I went to St. Louis this weekend, my annual visit there. My favorite baseball team, the Cardinals, are there, and I like seeing the brick I bought at the stadium a few years back. I know this may not endear me to any readers who like the Chicago Cubs, but some of my closest friends are Cub fans. I grew up seeing Cub games, played by their minor-league team in Des Moines. The thing I don't like to see is how some Cardinal fans are anti-Cub fans. I do not approve of this sentiment. There was somebody selling shirts outside the game mocking the Cub logo that said 'chokers'. I would much rather be for something than against it, though I know this attitude is not unique to any one team. Some fans are like this anywhere. I should know, as I lived in suburban Chicago for 6 years and there were some Cub fans that were anti-Cardinal fans.
I saw 2 Cardinal games against the LA Dodgers, Cardinals won both, 8-4 on Friday and 2-0 on Saturday. Liked how the fire department had a fire engine outside the game Saturday with water flowing to cool off fans. I took a turn running through it after the game, it was an afternoon game and I didn't want the sunscreen to wash off. After the game I milled around a little outside a nearby arena where the Lady Gaga concert was taking place, got some pictures there. One was of me in front of the tour bus, another was of a girl wearing a dress made of play money. I posted both in one of my albums on Facebook. After that I went to Union Station, a former train station and now a mall, a little farther west. I like the singing and clapping fudge shop inside of it, will have to order some online as they do have some peanut butter fudge.
I did some touring as well, going to the Daniel Boone home on Friday and the Ulysses Grant home on Saturday, before both of the games. I rented a car to get to both homes, a nice VW Beetle. Always wanted to drive one, noticed they had one when I was in St. Louis for the college basketball tournament in March. I was told I just had to ask for one and then see if they had it. I grew up with movies where the VW was an important part of the story, like the 'Herbie the Love Bug' movies. Reese Witherspoon drove one in a road movie I liked, called 'Overnight Delivery', but it was a different kind of VW, the boxy 'Thing'. The one I drove even was my favorite color, sort of, a shade of green. I liked how the windshield was farther back, the only thing was the steering wheel locking up on me when I went inside to an ATM on my way to the Boone home. I was in a hamlet of a town, and lucked out that a mechanic was across the street who helped me with it, saying I just needed to jiggle the wheel more when I turned the key. I just didn't know what to do when it had been a while since this had happened to me. The key was switchblade style, also new to me.
I still liked what I learn from visiting historic sites, and I did read up a little on Boone before getting there, and as expected what I knew was just as much legend as it was fact. With the Grant home it wasn't part of my original plans, as I wanted to see Grant's Farm. As I got closer I saw 2 different signs, one green and one brown, finding out there were 2 different sites. I said I only had time for one and I choose the home as the farm sounded like one big zoo, and I've seen zoos before.
My dad called my cellphone while there, on Saturday morning. I found the message that evening and called him back, as usual it was nice to hear from Dad. He is not visiting me next month due to cost, no big deal to me. He wasn't all that thrilled to hear I drove a rented VW, since he's a union man and likes American cars. I kind of expected that. I have to go my own way when it's my life. But I think he did like hearing about what museums I saw, hard to recall all we spoke of when there was many subjects. He said he had visited Jefferson Barracks before. I know he took me to St. Louis when I was a teenager. One of the places we went to was the old courthouse where the Dred Scott case was first argued. I go see the Arch and the A-B Brewery every so often, but not every time, need some variety. I get used to the area around my hotel, near the airport, and try to stop at many of these places like the Subway shop and the Denny's. The credit card machine was down at Denny's though it looked like a server, named Denise, was inside. I like her positive attitude when serving people. Another thing I enjoy is a trailer park on this road, with signs that have words to live by like 'live simply so others may simply live'. Another is 'believe in what you do, do what you believe in'. I try follow this in my life.
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