Tuesday, July 24th, 2012
A welcome day of rest. Sure, I had the hours to drive today. The interest was certainly not there. I feel that I've kinda let myself go in as much as my routines are concerned. I have not done my exercise in a couple of days, and I've not meditated as much. That said, it feels like a welcome break from the daily grind of life. While on the one hand, I want to create a certain kind of life, the other hand wants me to relax a bit and know that the routine will continue if you really want it to. Rather than berate myself for not sticking to a rigid plan, I decided to do something completely different and go into St. Louis.
In some ways, I was hoping that the city would redeem itself after the spectacle of the drive by monkey spanker. (In retrospect, it seems funny to me how we on one level know that all dudes have a unit, but that we never think of it, or choose to forget it until we accidentally see it). Happily, I have a friend in the area who just happened to be available today.
The first step is getting from the truck stop to any place else. This involved a cab ride. Amazingly, the dude was early! Even better, we had a fantastic conversation. It started off with me asking about his work, and he happily obliged by telling me that it was alright, but that he was moving on to work in the oil fields in Montana, near the Canadian Border. He asked if I was a Christian, and I explained my views, which were certainly not his. When explained, Christianity sounds kinda silly and hokey. Regardless, we got into how the U.S. would be a much better place if people would simply listen to each other, judge less, and accept more. His politics were conservative to a tea, claiming that Obama is the greatest threat to our country. I managed to avoid that conversation and steer it towards corporate influence and the broken political system. Great stuff!
Downtown STL was hot today. The Arch is ginormous, and the Courthouse is being refurbished. That did not stop me. Someplace north of the courthouse there is a long string of city blocks converted into parks. There was even a food truck! I felt as if it were some kind of rare event out here, especially when compared with Portland. Having some lunch then looking through the parks, I went to wade in one of the many pools. Just getting my sandals off (could you imagine wearing work boots today?!) and getting my feet wet, a volunteer (it said so on her name tag) came out of somewhere. She advised me not wading in that particular pool, as "some homeless people use it as a latrine." I did not bother to ask if it was number 1 or number two. Instead, I got out and moderately burnt the soles of my feet on the hot pavement in doing so.
Further down the way is the real city garden, complete with screaming kids hanging out in a pool. That was kinda fun, but the real fun was revisiting an old friend who I've not seen in the better part of a decade. Our first stop was the Botanical Garden, decked out for the Chinese Lantern Festival. Certainly a hot day for walking out in the sun, never mind all of the people working out in it. In the gardens, there are a number of traditional decorative structures, most made of silk covering a metal frame. The two displays that were not of silk caught my attention. There were two Chinese style dragons, made from plates, presumably on a metal endoskeleton. Tied in a traditional manner, these two creatures were about 50 feet long apiece. The other non-silk creation was a mythical creature made of all sorts of other animal parts, the name escaping me at the moment. This sculpture was constructed of little glass vials filled with colored water and tied in a traditional manner. Absolutely amazing!
So since we we here, there was the obligatory Anheuser-Busch Factory tour complete with free beer at the end. They had the Clydesdales in their stable area, one getting his pubes trimmed. Seriously. I won't go on about the horse behind him hanging his dong out to dry; that clause alone says it all. The sheer scope of the brewing is amazing, with Budweiser consuming 9% of the U.S. rice crop every year. The smells are sweet and grainy, and the temperature variances about 70 degrees from the coldest to hottest. On what looks to be 10 acres of floor, 3 people bottle all the beer that comes out of the plant. Three on a shift. There were 4 times that number of hosting staff in the hospitality room (where they give you the free beers).
Overall, I've decided that this town may somehow have redeemed itself, but through no fault of its own. Seeing an old friend and having a good time is priceless. Seeing the horse dong is something I could have done without, as dongs seem to be some kind of theme for me here. Honestly, St. Louis needs to keep it in its pants.
