what we saw after Tennessee

After our awesome night out in Memphis, we had a pretty awful time trying to find our hotel in West Memphis, Arkansas. It had recently changed names but not really signage and was off a very confusing interchange... oh, Arkansas. My older brother had told me that would be the crappiest part of my drive, as he had recently driven through it and not enjoyed it, but I held out hope.

Before continuing on through Arkansas the next day, though, a few of us made a short return to Memphis to attend various churches. I dropped Maciej off at mass and Jakub and I went to a Presbyterian church a little further outside of downtown. Then, I had the great fortune to cross paths with my friend Dan-- we were campers together for five summers in a row, but now we only hang out once every few years when he's floated back north of the Mason-Dixon line. He went to college in Memphis and is still in the area, which I figured out after our adventures on Beale Street. We met up for breakfast at a historic restaurant called The Arcade, which had some awesome sweet potato pancakes. Good to catch up with Dan.

On our way. We checked out of the hotel and continued up the eastern side of Arkansas. I already summer up that drive, which brought us to St. Louis. I didn't expect the city to suck, but I certainly didn't expect it to be as pretty or cool as it was. We obviously started at the Arch (Jefferson Gateway Expansion National Park), where the Air Force Mid-America band was performing. We tried to go through the museum of expansion, but it had a really confusing layout so we kind of gave up.

We did a big loop around the city in hopes of finding a few particular landmarks after trying Imo's pizza, a local staple. I wasn't crazy about the cheese (it's some weird St. Louis cheese) but the thin crust was pretty good. So, wandering. The city hall was a really beautiful building. We walked past Union Station. We sought out the City Museum, which looked AWESOME but was closed. I guess I'll have to go back sometime, which wouldn't be terrible-- my good friend Emily is from the area, in fact, we stayed with her father that night (she lives in DC now). It was kind of funny to sleep in her bed, but definitely some good rest before our sojourn across Illinois...

beer of the day: Morgan Street Brewery's Red Lager