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This morning we started by going to the St. Louis Arch (the Jefferson Expansion Memorial). It was a perfect morning – completely wet, cloudy and foggy. We could almost see all of the arch when we were standing below it before entering. Once we got to the top, we could see for inches out the view windows. It brought back memories of Devils Tower in Wyoming, which was shrouded in fog on our visit there a few years ago.

Other than being foggy, the experience at the memorial was actually pretty cool. It is great how they keep everything below ground to not interfere with seeing the arch. We watched an IMAX movie on Lewis and Clark below the arch. The ride up to the top was pretty cool, though if you don’t like small spaces, it is probably not for you.

Afterwards, we headed to the Budweiser facility in town for a tour of the brewery. Despite the rain (and of course portions of the tour were outside) the tour was fun. We had two guides, Jim and Monica, who were very entertaining and kept the tour fun. We got to see some of the Budweiser horses, as well as the brewing and packaging processes. And of course, free beer at the end of the tour can always lift spirits.

On our way to our next stop, the AKC Museum of the Dog, we found Dickeys BBQ chain. Lunch was pretty good. It is another place which you order and they give you a number stand to take to your seat and they bring over the food to you. (Culver's was the same.)  For a fast food place, it is a lot more efficient than having people hover around the counter waiting for their food. Dad would like it as they offer free ice cream! Just one flavor of soft serve, vanilla, but hey it’s free! The AKC museum definitely exceeded our expectations. It was a much larger then we had anticipated. All art and sculpture dedicated to dogs.

We tried to get to a park to see a giant eyeball, but the park was closed for an art event that weekend. We skipped that and instead stopped at the Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site. For just a home which he only spent a few years in, on and off, it was really well restored and they had a good museum and a nice tour of the home.

It was getting close to 5 PM and we had not left the St. Louis area and still had to get to Memphis, which was 4 hours away.  The weather had cleared by lunchtime in St. Louis, but as we got closer to Memphis, the weather picked up again and started to rain. On the way, we saw the signs for Lambert's Café. They are known for their “throwed rolls.”  While you eat, the staff comes around and serve up piping hot fresh rolls by throwing them to you from across the room. That was a perfect place to stop for dinner. Calling it a “café” is way off, the place is huge, and I would say almost 2 x the size of a Cracker Barrel. Not only are you entertained by rolls flying around the room, but you also get meals served in a giant 12-inch skillet. Your drinks come in giant 34+ ounce size travel mugs and they come around with different sides – potatoes, mac & tomatoes, fried okra, etc… while you are eating.

Erica and I were not completely prepared for this much eating, but it was a great time. On the way down from the café as we got back on the road, there was a billboard for the outlet shops further up that said “…Now come walk it off.”, referencing just coming from Lambert's Café and stuffing yourself silly.

Speaking of billboards, we have seen a number of billboards, displays, signs, etc… for a lot of “Pro Life”. Some of them low key, but most very out there about being pro life and not pulling any punches. Not much of it on or around church property.

Townspeople:

               “Cooter Holland”
               “Huxley Maxwell”
               “Roland St. Paul”
               “Randall Stanhope”
               “Keiser Wilson”
               “Marie Leganto”
               “Marion Sunset Wynne” (its hard enough to find a first and last, but a first, middle, last is even more rare)

Tomorrow we tour Graceland and other stuff around Memphis. This will be our last full day before coming home.

- Stephen

We woke up almost two hours late today, so we spent the day behind schedule. It was our second longest driving day. We went from Minneapolis to Davenport, Iowa.  Along the way we stopped at Big Honza, which is probably a great look at American self-promotion. There really wasn’t much to it, other than a café and a whole mythology created around the “Big Honza” by the café’s proprietor. Unfortunately Honza’s “un-natural” history museum was closed, so we could not get the full experience, only an early lunch. On the way to Honza's, we almost hit a pheasant that decided to run across the road.

Our next stop was the SPAM museum. Unlike Honza, this was the real history of SPAM and the Hormel Company, sponsored by the company in Austin, Iowa. It is definitely worth the trip. A free tour and movie about SPAM, what more could you want? Oh, we also got to hear a test of the tornado warning siren in the town as we pulled into the parking lot of the SPAM Museum. There is a test of the siren every wed. It was pretty cool to hear as we had never heard one before.

We may have settled Wayne's question about the world's largest frying pan. The sign for the one we saw in Iowa was billed as "Iowa's Largest Frying Pan", whereas the one in North Carolina was claiming to be the "World's Largest Frying Pan".

On the way to Riverside, Iowa -- the future birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk -- we finally stopped at a Culver’s Restaurant. It is a burger and frozen custard chain with over 300 locations in the Midwest. We just got to sample the food, which was what we expected for a burger joint. Haven’t had a chance to have any of the frozen custard; hopefully we will before the end of our trip.

The marker for the future birthplace of Kirk was behind a house (in the backyard) off the main street of Riverside. It was quite an odd place for it. The Star Trek Voyage Home Cultural and History Center was closed as we got there late, so there wasn’t much else to see.  Flyers posted around town advertise a big party over a weekend in June celebrating Trek, including a rodeo and appearances from the original cast. That should be a good time.

Getting close to Davenport we passed "The World's Largest Truck stop". We chose to just see it from the road and didn't feel a need to stop to confirm.

Got to see a whole lot more of Iowa, which was a lot like the Iowa we saw heading into Minneapolis.

Townspeople:

               Walton Muscatine
               Stockton Davenport

- Stephen

Forgot to mention some more of the townspeople names we came across over the past few days:

• "Jane Noel"
• "Anderson Joplin"
• "Archie Drexel"
• "Black Rattle"
• "Huxley Maxwell"
• "Roland St. Paul"
• "Randall Stanhope"

- Stephen

We headed out of Nashville yesterday morning. It took us several attempts at getting breakfast some place local as it was Sunday and all the church goers were out for breakfast. We stopped at two “roadside America” things on the way to Huntsville. A giant chicken, which either wasn’t there anymore or we just couldn’t find it. The other was “giant boy”. Which we did manage to find, and that he was -- a giant boy.

In Huntsville, we stopped at the NASA Space and Rocket Center, the home of Space Camp. That was a pretty cool place. They have two museums there and a rocket park covering all the history of NASA all the way up to today. They have one of the large Saturn 5 rockets on display. We had lunch in their Galaxy food court (they called the area the “lunch pad”), where there was a children’s birthday party going on.  We were happily able to get something healthy there, chicken salads, which was just the right amount for lunch.

On the way to Montgomery, we stopped at the Ave Maria Grotto. It is another roadside America stop and it completely blew away the expectations we had for it. It is a large collection of outdoor sculptures made by Brother Joseph who was originally from Bavaria. They are either reproductions of religious places around the world, or inspirational sculptures using ‘found’ materials. It culminates in the Ave Maria Grotto. We didn’t have high expectations based upon what we saw about it.  The pictures generally focused on the grotto part and did not cover all of the other sculptures and reproductions. A very impressive stop, as Erica called it the “Splendid China” for Christians. Definitely worth a stop if you are in the area.

We finished up in Montgomery for the night with a late dinner at “Jim ‘n Nick’s BBQ”, meeting up with Erica’s friend John who is stationed in the area. We both got the brisket on John’s recommendation and it was not a disappointment.

On our long drive, Erica remembered the game which Wayne and Robbie played while on their road trip -- Road sign names. Basically making up names from the place name distance signs along the highway. The top one is the first name, and the bottom one the last name. Two good ones we saw were “Warrior Robbins”, and “Kimberly Morris”.

Today our endpoint is Gulfport and Emeril’s restaurant.

- Stephen