Coming Full Circle (or Return to St. Louis)

This morning I didn't get up too early since I didn't have a lot to do on the drive and only a few things planned when I got back in to St. Louis. I got up, packed, loaded the car, had some breakfast and by 8:00 am I was on my way. I took I24 out of Nashville, in to Kentucky and then on to Illinois. Somewhere in Illinois I merged onto I57 and a little while later onto I64. Once on I64 it was a straight shot to East St. Louis where I64, I70 and I55 all come together and then cross the Mississippi into St. Louis. I stopped two times along the way for gas, food and the bathroom but other than that is was just driving and it was a beautiful sunny day and everything went smoothly. Then as I approached the bridge to cross into St. Louis the traffic was ridiculous. It took me about 45 minutes from where all the interstates came together until I reached I64 past the downtown area of St. Louis.

My original plan was to go downtown and see the Arch again and walk through the downtown area for a little while. But with all the traffic in the area I altered my plans and decided to head to the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis. Some friends of ours had told me before I left for my trip to make sure to take the time to see this church. I got there at a great time - when I walked in there was only one other person and only a couple more showed up while I was there. So it was easy to walk around and enjoy the church and all the artwork. This place is amazing!!! There are mosaic pictures everywhere and the ceilings are also covered in mosaics. The mosaics here took about 42 million pieces of glass to create. I walked around and took tons of pictures and then just sat and stared at everything. I am so glad I didn't miss this and I will go back again the next time I am in St. Louis.

Now it was time to do a little letterboxing. So I headed to an intersection not far from the Cathedral to a statue called Demo Man. This is an extremely busy place, so I took out my camera and took some pictures. I even sat on the ground under the statue to take a picture and grab the box without the people in the cars seeing what I was doing. Once I had the box I moved away from the statue and sat on a concrete block and stamped in. To get the box back in place I had to repeat the same process I did to get the box. I was glad I got this one for two reasons. I loved the carve and I also loved public art especially when it is made of found objects. The whole thing was cool. Next I made my way to Lafayette Square to look for two boxes - one hidden behind some buildings and one hidden in a park - Lafayette Park. I looked for the one behind the buildings first. It was a little strange being in this narrow alley way because it looked like it led to someone's house. But I followed the clues and looked where I thought the box should be and there was nothing. So I looked around the area and reread the clues but still nothing. So I went back out the alley and started over. I still didn't find the box and I was feeling uncomfortable in the area so I decided to call it quits and head to the park for the next box. I walked down the street and entered the park and started following the clues. This box was easy to find and I found a bench to sit on while stamping in. I took my time because the park was really nice and beautiful and the box was hidden near a pond with lots of trees and flowers. Eventually I put the box back in place and headed for one last park before calling it a day. I drove to Tower Grove Park and found some parking along the street and started my search for three boxes. I didn't come prepared and I didn't realize the park was so big so I had trouble from the start. First off the park was busy as heck. There were soccer games and flag football games all over. I think I counted six wedding receptions going on at the many pavilions located throughout the park. There were also people walking their dogs, riding bikes, playing tennis and running. There was just so much going on. To find the three boxes I was looking for I first needed to find three statues. Without a park map or being prepared this was the second problem. The third issue was the clues were pictures and I didn't really print them off big enough - I could make them out but if they had been bigger it would have been better. So I sat down and looked at all the clues again and then started walking. I found one of the statues and tried to find the box but gave up after about 20 minutes - I just wasn't getting it. So I continued walking and found a second statue and positioned myself so that I had the view in the picture and then I carefully looked for landmarks from the other picture and eventually found the box. After stamping in and rehiding the box I studied the pictures for the other two boxes and thought I would give the first box another try. So I made my way back to the first statue and tried again. Still no luck and I had decided that I would stop at 5:00 pm and head to the hotel. So that is what I did.

I arrived at the hotel and checked in and got settled in my room. This hotel was near the airport and I didn't see much in the way of restaurants when I drove in so I went down to the front desk and asked for a recommendation. They mentioned a barbeque place just on the other side of the neighboring hotel. I decided on that. So I sat at the bar and had a sausage and pork combo plate and a guinness. The man sitting next to me asked if I had gone to the game this afternoon. What game? Turns out the St. Louis Cardinals had a game in town against the Cubs this afternoon and that totally explained all the traffic I encountered coming back into St. Louis. Anyway, I had a great meal and now I am relaxing in the hotel. Tomorrow I spend the day in the area so I am not setting an alarm - we will see what happens.