On Saturday, May 23 I left my sister's in Columbus and headed for my friend Scott's in St. Louis, MO. It took about 7 hours but didn't feel that long. My Prius drove fantastically, and I averaged around 49 mpg (made it on less than a tank of gas and my tank is only 11.9 gallons - this car rocks!). I stopped for lunch in, well, I can't remember. I even made a point to remember where it was, and now I can't even remember if it was in Indiana or Illinois. Wait, I paid with a credit card, I bet the receipt says where it was - Greenfield, IN. I feel better now. Anyways, I got a really good pulled pork BBQ sandwich for less then $8, so if you ever find yourself in Geenfield, IN, I highly recommend it. It definitely beat any of the chain restaurant options at that exit (and there were a lot of them).
I came across this in Effingham, IL. The thing is touted to be the largest cross in the world and stands at an ostentatious 198 ft. tall.
I rolled into Scott's neighborhood around 6PM, quickly unloaded a few things, and the two of us were back out the door and headed to Forest Park. We picked up some things for a picnic and then headed for Shakespeare in the Park. They were putting on The Merry Wives of Windsor. Neither of us were familiar with this play prior to this evening, but I think we would have caught on faster if weren't for the fact that the four women in the play may have well have been two sets of twins. There were two red heads (a married woman and a maid) and two brunettes (a married woman and her single daughter). The two brunettes gave us the most trouble because they never appeared on stage together during the first act and we thought they were the same person, thus confusing us on the whole married/single thing. They were finally on stage together at the beginning of the second act and we finally had our aha moment and everything became clear.
On Sunday we went for a run in Forest Park and then headed to a Cardinals game. It was a lot of fun. It's always fun when the fans are into the game and Cardinals fans are definitely into the game.
Scott and I. That guy behind us was part of a large group of loud, drunk men. At first, they were kind of funny, but after a couple of hours and several more beers (on their part) they weren't so funny anymore. That may have coincided with the Kansas City Royals taking the lead (and keeping it), so perhaps it was more the game turning in the wrong direcction. A t the end of the day though, it was still a good time. I'm really glad we went.
After we got back from the game, we joined Scott's neighbors for a cook out. He lives in a great neighborhood. Most of the home have their driveways in the back of the houses, so the builders created an alley way for access to them. It makes for a nice connector between the homes on two different streets. Most of his neighbors are in their 30s, anf they frequently have neighborhood get togethers. One of his neighbors even brews his own beer, and it is pretty darn good. I hope I can find a neighborhood like this one day.
Monday we kept busy by going shopping and meeting up with a couple of his friends for drinks (Brett and his wife Leilah). At the end of our shopping trip, Scott used the large parking lot of the mall as a place to start teaching me how to drive stick. It started off really well but as soon as started thinking about what I was doing, it went down hill quickly. It finally reached the point where I was just thinking way too much about it and was stalling the car every time I tried to go forward. Prior to that, I did manage to get it into second gear - I've had one precious lesson close to 10 years ago from my friend Laura and I didn't even make it out of first gear - so believe it or not, I'm getting better :-) I figure I've got the concept down, and I now have a better idea of how the car should feel with respect to when to hit the gas, release the clutch, etc. that my hope is that I will get it with another couple of lessons. Although if the next one is another 10 years from now...
Scott headed to Philadelphia for work today, so I am hanging out at his place for now. I'm hoping to go camping in Lake of the Ozarks later this week, but right now there is a lot of rain in the forecast. It is supposed to clear up on Thursday, so cross your fingers for me.
But, I'm not sitting around doing nothing, Leilah and I were able to meet up today and go for a run in Forest Park. The park contains many of the museums and other attractions in St. Louis, including the zoo (and they are free!). Witht he zoo being free and all, we took our running course into it. It was really fun to run through all of the animal exhibits. There were a few no shows, but we were running through there around 1PM, so it was getting a bit ot and steamy at that point. I don't blame them for hiding out in the shade or their indoor inclosures. We even detoured through the penguin house for a dose of intense AC. We had lunch at the Boat House after our run. I hope I get to hang out with Leilah and Brett again before I leave town. Scott gets back on Saturday, so Leilah and I were discussing getting him to take us all out to the wineries in his Mustang convertible on Sunday. Now we just need to get Scott's buy-in.
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