April 30, 2015
What Happened In A Fun City With An Old Friend
St. Louis, Missouri
An uninteresting 27 miles through corn brought me to East St. Louis, IL. Though not entirely unpleasant, that city presented quite a culture shock. It is a very depressed city and has been for a long time. High unemployment, high crime rate, poor street maintenance, abandoned factories and storefronts, and substandard housing--all of those things put me on edge. I minded my own business and kept pedaling.
One encounter helped to relieve some of the tension. I came to a bridge over some railroad tracks. Up ahead was a guy who was pushing his bicycle up the steep incline of the bridge with one hand while pulling a lawn mower behind him with the other. As I gained on him, somebody from a group of young men below yelled out, "He's gonna pass you Lester. Show the mother-effer what you're made of." (Except he didn't say "effer"--he said the other thing.)
Lester, perhaps in his late 20's, looked back, saw me approaching, hopped onto the seat of his bike, and started pedaling while continuing to pull the lawn mower behind him. As I passed him I couldn't help but smile. He returned an even bigger smile and asked, "How far you been ridin' that thang?"
"Since New Orleans," I answered, "but I never had to pull a lawn mower behind me. I don't think I could do it." We both laughed.
I worked my way through East St. Louis, overcoming several wrong turns, and took the Eads Bridge across the Mississippi River into St. Louis, MO. There was road construction taking place on the bridge and there was all kinds of construction going on all around the St. Louis riverfront which includes the grounds of the Gateway Arch National Monument. In fact, the Westward Expansion Museum underneath the arch was closed and the shuttles that take tourists to the top of the arch were not in operation due to the construction. None of that stopped the National Park Service from charging $3.00 for a ticket to basically go down there and visit the gift shop. Um, no thanks.
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A big reason for visiting St. Louis was to visit Bob S., a long-time friend of mine. After cruising around the vibrant downtown area for a while, including my good fortune of being in front of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball stadium at just the right time to see some fireworks celebrating a Cardinal home run, I headed toward the Forest Park area where Bob lives. Unfortunately and fortunately, in equal measures, I saw something that required a short detour.
I have a well-documented fondness for local craft beers. Well, by happenstance (or was it destiny?) I came across the Schlafly Brewery's tasting room. Damn it, I HAD to stop.
Don't worry, I turned down the bartender's offer of another one and made it to the wonderful urban oasis that is Forest Park. It had a golf course, a zoo, well-maintained bicycling and jogging paths, a botanical garden, green open spaces, tennis courts, ponds, statues of Mark Twain and King Louis the I-forget-which-Roman-Numeral, and picnic areas. It was huge and amazing.
From the park, I called Bob to get directions to his house. When he started telling me, I said, "hold on, let me get a pen to write this down."
"No, you won't need that," he said, "this will be real easy." He went on to explain about going underneath the freeway, through a residential section, through a business-y area, under a viaduct, then some more residential, then cut through a gas station, and he concluded "then you'll be right at my house."
"Okaaaaaaaay!" My head was spinning and I had my doubts. Incredibly, his directions were perfect and when I got there it all made sense.
I had a great visit with Bob. At my request, he took me to possibly the best cocktail bar in the city--the extravagant and ornate Chase Park Plaza Hotel. We had a couple of huge, expensive martinis and WOW! Great conversation ensued. Politics. Economics. Religion. Pop culture. Snide remarks about people around us. Luckily we have mostly the same views on all of those things.
To counteract the effects of those powerful drinks, we ate dinner at a Thai restaurant around the corner from the hotel and had an expertly made espresso afterward.
Today's ride: 44 miles (71 km)
Total: 926 miles (1,490 km)
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