California Girls?

The St. Louis Gateway Arch -
Gateway to the Midwest, apparently!

The Beach Boys wrote that the California Girls were the best in the USA, THEY LIED! Texan women rock, end of!

So, my first full day in St. Louis was pretty cool. Just spent the day walking around the down town area. It is by far the smallest city that I have been too so far, which is surprising that they have 3 major sports teams there (Cardinals, Blues & Rams). The Blues are the ice hockey team and are currently in the play-off's so everywhere you look its 'lets go blues' signs about. The city is so excited about it that they have dyed the water fountain blue, something that I haven't seen since last day of school when the water system for Mendip house was dyed red (ahh the memories!). So I set off to see what St. Louis had to offer me. The truth, not much to be honest. I saw the Rams stadium (I support the Rams, hence why I stopped in the city for a few nights) and it really wasn't that special, there wasn't anything going on and not even a shop. I then walked to the St. Louis arch and went to take a photo when my camera battery died on me. DAMN IT! Headed back to the hotel room and put camera on charge an settled down for a night of crappy american T.V. Well, I was sorely mistaken, I found 'Dancing with the Stars' (USA version of strictly), my future wife was on it - Katherine Jenkins. So that was my night sorted.

At a ticket booth that was, like the rest of the
Rams stadium, closed!

I awoke the next day and packed up my bag as my coach was at 13:30. So I still had time to grab some shots of the arch. It was very impressive, its around 600ft high and there is the option to take a tram up to the top. This wasn't going to happen for me as I had my full travelling bags with my and the bag search would have lasted decades, I was just content with the snappy photos that I took. I then caught a taxi to the bus station and hopped on the Greyhound for my long trip to Dallas!

This trip was spectacularly uneventful. The highlight being the bus station at Memphis that I had to change buses at. It was the best terminal that I have been to so far very clean and safe. The guards there were searching people bags before they got on the buses so hopefully there wouldn't be a incident involving a sprite cup again. On I hopped to my Dallas bound bus and got my head down.

See I got a Rams top on, brought from the Hotel!

I arrived into Dallas about 45min late so I knew that I wouldn't be able to catch my connecting bus to Fort Worth. A quick call to my friend Mike sorted the situation, he would be picking me up from Dallas instead. I jumped into his truck (yes, he is a proud Texan with a pick-up tuck with the state of Texas stencilled on the hubcaps!) and back to his house we went. I was made to feel right at home by his mum Victoria (who I know from playing American Football in the UK) and we caught up and chatted for pretty much the whole day. About 4/5 I was feeling really tired so I went for a short nap, at 9 I woke and realised that my short nap had turned into something sleeping beauty would have been proud of. We then had sloppy Joe's - AMAZING! And me and Mike went to a Country & Western karaoke bar. This was the typical saloon that you see in all the movies, guys in cowboys hats, girls in whatever cowgirls wear, it was a real fun night and I am sure that as a typical tourist to Texas it would have been something that I wouldn't have seen. We stayed till the end, drinking bud light and I even helped clean the tables (like the good little English boy I am).

Making use of the tripod I brought with me!

There are a lot of catching up with friends and drinking planned for me for the next few days and I can't wait. Texas really is a remarkable state with some truly remarkable people. Have some home comforts and seeing friends is just what I needed as I get to the halfway mark across the states.

And that thing about Texas girls - The are amazing, so so attractive, I am in pesting heaven!

Tom

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