...It goes to St. Louis...

Some of you may have heard a little ditty about a road called “Route 66” – Tash has never heard this song. Well, for those not in the know it trails across the country from Chicago to LA, the first section of which goes south to St. Louis. So after a brief stretch of interstate for me to get used to the roads, we followed the old Route 66 most of the way to St. Louis. This was actually quite cool cos it gave us the chance to see some of those American towns that you see in movies but don’t think actually exist in real life.

As we drove over the Mississippi the sun was setting behind the famous Arch and although it was getting late, we still had time to go to the St. Louis City Museum. But this is no ordinary museum, everything in it is reclaimed from the city and is an entirely visual & hands on place – imagine a museum with no boards to read and instead is a giant playground for all sizes of kids from 5 – 35. Tash seemed a bit bored (or maybe just typically aloof & British) with all the tunnels and climbing but when it got to the slides she soon got into it. She even displayed a rye smile when we saw the world's biggest pair of pants. We stayed for ages here, looking at the reconstructed facades inside and playing on the walkways outside, before crashing out back at the hotel.


Next morning we didn’t need an alarm as we were woken by a lot of rowdiness coming from the carpark outside our hotel. This was the St. Louis Rams fans taking part in the great American tradition of football BBQ. No matter what time kick-off is for your team, it seems that all the fans gather near the ground very early to drink, eat and talk football. Annoying for us as we were all tired but cool to see that these fans really enjoy the whole celebration of the team type thing – can’t imagine this happening down the Strand before a Gills game.