"Where are we going? Missouri?" In all of my dreams of travel, that possibility had never ocurred to me. But that is where we went that summer. On Friday, August 2nd, the flight was smooth, as flights go; non-stop, from SFO to the St. Louis airport. It was the longest flight that I had ever taken on a jet, and I had moments of panic at times,learning that I do indeed have a fear of flying. But I stayed calm, occupying my mind by watching "Spiderman", and listening to Michael talk about all of his plane trips. He kept apologizing about bringing me to Missouri, instead of Hawaii (what we had originally planned) for our belated honeymoon. He needn't have apologized, as it turned out!
The Secret of Traveling Light
When we got off the plane in St. Louis, we didn't have to wait for our luggage, as we only had carry-on bags for the week.
The secret to traveling light is to find a partner who fits the same size clothes as you do, and interchange throughout the week. The first thing we noticed on the inside of the airport was a replica of Charles Lindberg's original personal monocoupe hangingabove the entrance. The first thing we noticed when we went outside of the airport was a wall of hot, humid air (there's nothing like it where we live). As our clothes stuck, and the sweat poured off of us (I felt like a fountain - throw in a penny?), we stickily hopped a shuttle bus to the Thrifty Car Rental center, and got into our hot (literally & figuratively) Chrysler Sebring. Air conditioning truly is a wonderful invention! That car could travel, and Michael loved going 80-90 mph on those less crowded roads in Missouri and Illinois. We went straight to downtown St. Louis, and looked at the arch, took some photos, and walked around (I looked the typical tourist the whole trip, with the digital camera attached to me.....I hesitated taking it off each night, thinking that I might miss something)! The arch is 630 feet high, and made of stainless steel.; We planned to go up in that thing later in our trip; for now, we were content to take an hour-long riverboat cruise We learned a lot about the businesses that run along the Mississipi river, and were suprise at how much power those little tugboats have, pushing the long barges of coal
After our ride, we had a light lunch at the Arch View Cafe, and went to our hotel Courtyard-by-Marriott, in Chesterfield (a suburb of St. Louis).; Our stay there was very comfortable, and we wanted for nothing; I was able to leave all my junk on the hotel room desk, my usual disorganized organization, so felt right at home. We had no dinner plans that first night, so Michael asked the Courtyard's desk attendant, Matt, about places in the area to eat. He recommended a nice little place, called Keith's Bistro, at the Chesterfield Commons, right down the road. Matt even wrote a note on a Keith's business card for us to give to the restaurant manager, so that we could get free horsd'ovres. We left with the directions, but (we found out later)had passed the place up. We were really hungry, and found the Chesterfield Mall, was this the place? Looked around at all the restaurants, no Keith's, so we hungrily decided on a place called: "Steak n' Shake". Well, that title is sort of deceptive, because they don't serve steak as we define it, but instead, they serve ground steak on a bun.....hamburgers is what we call 'em in California! But the chocolate shake was good, and in fact, the meal was quite filling. Back at the hotel, we told Matt that we would try Keith's another day.
Meetings with Friends
Saturday the 3rd, we met Sallie & Blaine (the prospective bride & groom) at our hotel. We followed them to the airport, taking a scenic route, where we met & picked up some other wedding guests,
Bruce & Gail Kellogg, and Linda Root. The day was spent catching up with old friends (in my case, meeting everyone for the first time), and having dinner at Sallie's house, which she lived in with her dad, Milton. Bob Kennedy and his lady, Janice, arrived to tell us of their flight (not as smooth as ours), and they had a little trouble with their hotel reservations, which Blaine helped to settle. I really enjoyed visiting with everyone, and liked them, most of whom have been friends of Michael's since high school. There were some fun and funny moments during the visit, a lot of joking around. Blaine & Sallie felt like family from the beginning.
Wedding Day
Sunday, August 4th was was wedding day, and we had breakfast with the gang, (whiich now included
Gary & Laurel Kellogg who (no relation to Bruce & Gail) had just gotten in. Everyone visited, & and the two ministers of the ceremony (Bruce Kellogg and Judy James) conferred with Blaine & Sallie about their vows and the ceremony, etc. After breakfast, we went out to the hotel's parking garage, where Blaine put on an act that I did 2 little Quick -Time films of, very funny (not to be shown here, though - for select audiences only). We went back to the hotel for a short rest, thenon to the wedding (held in the clubhouse of the complex where Sallie lived) which was beautiful, two ministers and all. Michael & I had our cameras attached to ourselves, and snapped away (unfortunately, I lost over 100 shots of those first two days when I accidently hit a "delete all" button; fortunately, Michael took film shots of much of what I took with the digital camera - only better photos, since he is the professional photographer). We photographed the garter-tossing and bouquet-tossing; Blaine underhandedly tossed the garter, and I filmed that, while Michael got the more conventional toss (these are the shots that separate the professionals from us amateurs)! I did get Sallie's bouquet-throw, and Michael got the resulting catch. Michael diligently photographed the wedding, including a group shot of us all (including himself, using a timer), up until everyone got up to dance, and he finally put down his camera, and asked me to pleeeeeaaase put my camera down, so that he could dance with me. It was a wonderful wedding, very touching. The reception was perfect, the food delicious, and we all went back to Sallie's dad Milton's house, for a visit and gift-openings, etc. Milton posed with the ladies, and later everyone said goodbye to Gary &Laurel, (who had to leave early the next morning - they were staying in the next room down the hall from ours, and left us a nice little note on our door). Back at our hotel, Michael & I swam in the pool, and sat in the hot tub, enjoying the benefits of that hotel.
The Arch
The next morning, we had another breakfast with Blaine, Sallie, and the gang that was left, and said our good-byes to everyone except Bruce and Gail Kellogg, whom we took with us to downtown St. Louis, where we went up in the arch! We had to wait awhile, as there were long lines to go up into the arch itself, so we looked around the historical displays inside the arch. After buying our tickets, then waiting in line, we had to cram into little elevator-cars with seats, to ride to the top (Michael got clautrophobic at first). It only took 4 minutes to get up there, and once there, what a view! Took a bunch of photos of downtown St. Louis and each other, then we rode the cars down. Had a fun time with the Kelloggs. Bruce, Gail I embarrassed Michael a bit when we sang the "I dream of Jeannie" song (though he didn't mind as much when we sang "Green Acres" in the car). Then we took Bruce & Gail to the airport, for their flight home.
The rest of the trip was ours! We went back to our hotel & rested up, then finally ate at Keith's Bistro, that nice little place that was recommended by our hotel desk clerk, Matt. We had Ceasar salad, steak, and I had a beer (Busch is the preferred brew in Missouri, but I had a Bud). Drove past a lo-o-o-ong shopping mall on the way back, and stopped off at a Dollar Store, before going back to rest up in the hotel, and pack up for our trip to Hannibal the next day.
Unexpected Thunderstorm
That night, Michael woke me up from a deep sleep, to tell me that we were having a thunderstorm. It was hella scary, as we were right in the midst of the storm. Never seen or heard anything like it, louder and brighter than the storms in California. Michael sat in a chair next to the window, and kept jumping up, sounding like a little kid: "WOW! LOOK AT THAT! Did you see that?" I had a huge headache, and it felt like every thunderbolt was ripping through my skull. By the time I had the wherewithal to film the event, all I got were scattered lightning bolts (though the ones that i shot were pretty cool - touching the ground, unlike the California bolts I had experienced throughout my life). It started to rain, and then the storm died down, so we were able to get back to sleep.
Mark Twain & Hannibal
The next morning, Tuesday the 6th,the rain had stopped. We said a regretful "goodbye" to the Courtyard-By-Marriott in Chesterfield, what a nice hotel that was; our home away from home. We then drove off to Hannibal, home of Mark Twain. We checked out Samuel Clemen's boyhood home, and took lots of photos of the inside and outside of the home. We also looked through the home of his inspiration for his character Becky Thatcher, Laura Hawkins. There was a lot of fun stuff to see in that area, museums, galleries, etc. The Mark Twain museum featured original oil paintings by Norman Rockwell, of some of the scenes depicted in Twain's books. Walked up a hill to the Mark Twian Memorial Light House, and bought some hand-made trinkets at the ABC gift shop. A lady named Ada Jo Bode owns that store, and makes hand-crafted collectables, including a cute bulldoggie in a dress and some little kitty figurines. At another shop, Michael tried on a straw hat, a la Huck Finn....but somehow the look wasn't quite right. I got some Mark Twain books, and a t-shirt that Michael & I can both identify with (seeing as to how we both occassionally suffer from "foot-in-mouth" disease), as it has Mark Twain's famous phrase enscribed on the front: "It's better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid, than to open it and remove all doubt." Tried our hands at the riverboat wheel, which was a huge wheel! Talked to some of the locals - everyone was friendly to us, wherever we went. We both posed with Mark Twain, and you can see that Michael & I have different styles of posing! That night, we took a 2-hour dinner cruise on the riverboat Mark Twain, which was for me the best part of the trip. Tranquil views of the river, good food, and entertainment. Michael wants to add that the sunset, the views from the boat, and the peaceful surroundings of our time on that cruise was also his most favorite experience of the trip. Did I mention the sunsets? It was certainly the most romantic time for us (after all, this was our belated honeymoon). We took a long walk after disembarking through the town, looking at all of the old buildings, including Mark Twain's home, which all looked very different after dusk, before spending the night at the Best Western Hotel Clemens (Michael swam in that pool, which was indoors), then we packed up the next day to go to Springfield, Illinois (home of Abe Lincoln).
Abe Lincoln's Town
Got to Springfield in about 2 hours, and we looked through the Lincoln Library, before going on the tour of Abraham Lincoln's home (that he lived in with his wife and children, prior to his presidency).; We got a map from the Visitor's Center, and it said that we were about to embark on "Mr. Lincoln's Neighborhood". It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood, and I kept expecting to see Lady Elaine Fairchild or Mr. McFeely stroll by. We touched the same bannister as Lincoln did, and of course, shot many photos of the house, inside & outside. We saw Lincoln's stove pipe hat hanging on an authentic hat rack, his family's dining room, and many other rooms that had been restored.We saw where the Lincoln family cooked (and ironed), played games, entertained, and went to the.....well, there was a 3-seater outhouse adjacent to the Lincoln home, so that all the bases were covered! We asked Tom Rebman of the Mr. Lincoln's Souvenirs gift shop about how to get to Lincoln's Tomb, and we went to Lincoln's Tomb (where his remains are, and visited a few more sights in Illinois, before heading back.
Take the last train to Clarksville
Michael wanted to take more rural routes back home, so we headed south on 79 to Clarksville, Missouri. For a short while, we traveled on Route 66, the legendary highway. Then we went west. Never thought I'd see so much corn in my life, notwithstanding my jokes.We found a quaint little town called Clarksville, and spent the night in the Clarksville Motel, situated on the banks of the Mississipi river. We checked out the town (the inhabitants being very friendly, though we did get yelled at to "stay off the barge" since we had been climbing on one to look at the views - in essense, they didn't want us barging onto their barge). I saved a rock with Mississipi mud on it - I actually went out to the water to wet the rock, a tricky accomplishment, considering how spongy the ground was so close to the river). Clarksville has the claim that they are situated at the highest point on the Mississipi - and who can argue that? Of course, we tried out the motel's outdoor pool. Michael noted that even though Clarksville is a rather struggling, small town, the motel had a heated outdoor pool. and we slept very well there. Took long walks by the river, and there was an old deserted amusement park tram ride, and many old buildings.
Home
Got up early the next morning (Thursday the 8th) and went to the airport, where we were hours early (our flight was re-scheduled an hour later, to 12:20 p.m.), and the jet ride back home a bit rocky for me, as we hit turbulence over Colorado ("Rocky Mountain High"?) for about an hour. Safely back in S.F, Kaitlyn drove us home, where we unpacked our souvenirs, and unwound.
