SUPER

It seemed to us that if we were within 60 miles of Metropolis, IL we probably should go over the bridge, and through the woods and farm land and get to the "super" land!

Another small town America finding a claim to fame! We loved it.

As you can see below if you enlarge the photo, Sir was less than loving it - as usual he was very intimidated by this large being he was "forced" to pose with!!!

Daily planet, phone booth and all, Metropolis has done well - really well. I did see in a local paper while we were there that ground has been broken for a Lois Lane statue as well! I don't know, however, how close it will be to the Sup's statue. And what about the poor underling in the trio - we were trying to remember his name - was it Jimmy something?

It was surprising to us that the local businesses, other than the "souvenir" store, don't seem to play up on the Superman theme. When we were at the Spam museum, the entire town seemed to play into it - not so much in Metropolis, IL!

A trio of women tourists (obviously very silly tourists - they were a blast and reminded me of crazy sisters on a "sister weekend"!) took the photo below - oooops they didn't tell me I was "off center" and Arlo was hiding behind me - not in the picture as intended! Oh well, it was all fun and they were so entertaining for sure.

Sadly, for Arlo and I, we left the wonderful Elks Lodge in Cape Girardeau this morning and traveled to West Memphis, AR - across the river from Memphis, TN. We did go into Memphis tonight for some barbecue and a visit to the Peabody (missed the ducks by about 10 minutes unfortunately) and a trip down Beale Street. We are staying for two nights at a terrific campground we stayed at last year - right on the Mississippi River, where we get to watch the barges and boats go up and down the river all day and night. It did seem this afternoon that river traffic was much much slower than last time we were here. In the time between when we got here until we headed over to Memphis this evening (three hours or so) we saw only one barge on the river - usually that time frame would have involved no less than ten - go figure!

Unfortunately when we headed into Memphis tonight I totally forgot to bring the camera - it was on the console of the coach from our travel today - and I forgot to put it back in my purse when we headed out ~ darn darn darn. I did take a few pictures with my phone but it has no flash and the photos I took were on an outside patio but it was dark out so I doubt they came out ~ we shall see when I load all the camera and phone pictures to the laptop tomorrow, but for now I'm off to la la land ....

This Cape not that cape

Cape Girardeau, MO ~ what a nice area this has been. As well as what a terrific Lodge! What a treasure.

Chad, the first photo was taken for you ~ it reminded me of one of an old Coca-Cola wall I took for you about a year ago in Sioux Falls.

The photo below is our campsite as seen from across the lake ~ oh so quiet and peaceful. The building you see behind the coach is a pavilion used, I imagine for Elks functions. On the side of the lake (the side where I took the photo) are two buildings, with kitchens I believe, that are also rented out from time to time. As well as twice a year the Lodge holds a camping weekend for its members!

Cape Girardeau is in central Missouri (well perhaps a bit more southern than central) on the very east side of the state. Cape Girardeau is separated from Illinois by the mighty, muddy Mississippi River.

We finally got the bikes out on Saturday and went for a short ride. We found a couple interesting stops along the way ~ below was a public fishing access area. Well the road was closed off (sort of) because the river had so spilled its banks. To the right of that pavilion building on the left side of the photo is something with a green roof ~ we had no clue what it was until someone told us it a raft built and being used by three or four young men who are rafting down the river. We were told they have a web site but for the life of me I can't remember it's name and couldn't find anything about it when I googled it. I bet that would be a great site to peruse!

Beyond the raft is a barge (well it was actually a total of twelve barges) being pushed up the river by two tugs. Hey, if they are pushing a water craft, rather than pulling it are they still called tugs?

The next stop we made was a really nice "scenic overlook" so up up up we went and son of a gun if the same group of barges didn't catch up with us!

After that we went back into downtown Cape Girardeau. We had been there on Thursday (I think it was) because I saw an ad for a Cajun restaurant (Broussard's) ~ oh MY what a Cajun restaurant it is ... I had the best etouffee I've had in years - crawfish etouffee of course! YUM YUM YUM.

When we were in the downtown area on Thursday the "gates" along the river were closed. They were open on Saturday so we had access to the river. There is apparently a walkway along there but it was underwater for the most part.

Looking south from the open gates is this huge bridge going to Illinois (the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge) - doesn't it look so similar to the Zakim Bridge in Boston?

I will close this post with an evening photo from our "campsite" looking over the lake to the Lodge up on the hill.

This bud's for you and you and you ..

What a beauty above - yes?

As I'd mentioned oh so long ago we thought we'd do the Budweiser tour in St. Louis.... well, we obviously did.

It seems, however like it was about a month ago - yup, bad Tracey - bad bad bad so lazy with posting of late and so much to post about! BAD BAD BAD

We have done the Bud tour in Merrimack, NH a time or two and it was a good take - well worth the price of admission (fyi, there is no price of admission)!!! St. Louis however was a better take - the plant was much much larger than Merrimack and the original Bud plant with a great history and beautiful old buildings - most with arches (I guess I was really on this arch thing about St.Louis ~ I did take a few photos of the arches at Bud'ville, but won't post them - seems a bit like nagging or something - I think I might be obsessed with this arch thing and doubt that anyone else is ...... so y'all be spared additional arches.)

Above is the dalmatian at the St. Louis plant - he was not a particularly friendly sort of fella - however, the dalmatians are there to guard their horses - well "back in the day" (as Frick would say) they were put on the wagons to guard the "goods" while deliveries were being made - this guy was woken from a nap when our tour came through his barn (and it was not like any barn I'd ever seen for sure) and he was quite protective. The Clydesdale in the top photo was obviously outside, but there are several stalls where these guys spend the night in the most palatial stalls (palatial is a word Rick and I use frequently - as someone, whom I suspect had NO personal knowledge of the place, referred to the "kennel" UGH where Sir stayed in Jacksonville at the airport last February when we flew to NH to welcome our Muffin Princess into the world ... so the term is used in jest often)

Below - just a photo from the tour ....

Below here is a fox - like three others on the four corners of the canning/bottling building ... This guy guarded the building during the prohibition years when Budweiser was still working, but bottling soda/pop/tonic - call it what you want depending on the part of the country you are in! I believe the beverage was called Pevey, but for the life of me I can't remember that chapter of the tour. Anyway, the fox is sitting there with a cup of it in one hand and a sandwich in the other ~ see the close up in tiles inside the canning/bottling building - this was lovely tile artwork around the top of the room we were in as we entered the building to watch a video.

Below - some stats inside the canning/bottling line .... very interesting place - it smelled like beer though - imagine that huh!!! I can't stand the smell of beer and am in love with a beer drinker!

So, with all that St. Louis stuff behind us ~ we arrived here in Cape Girardeau, MO on Tuesday (YES my bad I KNOW that). We are staying at an Elks Lodge here - the lodge is on 100 acres of land, 30 of those acres are a lake. Unbelievable, gorgeous property - full hook up $10./night - WHAT THE HECK ... membership has it's benefits. On top of all that, we've had the entire campground area to ourselves all week -

Sir has had a ball, running swimming, chasing wilson and sleeping real well at night! Being the weekend, there are others here tonight, but I suspect they'll all be gone tomorrow, and unfortunately we will be out of here Monday or Tuesday as we have that commitment in LA on the 16th then we will make a hasty retreat to the Keys as quickly as possible - would like to be there at least by mid December. Don't know where we'll be for Thanksgiving this year but would truly like to be at an Elks or Moose helping serve a community Thanksgiving dinner .... we shall see how it all works out time/distance wise! Wherever we are, we will be so very thankful for this life we have.

Golden but not THAT one

The one thing I wanted to do while we are here in the St. Louis area was go to the top of the Gateway Arch. Yeah well good plan BUT nowhere, in any of the research I did about tours of the arch etc., did it mention that the tram that takes you there is a capsule teeny, tiny, closed capsule that you share with four other people! When I saw it I knew right away this wasn't for me - no way, no how. From what I saw there are NO windows, however I did just now look up wikipedia information about the arch and below is a picture and description of the capsule from that source of information - which I should have gone to first! And by the way, did YOU know that the Arch is a National Memorial? I didn't.

"Passing through the doors, passengers in groups of five enter an egg-shaped compartment containing five seats and a flat floor. Because of the car shape, the compartments have sloped ceilings low enough to force taller riders to lean forward while seated (for this reason it's recommended that the tallest of the five passengers in the car sit in the center seat facing the door). Eight compartments are linked to form a train, meaning that both trains have a capacity of 40, and that 80 people can be transported at one time. These compartments individually retain an appropriate level by periodically rotating every 5 degrees, which allows them to maintain the correct orientation while the entire train follows curved tracks up one leg of the arch. The trip to the top of the Arch takes four minutes, and the trip down takes three minutes. The car doors have narrow windows, allowing passengers to see the interior stairways and structure of the Arch during the trip."

Aside from the disappointment of not going to the top of the Arch we had a great time in "downtown" St. Louis, although I don't think we were truly in downtown, I think we were in the main tourist area of the city instead.

It was a beautiful fall day and the Arch is in a lovely park along the river (Mississippi River). There are, obviously, many many bridges in and out of the city crossing the river and below is one of the prettier ones. This is the Eads Bridge, completed in 1874 and the first bridge built using cantilever supports.

Chad, I am sure you could have taken some great photos of this bridge that I found so interesting - with your skill and great use of various lenses and light.

In the photo above, centered in the lower portion you can see a hand holding a hat. This is some sort of statue along the riverfront. The river had risen over the banks and into the streets, but I imagine it is a lovely area when not submerged!

As you can see from these photos, a lot of St. Louis architecture use arches - don't know why that is but I really liked it. Again, Chad you could do some terrific photos here. Seems everywhere one looks there is an arch (no I don't mean the Gateway Arch!)

Below is a very old Electric company building and even at the head of their parking spaces are grass arches ~ I just loved it.

Today we will be finishing up outside cleaning of the coach - we washed it and the trailer yesterday (an all day task!! and not a fun one at that) the vent covers need to be cleaned today. After that we may go back into St. Louis for the Budweiser tour. We had thought about doing part of route 66 that runs (rather ran) through and around St. Louis, but the maps and literature I have (that were my Dad's - he was a route 66 fan and traveled part of it several years ago) indicate that several parts of it are no longer there so I don't know if we'll attempt it.

Our plan is to leave here tomorrow and head to Cape Girardeau (MO) then Memphis. We have to be in Choudrant, LA on the 16th so this gives us almost two weeks to get there.

Indie (not my grand dog Indie, but Indianapolis)

So while we were in Indiana (truly NOT a bad place to be, thank you very much) we went into downtown Indie a couple times.

The photo above is a Soldiers and Sailors Monument ~ unfortunately there was construction going on around it so there are, obviously, traffic cones etc.

Yes, and a local watering hole with an outrageous name - it didn't, however, open until some ungodly hour like seven or eight in the evening, when we'd (well I, at least, would be) be settling in and getting ready to turn on the electric blanket and see y'all in the morning!!

When we headed into town I had to do a mental (??!?!?! yeah right) refresher of pro sports teams in Indy - and I still had brain cramps. With all that said, above is Conseco Fieldhouse, which I had no clue what it was, and now that I know it makes less sense to me. Jose Conseco plays what????? Well ummmmm wouldn't you assume (yeah a person should NEVER assume) that this would be where HIS sport is played? NOT .... this is where the Indiana Pacers play (Dylan, this photo is for YOU!)

Below, sadly, is graffiti, well is it graffiti if you hire a printer to print and hang this huge statement ~ in the downtown area - sad but true, I couldn't have made that up...... just an interesting (???) spot along the way!

On to more fun, enjoyable and entertaining sights ~ this Lucas Oil Stadium is where the Indianapolis Colts play and DAMN they weren't playing at home while we were there!!!

With that said, we have had no success getting to a pro football game in our travels. I've never been to a pro game and we've passed through three cities (I think) that have pro teams in the last month or so and when we are there they aren't - Detroit, Indianapolis and St. Louis ~ fiddlesticks and darn darn darn ....

With all that said, or written, our downtown Indianapolis experience ended with a parking ticket when we got back to the car - welcome to Indy tourists, we LOVE when you come to our city and don't get back to your car in time (but we do thank you for spending copious amounts of dollars shopping and dining in our city), amid all these empty spaces, and we get to collect ... Welcome to Indianapolis ....

they're offfffffffffff

Well they weren't when we were there, but we did have a nice time! And Vovo Betty I was looking everywhere we went in Louisville for that ring ~ sorry but I didn't find it!

The other tour we did when we were in the Louisville area was Churchill Downs ~ seems if you're in the area you've got to do this tour as well as the Louisville Slugger factory tour. Of the two, well Slugger was more interesting to me, but that's because I don't really have a clue about horses or horse racing. On top of that the tour we did at Churchill well it was "interesting" but was a bit rushed and I didn't get the pictures I had hoped for...

The first photo here is the "twin spires" (which I guess are landmarks in Louisville and a big deal in the racing (???) circuit?) photo taken from the van we were in for the tour from the opposite (seriously!!) side of the track.

The photo just above is a shot of two horses in their stables ~ these guys are the ones that lead the race horses out to the starting gate. Speaking of starting gate........ UGH, the ONE photo I wanted was a shot of a starting gate - we did go by the gates while we were in the van doing the tour and I asked the guide if we could get out and take photos - I was told we would on the return ~ well do you see a shot of starting gates .... ummmmmmmmm NO, well the tour was "running late" so we never stopped on the "flip side" ...

Above is a shot of a poster that was posted throughout the property which I DID find interesting about shoes for those horses ... I don't understand the poster but it IS about horse shoes - also we did pass a farrier on the tour, and he stated he had shod (??) four horses that morning. According to our tour "guide" a horse at Churchill gets new shoes about once a month (so seriously, does that make them Imelda Marcos of the equine community?)

One of the things that truly struck me about this property was the beauty of the grounds. Gorgeous flowers and gardens all around - even outside some of the stables the owners (I guess it was the owners who put them there) were nice hanging flower baskets.

There is a Churchill Downs Museum here, but because of a serious flood in August of this year (seven inches of rain in 75 minutes!!!) the museum is closed for repairs!

I'm glad we did this tour, although if we did it again I think I'd opt for a different tour (there were four or five to choose from, but how DO you know which you want?)

So with all that said, let me add this - I am trying to do a catch up here and post of our travels over the last week or so - yeah yeah yeah I been slackin' so now for the Indie time (but since these post reverse of how I do them you will have read about Indie, and perhaps St. Louis before you get to this post - I don't determine the order ya know!!!)

Take me out to the factory ...

Well we aren't in the Louisville area now (yup, my bad for being so lax in my posting of late) but this post is about our Louisville time ~ which by the way was terrific.

I have to assume (shame on me ~ my Daddy taught me the true meaning of assuming! ~ wise man that Winfield was) ~ anyway, with assumptions being made I suspect the number one and two must do's (not sure which is one and which would be two) in Louisville would be the Louisville Slugger tour and the Churchill Downs tour (of which there are several choices).

We did the Slugger tour on Wednesday (I think) ~ what a great take it was. Unfortunately, but understandably, no cameras were allowed during the tour so these photos are from outside the factory/museum or from inside the museum, but NOT the factory.

The top photo is from across the street from the factory - only because that bat is so HUGE I couldn't get the entire thing into a photo without some distance between it and the camera!

The second photo is a shot of a shirt that Honus Wagner wore.

In the museum section of the the property was wax (I guess they are wax) figures of Ted Williams, Babe Ruth and Ken Griffey Jr.. The one to the right is Ted Williams and the one above is the Babe (unfortunately he is wearing pinstripes here). I swear these figures were so life like I stood there for about a minute and a half looking at Babe because I thought his eyes moved (NO I had not had anything other than coffee before we got there).

Here is a shot of yours truly with a David Ortiz bat. Louisville Slugger makes bats for the majority of major league players and those players go through many dozen bats in a season - this was the Big Papi's bat ...

Here is Mickey Mantle's bat - only because Rick thought I should hold a Yankee bat for Joshua (who for some reason ... well I know the reason - Wade Boggs UGH) my oldest son - Joshua - became a Yankees fan - I spent copious amounts of dollars taking both boys to Red Sox games - one son one week, the other son the next week and some weeks the three of us would go and darned if that Gunny Lovett didn't become a Yankees fan .... So Josh (although I'm fairly certain he or his wife don't check out our blog ;-( ... ) this one's

for you.

Here are photos of bats from the 2008 World Series..

The Phillies .. YEAH go go go in 2009 Phillies

And Tampa Bay Rays (were they the Rays in 2008 or the Devil Rays? What was the year that Devil Rays became NOT pc?