A Day Off – Diana Style

St. Louis; St. Louis – Defiance, MO

Yesterday was a day off . . . Diana style.

What does that mean? 

As a start, it means no blog post – because there wasn’t time. 

Let’s see . . . Here was a brief recap of our day:

• Diana started with a strength workout in the fancy gym in the luxury apartment we were staying in (see the last blog post). 

• While Diana did her workout, I published my latest blog post. Once finished, I did a doctor-(Liu)-recommended workout of my own – about fifteen minutes – with the hope that I can strengthen my back enough to stop getting back pain when we ride. (After watching me try some of the exercises she showed me the other day, Diana says she is “appalled” with how weak my back is.)
• By this time – 9:15 or so – I was starving. Unlike Diana and her unlimited nuclear fuel, I run on food, and need to eat periodically. Diana suggested we wait until 10 – when we were meeting Noah, the son of some dear friends of ours, for coffee. Noah is a PhD. student at Washington University (Wash U, as the cool people – like me – call it). Speaking of nuclear power, waiting another 45 minutes to eat was likely to cause me to have a nuclear meltdown, so we went to a nearby bagel place – Meshuggah. Best breakfast bagel I have ever had! On an everything bagel with sausage. Mmm.
• Then we met Noah at 10. He told us a little bit about what he is studying (something esoteric having to do with the mind – he is clearly smarter than we are (or at least than I am . . .)). He also told us about his Ultimate Frisbee playing – something we are keenly interested in because at one point in history – pre-cell phone, but definitely after cars were invented – we used to play. Noah then brought us on a tour of campus. Super nice to see the campus and to chat with a young person. Kind of legitimizes my use of the Wash U term – I know students there you know . . .

• Now we are off to Forest Park. Kind of like St. Louis’ Central Park. Complete with (1) a zoo (we didn’t actually go to the zoo – but we did bike by the outside of the zoo and took some pictures with the artistic metal versions of the animals . . .); (2) an art museum – which we enjoyed, at least partially because of the air conditioning (can I just say that great as art museums are, it can be more tiring to walk around an art museum than it is to bike up a big hill on gravel (maybe the physics-defying mystery of how this could be should be Noah’s PhD. thesis?)); and (3) a bunch of other cool stuff that we didn’t have time for.

• Then a jaunt across town to the botanical gardens – or I think I’ll call them the Botans. Kind of like Wash U, you have to know the lingo. And our younger daughter, Lauren, tells us that in New York, where she goes to school, the botanical gardens are called the Botans. Anyway, the Botans in St. Louis were great, and, for us, they were free. Which sounds great – because normal price is like $15/each. But the thing is, the guy at the desk sent us in for free because Diana had said something about only having 45 minutes and the guy heard it, and, supposedly based on that, decided that we could go for free. So why am I complaining? I guess because I don’t buy it. Seems like a flimsy reason to send us in for free. What I really think happened . . . I think we are starting to look so vagrant-like that desk clerks at the St. Louis Botans are starting to take pity on us. (Note to self – find a mirror tomorrow . . .)
• Where were we? Oh, yes, the Botans were actually great. Especially liked the Climatron (real exhibit name) – which basically brought you into the tropics – but it felt like you were in air conditioning. The best of both worlds . . . Kind of a preview of what Central America will be like, except with billions of mosquitoes and maybe minus the air conditioning . . .

• Then off to downtown for our Anheuser Busch Brewery Tour. Lots of things we didn’t know about Anheuser Busch. Not sure I really digested the important parts though . . . Here’s what I got out of the tour: Adolphus Busch, who was the 21st of 22 children, immigrated to the United States, made moves on Eberhard Anheuser’s daughter, married into the family, invented the recipe for “a distinctly American lager” – Budweiser – and then took over the whole place and made a ton of money. I also learned that despite all my beer-snooty friends, I love the “drinkability” of Budweiser and I’m going to stop making fun of it in the future. It has all the qualities I like in a beer. It doesn’t really taste like beer – it’s especially not hoppy. It’s kind of like charged water. What’s not to like?

• Just a hop, skip and a jump from the brewery where the King of Beers is brewed to get to the St. Louis arch. Super cool. 

• Now it’s dinner time and we decide to head to Salt & Smoke – which was recommended by a reader, Naomi, who grew up in St. Louis but lives in Minneapolis now. Then we realize that there is a Cardinals game and the restaurant is right across the street from the stadium – so we are pretty sure we will never get a table. But, we figure we’ll give it a try and, miraculously, we are seated immediately. 

• That’s when I remember that the Cardinals aren’t doing very well this year. I quick look up ticket prices. $1 tickets. We decide to go to the game and end up spending $11 for the two of us – $2 for the tickets, $9 for the service fees or something . . . Cheap tickets – made even better when you go with Ms. Pushy New York City – who insists no one is watching and we can just sit anywhere. So now we’re sitting right behind first base – and she’s right, no one cares.

• Stay until the sixth inning and then bike back across town to watch Noah’s Ultimate practice. We watch for a while until Noah scores . . .
• And then off to get ice cream cones before Clementine’s Naughty and Nice closes for the evening. 
• Finally, mercifully, we head back to the luxury apartment, take a hot tub – because remember, we’re luxury apartment type people – and then head to bed. 
• We ended up biking 27 miles on our “off” day . . .

I will say, though, that this was a different type of 27 miles. 

Before we left Dodge a few weeks ago the local old-person radio station that I listen to – LOVE105 – kept running these ads about how you should feed your dog this real meat dog food – “the diet of their ancestors” or something – and how, if you did, your dog would start running around like a puppy even though she was nineteen years old. 

I kept thinking of that ad yesterday. Taking the packs off of Old Dan and Little Anne was kind of the equivalent of feeding them raw meat. They were running around like puppies – just zipping up hills that they usually labor up like an overpacked semi . . .

By the way, I know there are some people out there who hate riding in cities. Diana and I actually love riding around cities. No better way to see everything. It’s half the reason to bike from place to place – so that when you get there you have your bike to ride around and see everything . . .

One other thing. Who would have guessed that the biggest bike accident of our trip so far would happen on a quiet urban road with trolley tracks? So we’re biking along parallel with the tracks and we keep having to cross them because they are winding around on the street and sometimes come so close to the curb that you need to go out to the middle and back. I keep thinking I need to cross perpendicular to the tracks – but we have to cross like 37 times because of the way the tracks keep moving around on the street. Eventually I get complacent – and stop paying attention to the crossing angle. And – boom – just like that I’m in the tire-sized gap between the street and the rail – and I’m down. Splat.

Fortunately I’m fine. Just some wounded pride. Not made any better by Diana pointing out the sign telling people to avoid doing exactly what I just did . . .

The dangers of St. Louis . . .

But enough on yesterday. Today might not have been as exciting, but it was a good day nonetheless. 

It was one of those “Escape from New York” – wasn’t there a movie with that title? – type bike days. Our main goal was just to get out of urban-land. The route out of town took us through some super swanky suburbs. It was like biking through Minneapolis’ western suburbs – Wayzata and stuff. Lots of big houses. Some traffic – but nothing bad. 

We visited Trailhead Bike Shop where Jim helped us. Old Dan had been working, but let’s just say his groomer was not quite up to Jim’s standards. 

Jim helped with the bike and provided some recommendations on directions. We ended up on the Katy Trail (thanks to Subscriber Eric H for the tip on that), we are camping in Defiance, we had a great tin foil campfire dinner, and we are generally following the Lewis & Clark Trail. 

Which reminds me of one last thing I wanted to share with you. This morning, while Diana did her strength workout, I went to get a cup of tea. And who served me? Sacajewa’s great-great granddaughter. That’s who!!!

Which makes me even more excited to follow Lewis & Clarke’s journey for the next day or two. 

Katy Trail to the middle of Missouri – and then down to LIttle Rock. Thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions?

(p.s. – Sorry for the late posting. Turns out there isn’t a lot of wifi on the Katy trail. The coffee shop we went to this morning had wifi, but not to share. What kind of coffee shop doesn’t have wifi?)