Driving to St. Louis — originally, we were to stop in Olney, Illinois,
the “Albino Squirrel” capital of the world, however
we decided to drive on through to St. Louis to get a room. The
soundtrack: Foo Fighters, “Foo Fighters”.

Rain, rain, rain most of the way. We made the trip in about 5 hours or so
(which includes checking into the hotel, stopping to eat, etc). However,
not before we stopped in Collinsville, Illinois, the home of the WORLDS
LARGEST CATSUP bottle. We got off the exit to Collinsville, and I
remembered that I didn’t get an address to the catsup bottle, but
considering it was the “WORLD’S LARGEST”, it couldn’t be that hard to
find. As we rounded a corner, i told Kelly “keep your eyes peeled for a
GIANT CATSUP BOTTLE!”, a lo, the heavens parted, and THAR SHE BLOWS! Right
in the middle of “downtown” is a big catsup bottle. Huge, and TANGY!
Pictures were taken.

Navigating St. Louis so far has proven quite easy. At least, easier than
Chicago, which was my first real “big city” driving experience. Chicago
is like some sort of horrible boot camp for driving. They might as well
have been firing live rounds over the highway, because the road itself
seemed to have bomb craters in it. If only the toll-booth operators
would have spit tobacco juice on your shoe and said “Looks like you need a
shine, son!”, but i digress.

We managed to make our way up to University City, to get a little dinner,
and just browse the “cool” section of town. At first, that “cool”
designation was called into question. Allow me to pontificate.

The main drag in University City is Delmar Street. We hit the main
section of University City, and saw this really neat looking building, and
I said “ooooh” and kelly said “aahhh”. And then we both went “ooooh” like
we just saw someone fall off a bike. Turns out, that “really cool”
building was a huge Church of Scientology! It was massive and
office-looking. In fact, the sign out front looked like the entrance to a
mini-mall, or at least an office park. Note to self: if your church looks
like there should be cubicles in it, or they are playing Muzak in hallways
– GET OUT. That goes for you, John Travolta.

Now, the “cool” was restored by the VERY NEXT BUILDING. The University
City City Hall was awesome. It was just a big, round cylinder. Weee! A
neo Hall of Justice.

Kelly wanted to checked out “Iron Age”, a piercing/tatoo shop. It was
quite awesome, the entire seciton of town was
quite neat. It was a little like downtown Charleston, tho’, I must admit
that Bardstown Rd. has it beat. Aaaanyway. Kelly got her nose pierced
again, and it took about 10 minutes in-the-door/out-the-door. Later, we
found the “Thai Country Cafe” – a little Thai restaurant. Wow. Finally,
an honest to goodness Thairestaurant. Kelly had the vegetarian pad-thai,
and the vegetarian spring rolls, and i had the Chicken Satay and the Yum
Gai (Thai Chicken Salad). Washed down with a Singha beer (Thai Budweiser,
i think). A cool little restaurant all done up like a Thai tea house or
somesuch.

After dinner (which was tasty and cheap), we walked on down the road
aways, and in only about a block, the hip part of town turned into the
“get accosted by homeless folks” area, and it lived up to its name. I
don’t remember the guys name, but he showed me his ID, and i guessed his
age at 50 (i was right on). His mother had apparently just died, yada
yada. I don’t mean to sound shallow, but when someone comes up to me with
a pre-planned speech, replete with props, it’s a little hard to believe.
I feel for the guy, but damn. I gave him $.50, and he was on his way. I
really hate that shit. Not that I hate homeless people, but I hate having
to brush people off like that. I’m sure he has seen some hard times, but
I’m not the one to pull him out of the gutter, and how is my dollar going
to do that? Yar.

Anyway, later on the ride home, we jammed to the new Wilco (“Yankee Hotel
Foxtrot”), and it rained and rained, so hard, in fact that the road looked
like it had waves in it. Sheet after sheet of rain. And despite all
that, it was ten times easier driving than on a sunny day in Chicago. So
far, so good.

Alrighty, off to see the sites ’round town — the National Coin-op and
Video Game Museum (does it still exist?!), the arch, the Anheuser Busch
Tour, the Kids Museum, etc. Tomorrow — checkout and on the way to
Oklahoma City (and Marionville, Illinois).

Gallery:
Honeymoon Day #1