St. Louis, Missouri.

We weren’t going to stop there but MOD booked us a room on one of our numerous Starbucks diversions. We go to Starbucks for the free wifi as you would know. Of course. 

It meant we could take a little break and wander the town for a few hours, having arrived about 4pm.

With a population of approximately 310,000, the city was founded in 1764 by French fur traders and named after Louise IX of France. In 1904 the city hosted the 1904 World’s Fair and the 1904 Winter Olympics, the first non-European city to host the Olympics. 

Our hotel was right on the Mississippi, overlooking the Gateway Arch. The Arch, at 192 metres, is the worlds tallest arch and the tallest man-made monument in the Western Hemisphere, having been built as a monument to the westward expansion of the United States. We expected it to light up during the night but alas it didn’t. You can take a tram up it’s insides and get a good view of the city from the top. We didn’t, instead we wandered around the gardens surrounding it, the Gateway Arch National Park, and further uptown. 

There were some gorgeous buildings from the 1800’s and cobble stone streets. Scooters are available everywhere. You download the app, use the scooter and then leave it wherever you like. They are fitted with GPS to make sure they can be found.  Really interesting concept. We ended up at the Busch Stadium. The St. Louis Cardinals were playing the Milwaukee Brewers. Baseball is clearly a big deal in the town, people everywhere. Across from the ballpark, they have a ‘Ballpark Village’ which is a huge indoor area full of large screens, a stage, cafe’s and bars.  People in Cardinal red. We were a bit out of place, me in girly pink, MOD in macho green.

After all our wandering we realised we were starved! After all it had been 3 hours since our last meal. At least. We found a little blues bar called BB’s Jazz Blues Soup just near the stadium. I couldn’t recommend the food, actually I can’t recommend much of the food here to be honest. Cheesy, meaty, white bread the norm, big, big, portions. People definitely enjoy eating. Refillable, diabetes enhancing, soft drinks. The jazz band on the other hand was entrancing. Funky, cool, talented. Loved them and the venue.                    

On the way out of town this a.m. we saw a whole section of brick homes. Haven’t seen that before. Quite unusual, most of the homes I have seen are weatherboardish. New word.  Nearly to Arkansas before we saw cotton fields. They bale them and roll them into big bales like hay bales. Two too many bales used in that sentence.  

The Interstates are filled with billboards, makes for some interesting reading on our travels. McDonalds golden arches are everywhere but here’s a little trivia, they only have one or two McCafe’s here, apparently McCafe started in Melbourne.

No, MOD, not in NZ.

I know you claim everything started in NZ and us Aussies stole it.

Like Cadbury’s and Russel Crowe.

You can have Russel.

He was actually born in NZ.

Elvis, we might be late, but put those beef patties on the griddle, we are on our way.

Y’all.