Day Ten, Kansas City, MO: The Swanky Plaza

This morning I left St. Louis, but not until I had visited the Arch. In truth, the top of the arch wasn’t as spectacular as I had imagined. However, it was still nice to be at the top of the city. Really, the arch was more exciting to see from outside. One nice thing about traveling alone is that I was able to skip ahead of groups when buying tickets for the tram to the top. As it was, I probably saved ninety minutes over what it would take if I was with another person.

You travel to the top via a tram which is quite small. In fact, one of the people originally on my tram decided very quickly that it wasn’t for him. If you’re claustrophobic it’s a difficult fit. Once at the top – which was a surprisingly small area – you can look out the windows to the skyline of the city on West, and the Mississippi River on the East. The windows, again, were surprisingly tiny.

The arch is actually located on a large park, (The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial), and also overlooks the old courthouse, which was the site of the Dred Scott decision. In addition, you have a great view of Busch Stadium from the arch. (If you enjoyed these pictures I’d encourage you to check out the Picasa Albums at http://picasaweb.google.com/reidksmith. There are many more photos that I wasn’t able to include with this post and I’m not sure that the ones I did include were the best.)

After this I headed to Kansas City. On the way I stopped at Booches Billiard Hall in Columbia for lunch. The burgers there are slightly larger than sliders, served on wax paper, and taste great.

After arriving in Kansas City, I explored the Plaza area with one of my hosts, Marlene. The Plaza is a Kansas City version of Birmingham, MI, and the  first outdoor shopping center designed to accommodate people arriving by automobile. Although I didn’t bring my camera, I included a picture of Brush Creek, which runs right along the edge of the Plaza. It’s a very upscale area with a lot of outdoor events and public places. The architecture of the shops, sculptures, and fountains are lifted from Spain, and this creates an interesting effect, (a Spanish-themed Restoration Hardware, for example.)

One of the fountain parks we walked through was hosting a vigil for the sister of someone who was killed in the Iranian protests.  The candles spread throughout the park at dusk made for an interesting, but somber, scene. There was an outdoor adaptation of some of Shakespeare’s plays outside the art museum, which was a fascinating site, even at night. I’m going to try to get back there during the day and get some pictures.

I have to say that I’m surprised by Kansas City. I wasn’t expecting a whole lot, but it’s really a large and well put-together metro area.

For more pictures, see http://picasaweb.google.com/reidksmith

Day Nine, St. Louis, MO: Southern Hospitality

I used my last full day in St. Louis, and the first since this trip started that had decent, sub-90 weather, to tour the St. Louis zoo. St. Louis has an interesting arrangement in that the zoo is supported by taxes from the city, and admission is free. I’d be pretty upset with this arrangement as a resident, but as a visitor, I can’t complain.

The zoo wasn’t particularly spectacular or unique. It is, however, interesting that the zoo was located in the middle of Forest Park, which is the second largest municipal park in the country behind Central Park. Forest Park is a bit more motorized than it’s New York counterpart, but it’s still an extraordinarily large area of green expanse to find in the middle of a city.

Dinner was at Taleyna’s Pizza. St. Louis does have it’s own style of pizza, which is a very thin, almost flatbread crust, and Provel cheese, which consists of Provolone, Cheddar, and Swiss.  It’s a great combination.

I’m  extremely grateful to my hosts in St. Louis, Dave and Jennifer, who have been kind enough to both show me around the city and treat me to so much of the great food here. Dave was raised in the tradition of Southern hospitality, and it has certainly lived up to its reputation. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time here.

Tomorrow I’ll be leaving for Kansas City after checking out the Arch in the morning. Even just nine days in, this has been the trip of a lifetime. I’ve always thought of this as a large trip, but I’m starting to realize it is a vacation as well. I’ve seen so many new and amazing things, but the whole experience has been relaxing enough that I’ve enjoyed every minute.

One more site-related update. Since full-size pictures aren’t uploaded to the site, you can find some of them at http://picasaweb.google.com/reidksmith.

Day Eight, St. Louis, MO: The Gateway to the West

Today was my first full day in St. Louis. One of my hosts, Dave, felt compelled to show me around the city and I enjoyed this thoroughly. Despite being a recent transplant to the area – a native of Huntsville, Alabama – Dave is thoroughly educated on the city and its history.

Our first stop was Schlafly’s Brewery, which is gaining popularity in light of of the recent acquisition of Anheuser-Busch by Belgium-based InBev. Anheuser-Busch had historically been a large contributor to the city, both as a business and cultural icon. The move to sell to InBev left many in the community feeling betrayed, and seemed to result in a slight shift of allegiances.

Schlafly is really the brand name of beers produced by what is officially the Saint Lewis Brewery, Inc., and is a small craft brewery and not yet a major operation, (producing about 30,000 barrels per year, compared to about 90,000 from Bell’s in Kalamazoo.) I’d never been on a tour of a brewery before, other than through Modern Marvels on History, and the experience was interesting. The tanks pictured above are merely storage tanks, and not actually used in the brewing process, (other than some minor post-brew flavoring), which takes place in a separate and much smaller series of tanks. There was a small office for what looked like a Beer Chemist. I wonder what it would take to get that sort of job?

Lunch at the brewery’s restaurant was a southern-style Pulled Pork sandwich and some pan fried corn, both of which were delicious. We then continued on to Ted Drewes Frozen Custard shop off Route 66. Despite being quite a distance from Busch Stadium, the shop is packed after Cardinal’s games, with lines stretching into the street and down the block. It’s a local legend and choice establishment, and the Big Apple Concrete was deserving of its reputation.

After this, the 98 degree weather forced us back indoors. My tender Michigan soul is still growing accustomed to this unnatural heat, which was amplified by a lack of both clouds or breeze. For dinner, we went to Fitz’s, located on the Delmar Loop. In terms of entertainment and culture, the Loop is more of a downtown than Downtown St. Louis is, although it is located on the far West end of the city. The Loop includes many older establishments and was quite an interesting site to see at night.

Fitz’s is a root beer brewery, although it is primarily a restaurant. One interesting appetizer native to St. Louis are T-Ravs, or toasted ravioli. They’re the accidental invention of a cook who, when told to cook the ravioli, assumed that a deep fryer was the best place to do so. They’re similar to mozzarella sticks and taste great. 

The night concluded with a dramatic lightening storm that lasted beyond the half hour I spent watching. The rain would follow eventually, but not for some time. This, I believe, is a weather pattern quite rare in southern Michigan.

Day Seven, St. Louis, MO: Across the River

Today I drove from Bloomington to St. Louis, which went by surprisingly quickly, although on paper it was a 4+ hour drive. In the past week I’ve found that my definition of “the middle of nowhere” is both a bit anachronistic and woefully inadequate when applied to some other states. Having spent almost all of my life in Southern Michigan, I’ve grown accustomed to what amounts to a variable, but constant and thorough, population of the land surrounding myself. But even in Southern Illinois, there just are not a lot of things or people. I’m sure that at this point, the farther west I go, the more in-the-middle-of-nowhere I will find myself.

On the way out of Bloomington – on a road that rapidly progressed from main city thoroughfare, to city bypass, to country road – I saw something I did not expect to see this quickly; a herd of Bison. The herd was grazing in an enclosure and thus is, I suspect, being raised for human consumption. Most American Bison are now raised for human consumption and are not wild herds, let alone genetically pure, as they have been cross-bred with cattle.

(A note about pictures: clicking on the pictures within the blog will only link to a reduced size of the image, although still larger than what appears within the post. I’m working on a solution to that through separate photo albums.)

On the way to St. Louis I stopped at the Exotic Feline Rescue Center, which is about 45 minutes outside of Bloomington. Take Jurassic Park. Now, remove the genetics lab with the fancy robotic arms and the (faulty) electric fencing. Replace the dinosaurs with lions, tigers, and cougars. Keep the loud roaring and the blistering heat. What you’re left with are very exotic animals in very large cages.

However, this place is not a zoo. The main focus is on providing a habitat for these big cats, many of which have been abused and illegally kept in inadequate conditions. According to the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, around 12,000 tigers are kept as private pets in the United States. When, inevitably, some of these animals need a larger or more legal home, they end up in places like the EFRC. The Center is open to the public and tours are offered, however, as I mentioned before, this is not the primary mission of the center. It is constructed to allow for easy caring of the animals; not to provide good viewing angles for guests.

But the view was still plenty good enough. The funny thing about these tigers is that they act like cats, which, of course, they are. But there is something unexpected about seeing a 1,000lb behemoth move with the same graceful saunter as your 10lb housecat. Some of the cats will – I suppose this word fits best – nay. It’s an odd sound, (see video at the end of the post). A roar, on the other hand, is not easily mistaken for much else. It is far deeper than I ever imagined, and carries much farther as well. The cats seem to carry on conversations with roars just as neighborhood dogs in close quarters often do.

After leaving the EFRC I continued to make my way to St. Louis, which is essentially a mindless track down I-70, through Illinois,  until you hit the Big River with the large city on the opposite bank. I’m staying in the heart of the city, right near the Delmar loop, and expect to do plenty of exploring around the city in the couple days ahead. This is also the first time I’ve been left of the Mississippi in roughly five years. The high tomorrow is 98 degrees, which makes it a great day to visit a brewery. With a special emphasis on the indoor aspect, as well as the cold beer aspect.

Tonight I went to the Cardinals game at New Busch Stadium, which is well known as one of the “better” parks in the country. The stadium recently opened in the 2006 season. To someone such as myself – a picky park fan who despises the encroaching commercialization of some newer stadiums (take Yankee Stadium), adores the oldest ones, (Tiger, Wrigley, etc), and admires the well done, newer ones, Busch Stadium is a beauty. The park is crafted in an entirely different mold than many of the newer parks, which have begun to shift to a retro with a finely-tuned modern aspect of design. Comerica Park and many others fit this bill; rather, Busch’s high, four-level bowl gives it a distinctly modern feel. It occurred to me that such a construction is possible in St. Louis, where a large majority of the skyline still projects over the tall bowl of the stadium. If you fold this collar in half, you’re left with Comerica Park – a structure that barely insulates you from your urban surroundings. This open air field is, in some cities, a nice effect. Detroit is not one of those cities.

It was a far different experience than a trip to downtown Detroit for a Tigers game. First, St. Louis, despite being roughly the size of Metro Detroit in population, has an actual public transit system. The Metro subway, while not delivering trains every minute and a half, is still a far better option that driving and parking. Second, the entire city goes to the ball game, they all wear red, and most of them take the subway. The Cardinals are a historically rich franchise, and fans in the city are truly devoted to the team. And they’re there to watch the game, not attend a social event. One couple that left early – with the Cards down two in the bottom of the ninth – was nearly shouted out of the park by the rest of the section.

It’s real late, (although I’ve entered the point where late for me is later for you,) so I must be going. More tomorrow!

For more pictures, see http://picasaweb.google.com/reidksmith

Day Six, Bloomington, IN: Hoosier National Forest

Today, I finally got the chance to do some real exploring and went backpacking through (a small part) of the Hoosier National Forest. There was nothing particularly spectacular about the forest itself; hills, trees, etc. It was nice to wonder around and spend the day doing as I pleased, with no gas tank to fill or maps to follow.

I had originally planned to spend the night, but decided that it wasn’t worth dealing with an incoming line of thunderstorms for the entire night. Apparently this decision has caused some controversy amongst some, (Jesgarz Brothers, this would be you.) My thinking is that there is no reason to camp out in a nasty thunderstorm when I can sleep under a nice roof. With air conditioning. I’m not too sure how often I’ll have that opportunity in the next couple months. And my Michigan body still needs a few more days to get used to these

An interesting thing about National Forests is that they are not National Parks. So people live there. At one point, I ran into a property marker and a sign informing me that if I didn’t have a card giving me permission to be where I was, (which I didn’t,) the police would be called. No thank you, turning around now.

To the left was the end of the line for the hike. I’ll be spending one more night in the city before heading to St. Louis on Friday. I’ll be in touch. Tonight it’s off to enjoy Thursday night bar night.

Day Five, Bloomington, IN: A Different Road

Today, I left Cincinnati and drove to Bloomington, where I’m staying with a friend from college. I feel that this is where I’m finally departing from a normal course. Cincinnati was familiar; everything on the road ahead is not.

Most of the drive through was what you might call “scenic;” forest uninterrupted except by small towns like Gnaw Bone. There were dance barns, country jamborees, and an unusual number of flea markets.

I had planned on spending tomorrow at the Hoosier National Forest outside of Bloomington, but the forecast isn’t looking promising at this point. So we’ll see how that turns out.

Day Four, Cincinnati OH: The Buckeye State

I’ve been in Cincinnati for the last several days, staying with some family. It’s been an enjoyable time and I’m starting to get used to the heat. What constitutes a heat wave back in Michigan is just the normal weather pattern in Cincinnati, (and I understand that there has been quite the heat wave back home). I’ve spent months in Cincinnati throughout my life, and the heat is only a problem when I’m coming from an especially mild Spring, like this one.

Ohio is a little bit different than Michigan in a few other respects. A lot of Michiganders seem to think that Ohio is a land full of country bumpkins. I’m not quite sure where this comes from, as Michigan isn’t exactly the most sophisticated state. But there are three things that strongly differentiate Ohio from Michigan. First, there always seems to be a stronger sense of personal responsibility in Ohio, slightly stronger than that found in Michigan. There are very few “no turn on red” signs and no motorcycle helmet law. Rather than charge the state with their safety and protection, the natural course here seems to be one of self-preservation without government intervention. Second, Ohio is very hilly country. The roads do a lot of winding (in fact, there is a Zig Zag Road), and there are plenty of sharp turns through forests, which, (back to the first point) are kept naturally scenic, instead of littering them with warning signs and obtrusive guardrails. If you’ve spent most of your time in Michigan, it’s difficult to realize that you’re really sitting on what is, essentially, a giant table.

Thirdly, and this is oft-noted amongst our family, Ohio drivers are not known for the exceptional ability to handle an automobile at fast speeds. Speed limits top out around 65. This is only five below Michigan, where the “actual” speed limit is around 80. The difference is that Ohio license plates seem to contain speed governors as well, limiting their speed of transit to a point between 60-65mph. Great for gas mileage, but not so great for getting places quickly. In addition, the highway lanes suffer from an odd mirror-imaging effect, in that slow drivers are on the right, and slower drivers are on the left. Surprisingly, this isn’t just propaganda behind another Michigan v. Ohio border skirmish; Ohio drivers seem to notice the same thing about their inability to keep to the right.

I’ve read a couple books, stuffed myself full of Skyline, picked up several last-minute equipment additions, and fit a few games of bowling in. Right now, I’m writing this post on my Aunt and Uncle’s deck, laying down on my RidgeRest. These sleeping pads are like a yoga mat that’s both lightweight and extremely comfortable, not to mention cheap and indestructible.

(The scenic view I’m enjoying while I write this brings up another thing that I’d meant to address. Some of you guys have sent me your addresses for postcards already. If you haven’t yet done so, feel free to email me or text me your address and I’ll send one along to you as well. If you don’t like mail, I won’t be offended.)

The book I just finished is called Six Minutes to Freedom; the story of American ex-pat Kurt Muse’s 1989 arrest and imprisonment by the Panamanian Defense Forces. Muse’s crime was the organization of a clandestine radio network that spoke against “Maximum Leader” Manuel Noriega, in an attempt undermine Noriega’s soul-crushing regime and free Muse’s adopted country from his grasp. The book focuses on the psychological impact that such a tragedy has on both the family and the victim himself. (If you’re looking for a straight-up tale of survival amidst the most dire circumstances and against unimaginable odds, I would check out Marcus Luttrell’s Lone Survivor. This is one of my favorite books.)

What’s next? On Wednesday night, I head to Bloomington, Indiana, where I’ll be staying with a friend for the night. I’ll be spending another night camping outside of Bloomington before heading to St. Louis, where I’ll be staying for the weekend. The people I’m staying with here promise a fun-filled weekend of Cardinals baseball, frozen custard, and local breweries. Next, I’ll be heading to Kansas City, where I’ll fit in some Royal’s baseball inside a couple days. Then it’s on to Denver. So the real adventure starts soon.

Interestingly, with 5.9 million people and two baseball teams, Missouri is the least-populated state with more than one team. Others include California (36.7, 5 teams), Texas (24.3, 2), New York (19.4, 2), Florida (18.3, 2), Illinois (12.9, 2), Pennsylvania (12.2, 2), and Ohio, (11.5, 2) – which all comprise the seven most populated states in the country. Missouri’s population of 2.45 million per team is the lowest of any state, besides the Washington (DC) National’s .6 million. Thus, I support removing Missouri’s excess team and giving it to the 8th-most populated state in the country, because this would be the fair thing to do. That state happens to be Michigan. We’ll take the Cardinals, please, Mr. Selig. Thank you.

Now it’s off to the store to gather fixings for a giant, custom-built bag of trail mix.

Day One, Cincinnati OH: Setting Forth

The long-awaited trip has finally begun. I’ve known that I wanted to take this trip for the last year. It’s a little odd that things have finally progressed from the planning stage to the execution stage. The last six weeks have been an epic whirlwind of packing, gathering things, reading up on equipment and places to go, and making other arrangements. So I’m a little tired. But now this is starting to feel like a vacation again.

Today I drove down to Cincinnati. I plan on staying here for a few days with some family, while stuffing myself full of Skyline Chili. To some people such as myself, Skyline is the kind of thing you make a special trip to another state for. Others find it not as amazing, but I’m not going to single anybody out. That said, Google has located a Skyline in Monroe, MI, so it appears that there is, finally, a glacial-speed advance northward.

So, some web things to draw your attention to. If you scroll down, you’ll see a bunch of interesting gizmos on the sidebar, located on the right side of your page. The “Followers” allow me to see who is reading the site. Besides, you get to be a member of something, and that is almost always fun. As I’ve mentioned before, you can log in with either a Google, AIM, or Yahoo! account. If, after doing so, you still don’t see yourself in the sidebar, you need to go to settings and select ‘follow publicly.’ There really is no good reason to secretly follow along, but I believe ‘private’ is the default setting.

If you want to get email updates whenever I post something, (which I hope will be every day or two), you’ll have to sign up in the form directly below that. Do note that immediately after you sign up, you will receive an email which will contain a verification link. Sometimes this gets sent to your spam folder, so check that, or you will be left out. When I make a post, you’ll receive an email the next morning with a shortened version of the post. It will be like a newspaper, but in your inbox, and for free.

Next, you’ve got the Google Latitude gadget. This tells you where I am, as long as I’ve got it activated through my phone. So if I’m driving, you’ll be able to watch me meander through your screen. It might be a little strange at first, but I think we’ll all get used to it. Also, you can follow me on Twitter. I suppose this will be useful if you just can’t wait until I make a post to see what I’m up to. But I wouldn’t consider it must-see, exclusive content and since I’m not going to be Tweeting every eight seconds, I’m not sure how it won’t be redundant.

With that out of the way, let me just say thank you to all of you who have listened to me talk about this trip, helped me plan it, and are now following it. It’s  a pretty cool thing and I really appreciate it. Keep sending links to your friends and posting the site on Facebook, or anywhere else that you see fit. I expect that the more people are reading, commenting, and following, the more fun everyone will have.

Welcome to the Greatest Exploration

You know that I’ll be leaving for my Western Adventure on June 20th because I’ve been talking about it for the last year. So you probably have a pretty good idea of what is in store. A lot of driving, a lot of camping, hiking, exploring – both urban and nature – and whatever else comes my way. The greatest thing about this trip is that it’s an open-ended expedition. There are no travel reservations, no planes to catch, no one to tell you they’d rather go to the mall than the beach.

I will be traveling alone, but I expect to meet many interesting people along the way. I won’t be lonely. However, the more you read and comment here, the more encouraged I’ll be to keep posting stories and pictures. It’ll be like a two-way street. I’ve tried writing things that no one reads. It’s difficult. I stopped quickly.

Consider this your open comment thread until the jump-off date. I will also be updating this post as I have more information to share with you guys. In the meantime, follow the experience by clicking the big “Follow” button to your right. You don’t need to register; you can log in using your Google, AOL, or Yahoo! account information. What this essentially does is make you a “member” of the site.

What you can also do is subscribe to the blog with your email address. You will see this option on the right sidebar, below the “followers” box. After you type your email address here, you will receive updates every morning if I’ve made a new post the previous night. No need to worry about spam or anything nasty like that either.