Lenexa, KS

We did MUCH better at getting up early today. I actually awoke at 5:00 am and couldn't fall back asleep. By 6:00, I realized any further effort was futile, but stayed in bed anyway. We actually got out of the hotel and on the road by 7:30, which was really good. Unfortunately, it was ANOTHER cold, rainy day, so it's almost hard to tell if it's day or night.

We went to St. Louis, MO. Lacey had been there on her trip north, but she didn't see the Arch, something she's always wanted to see, so she planned that as a stop for us to see together. There was also a whole museum dedicated to the expansion of the west, and to baseball. There it was all self-guided and LOTS of reading. Lacey's better at reading all of that stuff than I am, so she was actually soaking up all the history. I was reading the quotes... They also had some of those animated characters that talk about what was going on at the time that I always think are funny. Lacey hadn't seen those before, and we had a good time imitating their jerky movements. (Ok, she imitated. I just watched. ;) )

After the museum, we went up into the arch. They send you up in trams, which were actually little enclosed modules with tiny windows. That surprised us; we thought they'd be more like plexiglass trams like at ski slopes. They say it only takes 4 minutes to get up. Each time we rode in them, we had "interesting" older couples who rode along with us. This was one occasion in which it was good to be short: the opening to the little tram was only about 4.5 feet high, and inside, the taller people really had to be careful of their heads. I, however, fit rather well into the little corner.

We were pretty lucky that, while overcast, we could still the views of St. Louis from the arch. They said that the arch, built in 1963-65 (the trams inside were added in 1967), was as long as it was high. The view from the top was really amazing. And, just looking at the arch from outside, you can't really tell that people can go up inside. We could see the stadium, a good deal of the downtown area, and, if we really, really strained, the bottom of the arch. It was a little difficult at times to keep our balance, though. We stayed up there for a while but we both started feeling a bit of the instability around the same time and decided it was time to go back down.

There was a little paddleboat cruise thing across the street from the arch that looked like it had a cafe. They were playing old fashioned music (like Farrell's ice cream parlor used to have) and it seemed like a fun place to have lunch. Unfortunately, when the boats are out, they don't serve from there. We decided we didn't really feel like being on a boat in the dreary, cold, rainy weather, so we skipped that and tried to find something "St. Louis-y" to have for lunch. But, we couldn't find anything in any of the books Lacey has, so we decided to get back on the road and stop at whatever struck our fancy. We ended up at a Qdoba, which was fine....until I spilled my water all over the place. Fortunately, it stayed in the middle of the table, and I don't think I soaked Lacey...

Again, we saw lots of really pretty trees...travelling in October does have its advantages, even if we can't camp. We'd been talking about ice cream, so we stopped a little combination gas station/Dairy Queen/Stuckey's for a treat. Lacey had never heard of Stuckey's or their pecan logs, so we got one of those for later and ice cream to eat in the car. Lacey needed a break from driving, so I got to drive while she tended to my ice cream cone for me -- and wiped my sticky hand when I was done!

We headed into Kansas City and decided to try their barbecue, since that's what their famous for. There was a place that Lacey found in her one of her books called Gates Barbecue, which was right on State Line Road. So, we decided to go there. Just like last night when I was driving, I managed to pass it, then turn around and nearly passed it again. We finally got into the parking lot and miraculously found a parking spot. (Lacey had a heck of a time getting out later because of the rain and the tight parking.) We were surprised to find that it wasn't a sit down restaurant, but one where you stood in line, the counter person shouts to the back line "MayIhelpyou" (all as one word!) and you shout forward what you want. It took us a LOOONNNGGG time to decide because we'd neglected to see the pictures at the front of the line, and they didn't have any on the menu board. We were looking forward to some really good ribs, but they turned out to be way too spicy for us and had no other flavor besides that. So, if that was representative of Kansas City Barbecue, we were not impressed.

After dinner, we drove just a little further (by now, dark, raining, and hard to see) and found a motel just off the freeway. (And after passing through an area called Oak Park!) Lacey said we're only a day away from Colorado...so YAY!