So after experiencing the wonderful western U.S. it is time to head back east. We wake up real early and leave Lee's house in Colorado Springs. I took the first shift just so we could wake and bake. I took us out of Colorado and into the most boring state to drive through, Kansas. I quickly gave the controls back to jorge before i fell asleep. Kansas is nothing but flat fields, i was hoping for a tornado just to break up the boredom. Near to the end of kansas i drove the third shift that took us past kansas city and through Missouri. Around 1am jorge's cousin, that we were staying with, was calling him talking about how they are drinking and waiting for us. So i step on it and we finally get there around 3am. Juan and Alex are waiting for us outside of Juan's fiancée parents house, where we are staying part of the time. Downstairs juan and his girl basically have their own apartment, where they are playing this drinking game called Bizz on a beer pong table. You throw your dice and try and get your opponent to drink their whole beer by getting the right numbers. To be honest i never really understood it i just drank and threw dice. After some beer drinking, of course the tequila comes out.
Next day we grab some food then go downtown to Alex's house where jorge's aunt lives and some more cousins. By the way all of jorge's family that lives in the U.S. lives around st. louis except his parents. He has so many cousins around here that he doesn't even know them all, that's crazy to me. So we go to his aunt's where he has 4 cousins and the youngest one he never met so that was cool. This is where we planned on staying part of the time but they really didn't have the room. Then Juan gave us a little driving tour of downtown. I saw the Mississippi River for the first time and the arch. That night we went to the restaurant that Alex works downtown. I got a nice steak and we made plans to go to Morgan St. which has a nice strip of bars. We finish up dinner got a nice discount and head to the first bar. Stay there for a few drinks then we head down the street hitting up a few of the bars that didn't have a cover. As we were walking i saw the fake field goal Michigan st. did to notre dam to win the game. We ended up at this club with different dance rooms but you go outside to go to a new room it was pretty cool. We did some shots and the drivers wanted to leave so we left around 1 and went back to the house for some more beers. It was a great night i'm glad i partied downtown st. louis and that jorge's cousins are so cool to show us around.
The next day is Sunday and the eagles happen to be playing the lions. So we get up all hungover and tell juan and his girl that we are going to find a place that has the game on and they decide to come with us. So we try this one wanna be hooters bar but they didn't have it on. So Juan took us to buffalo wild wings where they did have it. We got a table and some food and watched the game. Lions had a chance to win it but they are the Detroit lions so i lost the bet. We went back to the house and watched the rams in the late game.
We sleep in everyone is at school or work so we decide to do some sight seeing. We wake and bake on the way downtown to the riverfront. I park and we walk over to the arch take some pics then we go inside it. It costs 14 dollars to go up to the top of arch so we got our tickets. We wait outside these little doors, they open and 5 people got out of this little enclosed carousel looking pod. Jorge and i get in and it's real tight but two more people squeezed in and eventually we start going up. I never thought i was claustrophobic until a ride into the arch. Once the doors opened we were in the top center part of the arch if you look at a pic you can see these little windows and from those windows is an amazing view of the city. You can see right into the cardinals baseball stadium, the Mississippi river, and Illinois. So we get back into the pod and 3 frenchies get in with us so we are really packed in there. Then the ride stops and we were stuck for what felt like forever. After getting back on the ground we checked out the western expansion museum under the arch. Then back to the truck which had it's 4th parking ticket on it. Then we drove up to the st. louis blues stadium and the rams stadium for some pics, we did our own driving and smoking tour which we have learned is the best way to see a city.
Next day is one of our last on the nice side of st. louis and we are finally going to the Anheuser Busch Brewery. We wait for the tour to start in the budwiser museum. They have some cool shit in there like these drinks they made during prohibition to stay open and all kinds of other products they have made over the years. First the guide explains the brewing process then he shows us the brewing process. The size of these mash tanks are ridiculous. After a tour of the process all the way to the bottling, we got to see the Clydesdale horses. Then we went to the brewery bar and got a beer tasting. I really liked this pumpkin ale it was delicious but the bud i had from that place was the freshest budwiser i have ever tasted. After the tour, which was free by the way, we went to the gift shop and i got a t-shirt. We hung out watched a movie and jorge called relatives on the other side of the river to tell them we were coming through. Good people and good times in the lou.
