Day 2 St. Louis Here We Come

After a delightful breakfast of "authentic Colombian arepas" and oatmeal, we set off on the next leg of the trip with a five hour drive to the Gateway of the West, i.e St. Louis, MO.

Our comfy room. Shared bath around the corner.

Shortly after passing over Big Muddy we pulled off into the Art Hill Place neighborhood and our first AirBnB experience.

Our first AirBnB lodging

Ginny and Emily

This whole neighborhood is filled with a wonderful variety of small, well kept homes and apartment buildings built in and around the '30's.  Our room is just a three block walk across the expressway to the St. Louis Zoo and the amazing Forest Park. The park was dedicated in 1876 and hosted the World's Fair in 1904 (Meet Me In St. Louie, Louie, Meet Me At the Fair). Our veteran hostess is Emily Melick, Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, who decided to turn her home into an AirBnB because of her positive experiences as a guest.  The savings over a motel incredible ($94 vs $290!) Thanks to Kate Reynolds (Mgr at Shag in RO), Ginny's hairdresser for suggesting we try AirBnB!

Tommy's 70th

After unpacking it was off to share a birthday dinner with Ginny's brother Tom (the reason for our trip) and his good buddy Ernie Miceli.  Never a dull moment with those two; imagine a quiet evening with the "Odd Couple" nattering back and forth at one another! LOL It was a hoot.  Tom is a recently diagnosed diabetic on medication so his "cake" was a sugar free sweet potato pie baked by a friend and some no sugar added vanilla ice cream and lite whipped topping for desert supplied by us.  

King of the Roost, Tom Chapman 70

Ernie Miceli, Tom Chapman & Ginny

Road weary and overfed, we fled to the comfort of the AirBnB and turned in early.  All in all a rousing success but a very busy day.  

Day 3: The Odd Couple Go Shopping!

Making it to St. Louis in time to celebrate Ginny's brother Tom's 70th birthday is just part of the reason for visiting!

Tom Chapman and his "older" sister ;-))

Today we actually spent most of the day with Tom and his friend Ernie running errands with them and taking care of some personal tasks.  It has been our custom to take the guys to Sam's Club so that they can do their big shop for the month without them  having to pay for cabs (they don't get the Uber concept yet).  In some ways it's always a hoot because it is like shopping with the Odd Couple ;-)) They are constantly bickering back and forth about what to buy and for how much.  Tom was recently diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes and is just getting used to watching what he eats.  Ernie ends up being the policeman and Tom is the reluctant motorist who is determined to change as little as possible because "that is just the way I am!" and "it's hard to make changes!"  No truer words have been spoken.

For the readers who know St. Louis, we had pizza for lunch at Adriana's on "The Hill", a traditionally Italian neighborhood close to where Ginny grew up in the City of St. Louis for some years.   After that we headed out to some watch repairs and other grocery buying and rolled back into Tom's place where we made a nice meal and wrapped up our visit with the guys.

We were pooped and headed back to the Airbnb where we had a lovely conversation with our hostess, Emily Melick.  Speaking of Airbnb, this has been an incredibly positive experience.  Unbeatable prices, extraordinary convenience and a wonderful hostess were the hallmarks of the stay.  The house was a quaint little bungalow built in the 1930's just blocks from the famous St. Louis Zoo and Forest Park.  

So we will be leaving in the morning and heading to Colombia, MO and dear friend Fran Madden's home with a stop along the way in Eureka, MO to visit classmate Linda (Graser) Harre.  Lots of road time but the visit with friends always makes it sweet.

Just some observations about St. Louis before I wrap this up.  From 1961-1964 I attended seminary high school in Chesterfield, MO.  Needless to say, we didn't get to see much of the city except Union Station where we boarded the Wabash Cannonball for the train ride back to the Vernor St. station in the Motor City.  So I really didn't know much about this wonderful town.  Since then I find myself falling in love with the Gateway to the West.  The city is built on these wonderful rolling hills giving the feeling, in the city, of being "perched" on the hills. This is also a sports crazy town that was recently badly screwed over by the arrogant owner of the Rams, Stan Kroenke, who just up and left town declaring that "...St. Louis was not much of a sports town." LA was more than happy to build him a new stadium and flip off St. Louis.  In many other ways, St. Louis' attitude reminds me of the Motor City....for what it's worth.

Busy day of driving and visiting tomorrow.  Reports coming then.

Day 1: On the road to Trafalgar

Day 1

This is as much a journal for my tired eyes as it is an invitation to come along for the ride. This the biennial version of our annual trip to St. Louis, MO to visit Ginny's brother Tom, one of her two remaining family members, on his birthday. We made it a day late but when you are just catching up to the rest of us who are 70+, it's on time ;-)

Background
Briefly this trip has been God blessed ever since we started planning for it knowing that time is growing shorter for all of us.  Financially a number of jobs came my way, a dear friend gave us a double portion of blessings and while we had invested in basic repairs to our Blue Bomb that made it "road worthy", we were simply stepping out onto the troubled waters trusting the Lord would help us make it and He did indeed!  At last minute a vehicle was provided!
 So we are traveling with a new Hyundai Elantra, and all the doors work! (LOL  inside joke) Great milage, loads of room, smooth ride and even a way to play our book on tape through the car stereo (an essential if I am to drive more than an hour!)  Speaking of which I have been able to drive 2-3 hours before one of our bladders pulls us off the road and we made the first leg of the trip with a stop to make our lunch on the trunk of the car in 6 hours!

The first leg
La Casa de Tracy in Trafalgar, IN won't appear on any AirBnB lists but it is truly a wonderful guest experience. Marcy Tracy was my comrade in arms when we worked for DaimlerChrysler News doing their Spanish channel news translation and daily 5 minute video newscast for their network.  We formed a wonderful bond with Martha and her family and her beautiful house in the woods south of Indianapolis has been a stagecoach stop for us.  Lamentablemente I didn't get pictures of Martha and Richard or of their beautiful home but I will try and remedy that later.

We had a lovely dinner with Martha and Richard, stayed overnight and had a delicious breakfast with Martha before taking off on the next leg of the journey.  Staying with Martha is a bi-lingual delight because I get to exercise my conversational skills with Martha in Spanish but always switch to English to bring the rest into the conversation.  Please pray with me that Martha can find a way of employing her considerable skills in software troubleshooting (e.g. SAP bi-lingual help desk...for those who understand).  She is a brilliant and wonderfully social person who is "isolated in a gilded cage" as someone referred to the beautiful house hidden in the woods of rural Indiana.

The rest of Tuesday was spent getting to St. Louis and our first AirBnB lodging and then quickly joining Tom Chapman and his dear friend Ernie Miceli for his 70th birthday dinner. But that is a story for Day Two which will follow soon.