Week's 4 and 5... St. Louis area...

Sorry I haven't written anything in the last week and a half... I partially melted here in St. Louis with the relentless heat and humidity, and was deemed to be useless the better part of the time. With one hand on a cold beer, the other on the AC thermostat... it was tough to sit down at the computer and type.

Thankfully, after 2 weeks of 90 degree temps and 80 percent humidity... the heat broke yesterday, and it was a delightful (yes, I just said delightful). 75 degrees, with low humidity. I'm actually sitting here this morning with the windows open in the motorhome, in a long sleeve shirt and a HOT cup of coffee on the table. Today into the weekend is still expected to be nice with only slowly warming temperatures and humidity... by the time it get's back to the sauna weather on Sunday, we should about to head back out west to higher elevations of the Colorado Rockies.

Even with the oppressive heat, we were still able to have alot of fun this past couple weeks. The big event was last Saturday, when my Mom and sister had a belated wedding reception/family reunion for us. My Mom was running around all week like a chicken with it's head cut off doing errands and stocking up on beer and making deviled eggs. Meanwhile, Debi and I helped with a few things, like picking up some supplies from Cousin Jennifer's house... which btw, conveniently had a pool available for us to take a dip in.

Cousin Jenny's Pool

It was also nice that we had my all-time favorite bar conveniently located along the errand route... btw, they not only have a great beer selection... but also some of the best beer battered onion rings on the planet.

Mom and sis at the Stagger Inn

Killer Onion Rings

Stagger Inn.. an old college haunt

My Dad came over to help put up the tent for the party... and I broke in the new smoker by tossing some pork steaks (STL tradition) to help ease the pain and suffering of installing a 27' x 9' tent in 90 inside a sauna.

Mom, Dad, Julie .. enjoying pork steaks (Jan enjoying her veggie burger).

A couple days later... I got the smoker in high gear, and tossed a prime rib on there. It turned out pretty good, but I came to the conclusion that the 7-1 smoker I got was just too big to haul around in the RV.. so I did a little research, and picked up a new gas grill.. the WeberQ... and a charcoal/wood smoker.. I know.. I have issues.. but instead of having 5 smokers in my quiver.. I donated the 7-1 unit to my Mom and sister as a housewarming gift.

Cherry smoked Prime Rib

New gas grill... hooked up to the Motorhome propane tank

new smoker... much more usable size!

Saturday came around, and the weather was still hot and humid... but for most that live here, it was almost normal STL weather this time of year... so they didn't have to take 2 showers a day and change clothes 3 times like I did. My mom and sis decorated the back yard and tent area to professional standards. Everyone was really impressed. Almost 40 family members showed up, and we all had a really great time. Thank you all for coming, and also for the cards and gifts!!

Party

Mom, Julie, Debi, Todd and Dad

Debi and Todd and wedding cake

Luckily, the beer did not flow too heavily for me on Saturday night, as Sunday we were to meet up with some of my friends from college over at Fast Eddie's in Alton. Fast Eddies is a famous bar that has rediculously cheap food... and women. Oh wait, that was the saying in college.. anyway, the food was still cheap... It was great to see old friends. Susie and Amy live locally, but Tom came from Festus, which is over an hour away... and Krista, who I hadn't seen since college came from 2 hrs away.

Tom, Todd, Amy, Krista, Susie

On our way back to Edwardsville, we stopped at the Lewis and Clark Museum. It is located in present day Wood River, (Camp Wood) that was the official starting point from St. Louis of the historic journey. Debi and I had recently read a great book on the expedition, so the visit was a little extra special to us. The Keel Boat replica was really amazing.

On Monday, we took off for Decatur and Mattoon, IL to visit relatives... Driving up through Central Illinois, you get engulfed in a wall of corn... what I don't remember was it being 8 ft high in the end of JUNE... August maybe, but not June.

 We also passed one of my favorite named towns... Boody, Il.

In Decatur, my 94 yr old Grandfather ("Pom"), as well as my aunt and uncle. We had a nice visit with them all.. went to Buffalo Wild Wings (Pom's favorite place to eat)... and then drove across town to see visit my grandma's (Nana) gravesite, where I finally got to say goodbye to her.

We came back to the assisted living place where Pom lives (which is an awesome place!) and Debi went back to her room to work.. Pom and I sat and watched some baseball on TV and chatted. It was some quality time with Pom that I had not had in a very long time. I really enjoyed it. I don't know how I didn't get any pictures with him!  Around 10, Pom was getting tired, so I left and went back to our room and dragged Debi out to go get milkshakes at Steak and Shake... another midwest favorite. I had the peanut butter cup shake, and Debi had the Oreo shake.

late night Milkshakes in Decatur

On our way home, a few flashes out lightning lit up the sky to our west, as a cold front that was to cool off the weather was starting to move in. We got a couple rounds of storms that night... one around midnight, the other around 2 AM. At 2, the lightning was so impressive, Debi got up to open the drapes so we could watch the almost constant flashes light up the night sky.

Tuesday dawned sunny, breezy and a cooler. I woke up to a struggle with the Keurig coffee machine... never used one before... but finally got the thing to work right and spit out a little joe. Debi was downstairs in the car working, and waiting for AAA to arrive to give us a jumpstart. (We borrowed mom's car so we could get some work done on ours while we were gone). I left the non-automatic lights on the night before during our milkshake run, so the battery was deader than a corn cob in December.

After an hour of visiting with Pom, he had to head off to the Dr.... but, the elusive cousin of mine, Jason had made an unexpected trip up to Decatur for the day (he's a pilot for Jet Blue).. It was good to see him... Jason and Pom headed to the Dr, and Debi and I got going on our way to Mattoon to see Debi's late husband's parents, Gene and Ruth. The drive was nice... ok, it was corny, but still nice.

We spent about 4 hrs at Gene and Ruth's.. Gene is 90 and Ruth is in her mid 80's. Super nice people... we enjoyed sipping on some iced tea and sharing traveling stories with them as we chatted the afternoon away. Gene makes some nice wood furniture.. Debi and I had fun sitting in his sliding rocking chairs and bouncing around. Around 5, the scent of chicken casserole started reaching my nose... This was the midwest... casserole is a staple in these parts. We sat down to a really nice dinner with some cheesy peas and salad to accompany the said casserole.. for dessert, Ruth brought out a homemade oatmeal cake... ok, doesn't sound exciting, but wow was it good!  It had a frosted top like you'd get on German chocolate cake... She also had home made vanilla ice cream to go with it. Needless to say, when the time had come to leave, we had to waddle out to the car.

Back in Edwardsville after the 2 hr drive from Mattoon, we took the pups for a walk. They were excited to see us after being gone for 36 hrs.... Trees and lakes and lakes and trees.. you get alot of that around here.

Cheddar wasn't quite as excited...

On Wednesday, the core of the cool air had arrived. It was only expected to get to 75, with very little moisture in the air. Pretty much unheard of for STL in July. We took off for a day trip to go up the Great River Road along the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers.. over to St. Charles, and across the Missouri River. It was a long day, but this is one of the more beautiful areas near STL.. and no one had really seen it before, but me.

Lunch on the river in Grafton, IL (Mississippi and Illinois River Jct)

Bluffs along the Mississippi River

Pere Marquette State Park Lodge

Pere Marquette State Park (photo from Julie)

The Brussels Ferry across the Illinois River

Old building in Brussels, Il

Jailhouse in Brussels, Il

Whittmond Hotel, est. 1847

being a little corny

Getting ready to ferry across the Mississippi River to St. Charles, MO

Old town St.Charles, MO

 

St. Charles, first state capitol of Missouri 1821 (photo from Julie)

Well... it's getting late... so I better get moving on the day. Tonight, Debi and I are going to take the pups over to my Aunt Kay's for dinner. Not alot of plans yet for the holiday weekend... we do plan to head over to STL for a bit and do some shopping at some point,  but we're not even sure what day we're leaving yet to head back out west... probably Sunday or Monday. We've really enjoyed our time visiting with family in Edwardsville/STL area.... but we are starting to itch to get on the road again, and get back to the mountains.

Til next time....

Debi, Todd the pups and Ched.