Our favorite displays were the underwater hippo exhibit, they look like they are doing ballet in the water, those huge creatures, bouncing along the bottom.  Also liked the brand new sea lion underwater exhibit.  It is hard to believe they offer this zoo for free except for special exhibits.  We also saw a large creature that lives in the rainforests of the Congo, but cannot think of the name, it is related to the giraffe, really neat looking. 

Then we walked over to the Art Museum and went through that, also free.  They were doing a restoration of a 348 foot panel of art that depicted scenes along the Mississippi, “ The Panorama of the Monumental Grandeur of the Mississippi Valley.” The man who had it commissioned was a medical doctor and an amateur archeologist so some of the panels showed effigy mounds.  Interesting.  It is amazing how much schooling is required to become a conservator. Went to Park Avenue Coffee for one of the best desserts I have ever had, Gooey Butter Cake.  They have many flavor offerings but we decided to get peach.  Delicious!  Then we walked around Lafayette park with beautiful Victorian homes surrounding.  Only 2 other people in the park.  Where is everyone? We discovered there is an REI in St Louis.  Jodi’s sleep matt is leaking at the valve so we need to exchange.  Maybe that is part of why I didn’t sleep so well!  Drove to REI and exchanged and went to Whole Foods to get milk and beer, drinks of the gods, local brew called Schlafly.  Quite good.

We then went on an hour and a half fruitless mission to Cabela’s.  Our GPS had froze.  We thought it was too hot so we put it in the cooler to no avail.  Drove 25 minutes in the heat to Cabela’s.  No one at the store knew anything about GPS’s.  Got sent back and forth between customer service and the elusive optics department.  After about a half an hour of no progress we were given a 1- 800 number and decided to purchase a new one.  Went to the car, opened the new package and saw the on-off switch on the new unit which prompted us to find the same on the frozen one.  What a concept.  Turned it off, turned it back on and by golly Jack fixed it!  Life on the road with J & J, sometimes we are unbelievably stupid.  Now we have a spare!

Then we went to the St Louis Basilica.  It rivals the ones we have seen in Europe, even Rome.  Green tile roof and more than a million glass mosaic piece adorn the walls and ceilings.  Simply astonishing.  We then drove to “The Hill”, the Italian district of St Louis.  A bit overrated.  We walked around the neighborhood, not a lot of Italian influence left but it was the home of Yoggi Berra, Joe Garigiola, and Jack Buck (longtime St. Louis Cardinal Announcer).  All are in the Baseball Hall of Fame.  Did find a packed Italian restaurant for some decent pasta called Cunetto’s House of Pasta, Then as if we didn’t get enough to eat we drove to the historic Ted Drewe’s for frozen custard concretes.  It has been there since 1930 along historic Route 66.  We started with one butterscotch concrete.  It was so good we had to have another, tried the Route 66, a malt rootbeer flavor. We also found out where all the folks in St. Louis hang out!  It was packed.

Weather high 80’s today.  Back to wonderful Cahokia campground.  Definitely a Tylenol PM night.