Restaurants

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A Generous End to the Evening

I decided to go up to the casino tonight to put $10 in the slot machines as a thank you for letting me stay. Since the day had been so cheap, I decided to check out the restaurant offerings. Everything was either way too expensive or way too fast foodish. The only option left to investigate was the buffet, but at nearly $20 I was convinced I’d be turning around and having dinner at home.

When I got to the entrance, I noticed a woman was standing there glancing at the people coming in. She came over to me and said, “Have you prepaid?” “No…” She then handed me a ticket for the buffet and said, “Pay it forward.” I don’t know if she won a free dinner or what, but wasn’t that nice of her?! I can’t believe I got a free dinner! I had some tasty baked chicken with mashed potatoes, veggies, and salad as a first course, then a couple of pieces of ravioli with some sausage and more salad for a second course. Third course was a small scoop of ice cream and a tiny brownie. Fourth course was half an orange and some honeydew melon. It had been a very, very, very long time since my sushi lunch and I was ravenous, but I don’t think I ate excessively at all. It definitely helped that dinner was free, so I didn’t feel I had to get my money’s worth. 🙂

The lady didn’t let me say much to her beyond thank you, but I was able to confirm that she’s not from Missouri. 🙂

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St Louis Almost Charms the Pants Off Me

I just got in from a full day spent touring St Louis, Mo.

Before I get into the good stuff, I have to get something off my chest. Missourians, why do you hate tourists so much? Driving in St Louis was horrible! I have driven in much bigger cities and never been honked at once. Just about every time I stopped at a red light, I was honked at if I didn’t hit the gas the second the light went green. I earned multiple honks for being cautious when turning left with tons of oncoming traffic bearing down on me. But my absolute favourite nasty habit was that every single time I would signal to change lanes, and I mean every single time, if there was a car behind me in the next lane, it would speed up when my turn signal came on, making it impossible for me to make the lane change and causing me to miss exits and turns. What a way to cause accidents, folks, by getting tourists really frazzled! The other thing that irked me was inconsistent signage to tourist-related things. For example, there is an inexpensive parking lot for visitors of the Arch. You get a few signs indicating which way to go, then good luck, you’re on your own! Even though there is a nice big RV lot, I would not go there without having first plotted out the route and having a navigator.

Okay, enough of that! When I wasn’t hopelessly lost with an equally confused GPS, I was having an amazing day! St Louis was on my bucket list because of its place in American expansion history, but I never really read up much on it. I had no idea that its touristy part would feel so quaint and old worldly. I love walkable cities and appreciated St Louis’ acres and acres of green spaces, walking paths, and easy to navigate city streets. If someone had told me that I would one day visit St Louis while traveling east in a modern day covered wagon, I would have laughed. It just goes to show that you need to leave room in your life plans for surprises.

This post is just generally about my day and I will shortly follow up with individual posts about each attraction, with most of the information given in the photo gallery for each post.

The first thing on the agenda was to find the right parking lot that is just $6 for the day. I’m not sure I found it, but I did find a lot that said $5 for the day that was reasonably close to the Arch, so that was good enough for me. I put a $5 bill in the machine and that got me two gold coins back. Once I was parked, I looked at them and realised they were US $1 coins, which I have only seen once, back in 2007, and which I had a dickens of a time getting people to accept. So, I had put $5 in and got $2 back in change. Why? I went back to the entrance and read the fine print on the sign. Early bird discount! I’d left early to be one of the first up the Arch before the throngs came and it paid off. 🙂

It took a bit of guesswork to find the Arch, but I finally did and was on the last uncrowded tour. I came down and went to the Museum of Westward Expansion, which is in the base of the Arch. It was still really early at that point, so I decided to do the City Museum. The gal at the information kiosk under the Arch said that the City Museum wasn’t walking distance, but it was only about 17 blocks, of which I’d have to walk three just to get back to my car.

By the time I was five blocks or so from the City Museum, it was just past 11:00 and I was hungry. Since the City Museum is interactive and promotes physical activity, I decided it would be a good idea to have lunch first. I was walking down Washington Avenue, a major thoroughfare, so I figured I’d come across a few restaurants. I did, and one of them was a sushi bar, Mizu. It was hot out, so I didn’t want anything too heavy, so this was perfect! The sushi was excellent; I was very impressed! $18 including the tip got me a miso soup that was included in my lunch combo of a tuna roll with four pieces of nigiri, and I added one piece octopus. The salmon sashimi was particularly memorable as it literally melted in my mouth, the way good sashimi should. Mizi Sushi Bar was definitely an expected surprise and I am so glad I gave it a try!

I then spent a couple of hours at the City Museum until the chaos of the children variety drove me out of there.

It was only about 2:00, so I ambled back to the car, and, after much trouble, made it to the Forest Park section of town to visit the Missouri Museum of History. I got out of there in about an hour and decided that I was done for the day. So, I set the GPS for home, was promptly squeezed out of the lane I needed to merge into, and found myself detouring through a section of St Louis I’m pretty sure tourists aren’t supposed to see. I would have taken pictures, but I was afraid to stop the car. 😀

More below:

first glimpse of the Arch

first glimpse of the Arch

first good glimpse of the Arch

first good glimpse of the Arch

old worldly kind of feel

old worldly kind of feel

Eads bridge

Eads bridge

the Arch

the Arch

the Drury Inn was lovely

the Drury Inn was lovely

Mizi Sushi bar; excellent!

Mizi Sushi bar; excellent!

Next to Mizi, a pub was serving a beer and cheese soup. If I hadn't been so full, I would have been tempted. :)

Next to Mizi, a pub was serving a beer and cheese soup. If I hadn’t been so full, I would have been tempted. 🙂

nice building seen from the corner of Washington and Tucker

nice building seen from the corner of Washington and Tucker

This guy was cleaning the street, and I mean cleaning it. I've never seen someone apply cleanser and then scrub a city garbage can before! St Louis was very clean and I complimente this man on his hard work.

This guy was cleaning the street, and I mean cleaning it. I’ve never seen someone apply cleanser and then scrub a city garbage can before! St Louis was very clean and I complimente this man on his hard work.

Illinois is across the river

Illinois is across the river

final glimpse of the Arch

final glimpse of the Arch

ice cream truck! haven't seen one of those in ages!

ice cream truck! haven’t seen one of those in ages!

walking down to the river

walking down to the river

Eads bridge, which spans the Mississippi River

Eads bridge, which spans the Mississippi River

Eads bridge, which spans the Mississippi River

Eads bridge, which spans the Mississippi River

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In the Footsteps of Lewis and Clark

I’m parked at the Walmart in Council Bluffs, IA, which is just across the river from Omaha, NE, if you have your map out. Today’s drive was long but uneventful except for one tiny detail. When I left North Dakota, I felt seriously under dressed in relation to the weather while it is hotter than sin in Council Bluffs!

Dakota Magic Casino sits right on the North and South Dakota border. I got back on the highway and was able to take this picture before merging onto the interstate:

I pulled over shortly thereafter at the rest area in Wilmot:

It boasted a scenic overview of the Whetstone Valley, but it was really tough to get a clear shot of it:

I learned that all South Dakota rest areas have a no camping rule:

I stopped a few more times before having to make unexpected repairs at the last rest area before Iowa:

Believe it or not, all of the Eternabond tape I’d applied to the loft came loose!!! I was just driving along minding my own business and suddenly noticed flapping out of the corner of my eye. It wasn’t an emergency, so I drove almost 200KM like that before hitting the rest area. And not a moment too soon because I went to the shower to get my step-stool and, bam, the shower door toppled onto me. I don’t know who designed it, but it is not made for RV use. There is a pin that holds the door in place and when I am on a rough and bouncy road (which describes all of I29 in South Dakota) the door bounces up and down until the pin gets loose. I haven’t come up with a way to secure it and am growing increasingly annoyed with it. Once, the door even bounced right out of the frame, denting both itself and the floor!

After I rolled out of that rest … oh, wait. Eternabond! Yes, after I wrestled the shower door back in place, I applied some new Eternabond over part of the old stuff to stick it back in place. I am definitely going to be trying my hand at fiberglass this summer, so I just wanted this to hold till I get to Quebec.

By this point, the weather had gone from ‘getting warm’ to ‘infernal’, so I put on the AC and headed out of South Dakota to enter the state where two favourite fictional characters were born:

I stopped at the rest area to see if there was anything interesting there. Yup:

information about the only man who died on the Lewis and Clark expedition

The names of the men on the Lewis and Clark expedition were written around the building. Lots and lots and lots and lots of French Canadians, including:

I thought these benches were cute:

A good day of fishing on the expedition:

Driving along, I noticed smoke and, HOLY RANDOM FIRE, BATMAN:

you can’t really see the flames in the pic but they were THIS BIG

And then, the Omaha skyline:

I decided to overnight in Council Bluff since there were a number of casinos, a camping world, a Bass Pro Shop, and the Walmart as options. I was hoping Walmart would work since I had some shopping to do. I phoned the manager and he didn’t seem to like the idea, but when I said that I had shopping to do he grudgingly gave his okay for one night.

I was excited to see an Applebee’s just a couple of blocks (walking distance) from the Walmart, making this the second best Walmart I’ve ever stayed at. 🙂 I had dinner then came home to find a note on the windshield from reader P.J.! I have no idea how she found me, but she’ll be over shortly and we’re going out for dessert. I don’t care where as long as it has air conditioning. 🙂

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Summery Weather At Long Last

Today’s weather was unbeatable! I had the front door and a bunch of windows open all day. My obligations were completed by early afternoon and I then spent a couple of hours sprucing up the rig before heading out for dinner at the casino. The Monday night Mexican buffet is $16, which I thought was way too much. So I instead went to the restaurant and had a delicious chicken club-type sandwich with honey mustard instead of mayo and a pot of decaf coffee (complimentary). Gosh is the decaf good here! With tip, dinner was a reasonable $10.50. I liked that the server called me Miss. I can’t get used to Ma’am, but Miss sounds appropriate for a gal in a full ankle-length skirt and a kerchief. 🙂

The RV park is filling up and I have neighbours from Manitoba. I’m almost sorry to be pulling out tomorrow, but it’s definitely time to head off. I’ll be heading in the direction of Omaha tomorrow, which is not something I ever thought I would write. I flew over Nebraska once. It was flat! 🙂

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A Crabby Kind of Mood

Since I’m paying for my RV spot, I don’t feel obliged to spend money at the casino, but I decided to check it out anyway and discovered that they offer a buffet every night. I checked the list and went Mexican, meh. Chef’s, huh? Surf and Turf, pass. BBQ ribs and chicken, hmm. Snow crab and seafood, what day?! Today! So I headed over around 5:30 and paid the $20 for the buffet. This amount included soft drinks, too.

Except for the garlic shrimp and crab cakes, the deep fried seafood offerings (clam, oysters, calamari, shrimp) were pretty meh and tasted the same. The side dishes were pretty basic, but there was a really nice chicken Alfredo and the salad bar was splendid. The star of the show was the endless mountain of steamed crab legs. YUM. They were so good! I pretty much gave up on the other stuff and sucked and picked my way through as many crab legs as my belly could hold. It was a lot of work to get a meal out of those succulent morsels, but worth the effort.

I had a pretty decent slice of apple pie for dessert with a really good decaf coffee. It wasn’t the best buffet I’ve been to, but I feel it was worth the entrance price.

Next, I decided to try my hand at the penny slots, putting in $10 and cashing out at $20. So dinner cost me only $10!