St Louis Wednesday 

We indulged ourselves in a lie in & later breakfast this morning. It was all homemade & delicious. We had a leisurely time afterwards & then Mark & Eliane picked us up at 12h30. We went downtown to Blueberry Hill café where Chuck Berry often plays. The place is full of rock & roll memorabilia & photos not to mention jukeboxes. We sampled the local delicacy of deep fried ravioli & had a spot of lunch to follow. After a quick browse around a vinyl record store, Mark & Eliane showed us around St Louis & the surrounding area. We saw Forest Green, a Central Park type area with all sorts of facilities like an aviary, zoo, museum & lake. We made it to the Botanical Garden & spent a happy hour or so wandering around in the sunshine. We tried to get into the City Museum which is a wacky facility set up in an old shoe factory, using artefacts, relics & recovered items to create a massive play area for both children & adults. Unfortunately we were too late & it had closed but we were able to see some of the attractions & I will post some of the photos. It was all started by someone who amassed bits of buildings during demolition, an old school bus, aeroplanes etc & put together an adventure playground. It is truly amazing.

After that we continued our sight seeing tour going a bit further afield, seeing some normal suburban areas. We saw the Missouri River & the Mississippi & went out as far as Alton to a Biker’s bar for beers & deep fried chicken wings. We eventually made it back to our B & B having had a great day out. Mark & Eliane were very generous with their time & were able to experience so much in our time here, much more than if we had been ‘normal’ tourists. Once again there is so much we haven’t seen, maybe we will have to come again.

Tues St Louis

We are here. We left our Chicago hotel about 9am & took a taxi to  a local airport where we picked up our hire car. It is an SUV, a Chevrolet we think, but it is roomy & comfortable. We negotiated our way onto Interstate 55, saw some of the old Route 66 & stopped off in Pontiac for a photo shoot—this will become obvious when I add the photos. Thanks to Crispin & Cecile for this info, I only wish we had had time to explore further.

After a quick sandwich we hit the road again & eventually made it to St Louis & our delightful B&B. I have to say this was all due to Doug’s excellent navigation skills since we cannot persuade the GPS system to acknowledge that St Louis has any addresses worth visiting. I drive, he navigates—teamwork!! 

The house where we are staying is lovely & our hosts have made us very welcome. It is a huge double fronted house with large roomy spaces & proper coffee! The weather has improved as we have come South & is a sunny 72*F with more of the same forecast for tomorrow. We have made contact with Mark & Eliane ( from Vaour) & we are going out with them tonight. More to follow

Tired

We started the real music part of the holiday tonight at Buddy Guy’s Blues Club in Chicago, with a jam session. But we’re both tired and ready for bed now. Off to St Louis tomorrow.