Meet me in St. Louis!

 

We finally checked in at the Ramada St. Louis at about 7pm (which to us was 1am) after a long but uncomplicated journey along which we met so many friendly people. On Virgin Atlantic there was the lady and her daughter who has just toured Europe, she was English but lived in Indiana and somewhere along her holiday she had injured her knee so most of her holiday had been done in a wheelchair. She toasted the Queen and took the airplane blanket as a present from Richard Branson! On our tiny Delta plane, full of jolly passengers we met a guy going to a harmonica conference and a charming student from St. Louis University who was returning from visiting his family in Palestine. He told us that the best thing about St. Louis was the Cardinals. In the taxi more friendly locals told us where to eat and that we should go to a Cardinals game!

Even though it was the middle of the night to us we found some food before crashing out....

Up early next morning we set off to explore St Louis. We found some lovely gardens with outdoor art installations.

And then we stumbled across Busch Stadium, the home of the Cardinals. Tonight they are playing the Boston Redsox....... Why not??

We bought Cardinals luggage labels....

....and two tickets for the game. Exciting!

The stadium holds over 46000 spectators.

We then wandered towards the Mississippi River and the Gateway Arch.

The arch was built to acknowledge the pioneers who led the westward expansion.

There was a lovely museum which explained the history of the US brilliantly.

Another William Clark.

Then we got into a very cosy pod and travelled to the top....

The view towards Illinois.

And back towards the city.

A good view of the stadium.

Riverside rides.

Below us we could see the pier for river tours.

So we descended and jumped on board the Tom Sawyer.

A park ranger gave us all of the information we needed to know about the history of the area.

This tug was helping to raise a sunken barge.

After our cruise (temperature in the 90's) we set off for the game.

We queued for the compulsory hot dogs and fries and climbed to our seats in the sky. The LCD call them nose bleed seats.

As soon as we sat down the heavens opened and we munched our tea watching an incredible electric storm over the city. The pitch was covered in plastic.

Our seats were fortunately under a canopy.

Play was delayed for 45 minutes...

Then the covers came off.

The game was exciting and noisy and the atmosphere was fantastic. Fortunately there were people around us to explain the rules.

The Redsox pitcher, Kelly, has previously played for the Cardinals.

There were a few disputes...

And Fred Bird was spotted in the stadium.

One of them even wore red socks!

The game was number two of a series of three and the Redsox won 2-1 so now the games are level. The decider is tomorrow.

We won't be around though, we are setting off to pick up our car and start the great Road Trip.

We're hoping it will not look like this!

Goodbye St. Louis!

 

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