St. Louis - Day 114 - 119 of 178 Day Trek

Legendary announcer for St. Louis Cardinals

Our trek from Chicago to St. Louis wasn't a particularly long one, only about 245 miles.  But time on the road causes the mind to wander, to notice the strangest things.  And on this trip, what I did notice along the way was the sheer numbers of road kill on the shoulders of the highways.  There were an especially large amount of armadillos.  I must have seen at least 20 of the poor little guys in the dead cockroach position on the side of the road.  What's up with that?  Are they so accustomed to their armor-like skin fending off all would-be predators that they figure they're invincible, but then when they meet the business end of a 1968 Bonneville, they're all like, "I guess I was wrong"?

     As you all know, St. Louis means "statues," especially statues of the big three: Stan Musial (baseball),

Chuck Berry (music),

and Tennessee Williams (theatre).  During our scavenger-hunt-six-days in town, we managed to find them all.  And you thought we were just wasting our time.

     On "travel" days, we like to get to the campground before sunset, establish base camps both inside AB1 and outside, and then go out to dinner and maybe a movie.  So on this Monday , August 26, we did just that.  After dinner, we caught the Woody Allen movie, "Blue Jasmine," starring Cate Blanchett.  When I was younger, I never missed a Woody Allen movie, but that was back when he did comedies with jokes every 10 seconds.  Now, while I still like what Woody does, his movies now never seem as funny to me as when I was younger, so seeing his current efforts is now a much "iffier" proposition.  So having said all that, I'll give you my review in just two words:  "SEE IT!!"  Cate Blanchett is remarkable.  Both Diedre and I would not be surprised if she gets an Oscar nomination.

    

After a laundry, grocery, and regrouping respite, we took off for downtown St. Louis and a full day of seeing the sites. Our first stop in the heart of downtown St. Louis was their 170+ year-old court house proudly standing dwarfed in the midst of all the skyscrapers.  We stood on the same steps of this venerable structure that, back in the 1840's and 1850's, they held slave auctions.  We even stood in the court room whereDred Scott sued for his freedom in ~1848. 

    

We then walked across the street to check out the city-identifying landmark, the St. Louis Arch.  And just to assure you all: It's still there.  We opted not to take the claustrophobic special ride to the top since we had both done so back in the 80's.

     Our night was topped off by a visit to our 15th major league baseball stadium to see a battle for first place between 2 division rivals, the Cincinnati Reds and the St. Louis Cardinals.  Once inside the stadium, we were now half-way to our goal of attending games in all 30 major league ball parks.  94-degrees at game time could not diminish our spirits, although a Cincinnati romp made the game a bit less exciting (Note that we always cheer for the home team in these foreign stadiums.) The Reds won 10-0 with Cincy outfielder Jay Bruce knocking in 5 runs by the 2nd inning. 

     By the time we made it back to our campground just after the stroke of midnight, our trip was officially 2/3 over.   Where has the time gone?  We're still have fun and enjoying every day.

     Friday, August 30, the sun decided it had been shirking its duties so far this summer with some really wimpy weather, so Old Sol unleashed all the fury he could muster from 93-million miles away (give or take a kilometer or two).  For his efforts, he was rewarded with the honor of recording a record temperature for St. Louis on this date in history: 102-degrees.  Lucky us.

My St. Louis cousin Mona was still at one of her many houses up north, so we made the best of our St. Louis visit with a lunch with her husband, Scott Jenkins, at the place where Fats Domino lost his thrill; yes, you guessed it, "Blueberry Hill."  BH sits on a stretch of urban roadway called "The Loop," variously called one of the 10 greatest streets in America.  The sidewalks are embedded with a St. Louis "Walk of Fame"; it was in this area that we found our statues of Chuck Berry and Tennessee Williams.  Being from Arizona, of course, we walked everywhere.  A little 102-degree weather was just a walk in the park for us.

  

OK, on our last day in St. Louis, we were up for a little more history.  Sorry, Diedre.  It started with a morning walk through the famous Soulard Farmers Market which began in ... now get this ... 1779!  This place is so old, it had already been going on for over 60 years when future Union Army general and president of the United States Ulysses S. Grant would sell firewood there from his family's farm.  We bought a fair amount of vegetables there, then more than made up for it gastronomically by grabbing a cup of frozen custard at the supposedly famous "Ted Drewe's Custard." 

   

Now it was shrine time.  Ever since I was a little boy reading sports biographies borrowed from the Cedar Manor grade school library, I had heard about the St. Louis Italian area called "The Hill" and its future athletic stars. 

     Funny story: major leaguer Joe Garagiola is from the Hill.  Now, pretty much every major leaguer was at one time the best player in his state, or at least in his high school.  Joe Garagiola wasn't even the best player in his own neighborhood.  In the house right across the street from where Joe grew up lived none other than baseball legend and Hall of Famer Yogi Berra.      

     Of course, I had to find Joe and Yogi's boyhood homes on The Hill.  The Hill is easy to find; all its fire hydrants are painted in the colors of the Italian flag. 

     I know Diedre's really coming along with her knowledge of baseball.  I mean, living with me, she'd have to.  But there are still some gaps in her learning curve.  When we did finally get to Yogi Berra's boyhood home, she kept asking me, "Where's Boo-Boo?"

     As you can tell, I really like the idea of history.  So many places that we've seen have history 130, 150 years old.  When at these sites, I always like to try to imagine what it would have been like to be there at that important time in history.  Part of that mind set is probably because I'm now 62.  I'm just accumulating so much more history myself.

     On to Memphis, Tennessee, and probably the most surprising city we've seen so far on this odyssey of a vacation.  Tune in next week to find out why.

     See you there.