Hi Friends.
Whenever I write these posts and look back on the last week, most of the time I can’t believe we fit in so much. Even just looking at a map and seeing where we started at the beginning of the week versus where we ended up, it’s just amazing how much you can see traveling the way that we are. That being said, we have decided that we want to slow down a bit. While we have spent more extended periods of time in certain places – both long driving days every few days and driving 2 hours a day every day starts to feel rough when we go from metro area to metro area. Slowing things down a little bit with our travel will allow us to catch our breath a little bit more. Though I’m sure we will have moments where we will still have to speed by. Especially when it comes to trying to get to the west coast by March and back to New England by the end of July. We have a general idea of how we want things to work, but of course as we’ve seen earlier in our trip – things can sometimes throw you off course.
Sometimes people ask us how long we are planning on doing van life. The answer has changed back and forth, but we believe as long as nothing super crazy happens that would force us to end our trip sooner, we are planning on being on the road full time until (or maybe through) next summer. Of course, we will have a break for the holidays and spend that time with family.
So, to catch you up with last week – we drove from the Chicagoland area to St. Louis. I’ve never been to St. Louis, but have heard before it’s a really cool area to check out. I’m happy to report they were right. We only saw a small part of the city, but really enjoyed it. We went to there to celebrate our 1st wedding anniversary, and decided to book a night at the St. Louis Union Station Hotel. It was such a beautiful, expertly designed space. It was a little confusing to get around at times, mainly because certain sections were paired off for a wedding. But, the location and architecture more than made up for that. Our room was in the clocktower, and we loved seeing the way the rooms were decorated, paying tribute to some historic train lines. We celebrated by ordering a nice dinner in, drinking some Cabernet, and just relaxing. Luckily the hotel was dog friendly, and we were happy to have Pepper Jack with us.
Though it was our first time in St. Louis, we had a small list of things that we definitely wanted to do. Travis wanted to visit with an old account of his, Ballwin Cycles. We also wanted to visit the Gateway Arch National Park, and try as much local food as we could.
First, let’s talk Ballwin Cycles. It was so fun getting to see this bike shop, and Travis loved meeting the owner in person after talking to him on the phone for years. They invited us in for a beer and the owner talked to us not only about bikes, but about adventuring in general. He gave us so many recommendations for good restaurants in the area that we were definitely excited to try. After visiting, we went for dinner at one of the places he recommended, Marcella’s Mia Sorella. This was perfect, because two of the dishes we wanted to try were both local signatures: St. Louis-style pizza and toasted ravioli. We ordered both and were pleasantly surprised at the pizza, but disappointed in the ravioli. The pizza was pretty tasty with provel cheese and an almost cracker-like crust. While it has absolutely nothing on New York, Connecticut, or Chicago pizza, it wasn’t half bad. I personally would take it over Detroit-style pizza any day. The toasted ravioli on the other hand I found a little….bizarre? I’m a huge fan of ravioli so I thought I would love this, but having high expectations often leads to let downs. While the flavor was great and we loved the crust, the texture of the meat inside the ravioli was just too weird for us to get past. It was fluffy and had a consistency of canned tuna. It was weird and one of those things where we were happy to try it, but will never order it again. While we’re on the topic of food – we were also told to get a gooey butter cake from a local grocery store, and that’s exactly what we did. It was absolutely delicious and I want to learn how to make it when we get back to a house setting. I highly recommend it. While there were other things we wanted to try in St. Louis food wise – mainly barbecue and frozen custard, we didn’t want to go too crazy with ordering out. Regardless, to say we need to get some good hikes and exercise in after this week of indulging in food is the understatement of the century.
When we got to the Gateway Arch National Park, I was pleasantly surprised. While I was expecting it to not be that big of a deal, it was actually really interesting. It is found in a beautiful area of the city, right by the water. We walked through the park area, reading historic info on our way. We stood underneath the arch with the city on one side and the Mississippi River on the other. It was a beautiful day, so we spent some time just sitting and enjoying the weather. We walked a bit more to the old courthouse which also holds a dark history. It not only was the site where many slaves were sold, but also the place where Dred Scot sued for the freedom of him and his family. The case ultimately went to the Supreme Court and unfortunately they decided against him instead. Today, the courthouse has a statue of Dred Scott and his wife, Harriet, standing outside. The last major thing we did in St. Louis was go to Laumeier Sculpture Park – where we saw 40+ different sculptures and got a decent walk in. The whole time we were in St. Louis, the weather was perfect and we were so grateful for that.
After St. Louis, our original plan was to go to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky and meet up with a college friend of mine there. But after finding out you have to buy tours more than 3 weeks in advance (they were all sold out), we decided to just drive to visit my friend in her hometown instead! We spent most of the weekly slowly crawling our way to Cincinnati and unfortunately the weather was terrible and rainy most days. Luckily, by the time we made it to Cincinnati, we were in for a beautiful weekend. It was a little cold in the shade, but had plenty of blue skies and sun. I’ve been wanting to visit Erin in Cincinnati for a long time, so we were really happy to actually make it happen. She showed us around the town – where we went to Findlay Market. For comparison, Findlay was similar to a Quincy Market in Boston. We got some amazing vegan food, before heading to a brewpub and hanging out there for a while. We went to the dog park to get Pepper Jack plenty of exercise, and met up with one of her roommates for a drink. At the end of the night, we decided to head to Skyline Chili to try some Cincinnati Chili. Erin did warn us that it’s not for everybody. We have been very much on a gastronomic tour of the United States, so we want to try the local specialities everywhere, even if it’s something that we don’t think we’ll like. Cincinnati Chili is typically done either in a sandwich, on a hot dog, or over spaghetti with cheese. We decided to split an order over spaghetti, which is the most traditional version. While it was edible, it is one of those things where Travis and I are both happy we tried it and even happier to never eat it again. It just was watery, lacked in flavor – though was slightly sweet, and you can definitely tell they didn’t salt their pasta water. Also I couldn’t get past chili being on pasta. That just seems wrong to me, but to each their own.
We wrapped up the weekend with going with Erin and her roommates to a farm, where we walked through the pumpkin and sunflower fields, got come cider, and ate some delicious cider donuts. It was so fun getting to spend some time with Erin as we don’t get to see each other very often. Travis and I are now slowly on our way back to Virginia – where we will be meeting up with my parents for a few days, getting some housekeeping chores done, and visiting with some friends in the state.
Thanks for reading.
Leece.
Leave a Reply