Meet Me in Saint Louis

I have WiFi in Talladega everyone so I can now update my blog!

To begin, we shall go back to Drive Day #3, the shortest drive of our journey. We only had about seven hours of driving to do and we planned our trip this way because we were interested in getting to stop and actually see St. Louis (not totally convinced that I was ever in Omaha, NE, because we saw so little of it).

I LOVED St. Louis. When can I go back? Seriously!

After we checked in at our hotel, we went to Bailey's Range (we'd wanted to go to a diner from The List but they closed at 2 and we arrived at 1:30, so we looked up best shakes in St. Louis and this is what we found!). This place was delicious. Their homemade ketchup had a lot of what seemed to be brown sugar in it but other than that, no complaints. They had tons of options and luckily for me, everything could be made veggie-friendly. And their shake? Awesome.

After lunch, we walked to the Gateway Arch. It was quite a sight to see. Stunning, actually.

Now, we purchased tickets and went to the top and that's where I was disappointed. We had to wait a long time in the hot sun before waiting a long time inside to get to the top. The elevator ride was pretty cool but very crowded -- it's basically just a pod that they squish five people into. You know everyone on a far more intimate level after the 3 minute ride to the top and somehow, Melissa, the shorter out of the two of us and the shortest in our group of riders ended up with the most head room! When we got to the top, we spent maybe two minutes up there. It smelled like an armpit and the windows were teeny. We basically took one step out of the elevator and immediately rode it right back down.

After we finished up there, we walked to the City Museum. Melissa had been to St. Louis before and had been raving about this place and it's on The List as well. (I don't know why Melissa didn't see the Arch when she went to St. Louis but she hadn't and therefore could not warn me to save my money and nostrils from the smell). The City Museum is basically a giant maze. It is insanity. There are millions of places for you to climb and hide and crawl and run and play. They have a ten-story slide (I do not recommend wearing shorts on this unless you want a permanent wedgie)! I didn't actually take any pictures because I smartly checked my phone with Melissa's bag when I got there, but this is a pic of just one of the "exhibits." I will say that there are advantages to being short here because there were a lot of places that Melissa could fit in that I could not! Sad but true. We spent two hours of pure bliss here and I can't wait to go back (I'd like to see Whitney there because she'd either destroy the entire thing and/or run away and we'd never see her again).

We went to The Shaved Duck for dinner. Not only did this restaurant make The List but it is also Guy Fieri approved as it has been featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. It was definitely off the beaten path.

The food gets an A+, the service...not so much. Apparently the dish to get is the smothered fries -- fries smothered in cheese and pulled pork, but that was off the menu for me, so I went with cornbread, mac and cheese and regular fries. Melissa bounced back and forth between wanting the smothered fries and duck and eventually chose duck but how could that be a wrong choice at a place with duck in the name? (She gives it a thumbs up).

After all of that, we crashed for our final day of driving.

Yesterday, we made it to Talladega. It only took 42 hours, but we did it. Other than some delicious brunch in Nashville and serious drive day delirium, there isn't much to report about yesterday's adventures. We've driven for four days through 10 different states and the tour has just begun. It'll be a good one -- that's for sure!