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Riding in the back
Seat belt and child safety seat laws may reduce the risk of injury, but they increase the risk of discomfort, especially when traveling long distances. So, much to the displeasure of my wife, I disregarded the laws and allowed my children a bit of freedom.
I put most of our luggage in a soft case on the rack above the car. In the back hatch, I packed in a cooler, two grocery bags of food, three satchels of electronics, reading and writing material and odds and ends, leaving enough room for a nice cubbyhole in which the girls could take turns lying and sitting and using the cooler top for a desk.
Many families before the advent of safety restrictions, including my own when I was growing up, employed similar tactics to help children through the miles and make the best use of tight space in the station wagon, thus reducing stressors triggered by such close quarters.
Doing so on this trip allowed two people spread out a bit in the back seat, which can accommodate three but can be uncomfortable nevertheless, especially for the person sitting in the middle, and even more so if one of the other two is sitting in a booster seat.
To clarify, we all were buckled up most of the time, particularly in cities where the traffic was heavy. But we likely broke the law a lot too.
Still, we made it back in one piece, just like my parents and I did back in the day. And the girls got to share the thrill I used get “riding in the back.”
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Terrorists be damned
I hate terrorists.
Not so much for what they did, that was bad enough, but more for how we have reacted to them.
The people cuing at the arch entrances during my family’s trip to St. Louis was the latest example I have seen.
We now must pass through security checks just to enter the monument’s underground exhibition, a museum that we used to be able to enter freely.
The line to purchase tram tickets remains inside. Now we have to go through a line to get to that line.
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Budgets and beer
At least two entries in this blog have raised an eyebrow or two from readers I’ve bumped into. One the entries was my accounting of the cost. To clarify, I did not offer the report to brag or complain, just to offer information. Maybe it could be useful, at the least entertaining.
I had hoped to give you the price of a comparable stay at Disney World. The resorts’ Web site claimed technical difficulties prevented it from offering a price, but if my memory of some research we did a few of months ago is correct, Disney would have been as expensive, not counting gas, and perhaps as fun, although that ball game would be hard to beat in my book.
We found several ways to save. I packed a cooler and two grocery bags of snacks, food and drinks. We ate leftovers, ham biscuits, turkey sandwiches, cheese and hard-boiled eggs at rest stops. We brought cereal for our breakfast, and we refilled our water bottles where we could. It all minimized the need to eat out, which can start to add up, plus everyone enjoyed the picnics.
Five fill-ups came to about $350, a hefty price, but about the cost of one airplane ticket. Mom helped out a lot with the gas, too. Gas really is a big expense, one reason it’s so nice to live close to the beach. The trade off, of course, was the travel time.
A lot of our activities didn’t cost a thing. The Celebrate St. Louis festival was free, the concert was free, playing in the fountain was free and watching the fireworks was free. Even the arch didn’t cost that much, about $40 for four of us to watch a movie and go to the top.
Staying in the hotel downtown downtown, the ball game and a couple dinners were worth the splurge.
The other entry that produced a comment or two was how I stated my beer drinking at the ball game affected my video-making skills. I don’t think it caused too much offense, at least I hope it didn’t, because, for me, baseball games and beer just go together, especially in the home of Anheuser-Busch.
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Notes from the road
Taking a trip is no fun when you have to worry about time and money.
But when you’re a busy family like we are, and when you live on a budget like ours, it’s hard not to worry about time and money.
So my advice to anyone like me who wants to squeeze in a quick trip halfway across the country is don’t do it.
Of course, we didn’t really have that option.
My brother, Chuck, died in St. Louis about seven years ago. He was 38, my older brother and my only sibling. I am 42 now.
I had seen his two boys four times since then; my mother had seen them three times. They are 10 and 13 now. A visit was long overdue.
My family was caught in the balance, trying to make an 1,800-mile round trip fun without losing our tempers or out minds.
I can tell you that I failed to keep my temper and sanity several times. But now that it’s over, I do think we all had a good time.
Here’s a link to a slide show capturing many of our stops. (I have now added more photos and captions.) And what follows are some notes from the road. I have a lot more to add, so check back here later if you want to learn a bit more about St. Louis, some travel tips and details and, hopefully, some funny audio. Click here for the slide show
Hour by Hour
We arrived in Greenville today about 5:45 p.m. and, man, was it good to be back home.
The girls woke up from a good nap just outside Farmville. They fell asleep after a picnic lunch at Pilot Mountain State Park near Mount Airy. That place is one of the many cool spots we passed where I want to spend more time and about which I would like to write more. I thought about Ernie Pyle and all the places and people he wrote about in America before he went to war.
My wife, Crystal, was on a mission, driving the distance home from Charleston, W.Va., where we stopped Sunday night. She and the girls wore expressions of deep satisfaction after we backed into the driveway to the scent of crepe myrtle buds, we opened the garage door, and our three cats bolted outside, signaling a return to the comforts of our routine.
All right, I’m getting carried away, here. But it’s been a long trip in a short time. My wife and I left our respective workplaces at 5 p.m. on Wednesday. We packed ourselves, Madison and Abigail, and my mother, Barbara, into the car and hit the road by 8 p.m. We hit Asheville about 1 a.m. Thursday and piled into a room at the Howard Johnson.
We hit the road about 9 a.m. the next morning and arrived in St. Louis at 6 p.m. thanks to the time change from Eastern to Central Standard Time. We checked into our hotel, made a few calls, and headed out again to make some visits and drop Mother at a friend’s house. We got to bed after midnight.
We were up Friday about 8:30. We saw a parade, I went to pick up my nephews Alex and Drew, we went to the Celebrate St. Louis festival and saw Drake Bell and a great Purina dog show, played in a wonderful public fountain, swam in the rooftop pool at our hotel, tried for about three hours to get a meal at a restaurant that was supposed to seat us in 45 minutes (see earlier blog posting) and watched a great fireworks show.
Saturday we slept in until 9, ate breakfast, packed up, checked out, waited at the arch until 2:25 for our ride to the top, rode back down and bolted to the 2:55 baseball game that had already started. We made the game by the top of the third and then had a thrilling, exciting and genuinely fun experience that made the trip.
Several friends who I had hoped to see at or after the game were out of town, so we headed to White Castle, a place that serves little greasy hamburgers cooked in onions. I try to go there and to Lion’s Choice Roast Beef every time I hit town. Then we went on to my sister-in-law, Cathy’s, house, to see the boys one more time. We ended up crashing there by 10:30 we were so tired.
We arrived to pick up Mother by 10:30 on Sunday morning. She had been staying at the home of her best friend, Mereda Eckert, and Mareda’s daughter Ulya. We got on the highway about noon and hit Charleston about 11, picking the hour back up that we had lost during the switch to Central time on the way in.
If you read all the way through this, and, trust me, I left out many details, you know why Crystal was on a mission to get home this morning, and why we were so glad when the garage door cracked open.
Pick your route
At least three relatively easy routes exist between St. Louis and North Carolina. Between 1978, when we moved to Missouri from our native Tar Heel state, my family and I have driven them all many times.
The first goes through Asheville, Knoxville, Nashville and Clarksville Tenn., Paducah, Ky., and Mount Vernon, Ill. The second turns north at Knoxville to Lexington, Ky., to Louisville, Ky., then on to St. Louis. The thirds, cuts north at Winston-Salem and heads through West Virginia onto Lexington, Louisville and St. Louis.
They all are good routes. But I think that I would choose the last as the best. The rolling hills of southern Indiana into the mountains of northern Kentucky are particularly fetching late in the day. And I’m in love with the rugged Mountain State, where I lived for a too-short year as editor of The Record-Delta in Buckhannon.
This is one of those things about which I would like to write much more about than my time now permits.
Suffice it to say that any of these routes offers beauty and points of interest, so leave time to turn off the beaten path if possible. Caves and coves, historic sites, architecture and good people await.
License plate bingo
Driving all that way excited my girls. I hope that continues. One of the activities that helped us pass the time, of course, was trying to identify as many different license plates as we could. We recorded 33 states and one foreign country: Mexico. Here is a list of the states, pretty much in the order by which we spotted them.
North Carolina New Jersey Illinois Georgia Florida South Carolina Tennessee Oklahoma Indiana Montana Idaho Nebraska Texas Kentucky Wisconsin Mississippi California Ohio New Hampshire Utah Michigan Alabama Washington, D.C. Missouri Iowa Arkansas West Virginia Kansas Maryland Pennsylvania Minnesota Massachusetts Oregon
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Home movies: Climbing the arch, etc.
It’s very late, after 10 hours on the road. About 1 a.m. Monday morning after leaving St. Louis about noon central time. We picked up an hour on the way.
We’re in Charleston, W.Va., a city and state where I would like to spend a lot more time.
Alas, we must return quickly. The girls have swim practice at 7 p.m. today, and we would like to get them home for it.
We tried a bit different route coming home. Instead of I-40 through Tennessee to I-24 in Nashville to I-64 in Illinois, we took I-64 all the way here to Charleston.
In the morning, we’ll pick up I-77 to Winston-Salem and then back on I-40 to U.S. 64 and home. This is supposed to save time. I hope to offer a good comparison of the routes in a later posting.
For now, I at least wanted to post a couple videos I made and some more photos.
The first video below captures our ride up one of the five-person tram cars that take visitors to the top of the Gateway Arch. Stairs are visible through the door and my family and I are visible in the window, with my daughter Madison rather prominent.
Visitors in the observation deck atop the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.
A view of the city looking north from the top of the Arch. The building second from right was our hotel, the Crown Plaza. The arena is the Edward Jones Dome where the St. Louis Rams play./>
This second video is from the Cardinals-Cubs game later that day, Saturday, July 5. The Cards won in dramatic fashion, coming from behind 4-2 in the ninth inning to win 5-4 thanks to a two-run single by left fielder Rick Ankiel. The video pans from our seats in the right-field bleachers, catches a bit of winning pitcher Kyle McClellan warming up in the dugout, and catches a double by second-baseman Adam Kennedy in the ninth that scored one run and helped set up the two-run hit by Ankiel. Apologies for the poor video. I was drinking beer.
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Big win in the bottom of the ninth
We were so tired after Friday’s festivities that we slept until nine.
That was a mistake.
By the time we had breakfast, packed up, checked out and got to the arch grounds, it was nearly noon.
I stood in the long line for tickets to the tram and I watched as times posted for the next trip advanced further into the future: 1:55, 2:05, 2:15, 2:25. A lot of people had purchased tickets ahead of us.
I brought four tickets for the 2:25 tram that would take us to the top of the 630-foot monument.
Now we had two hours to kill while I worried about how we would make our 2:55 baseball game.
Like at the restaurant the night before, I had not anticipated the wait and the lines generated by the Fourth of July crowds. Neither had my daughters, who were as patient as they could be but still added to the stress by asking if it was time yet for our turn.
We watched the in-house movie, Monument to a Dream, about how the arch was built. The narration was wonderfully over-dramatic and relied heavily on the passive tense: “It was predicted that 13 of them would never make it this far, but not one man was lost during the task,” it said of the iron workers who clung to the outside of the monument as they built it up.
When they finished, “The thing was done,” the movie said.
The cool and dark theater and the 1960s Disneyesque documentary helped soothe my nerves, and the popcorn and cashews from the replica general store helped calm our grumbling stomachs. Security checks at the arch entrances created long lines just to get in. (Thank you terrorists.) We did not want to leave to eat and miss the tram in which he had so much invested.
Still, by the time we climbed out of the five-person tram car that resemble the cylinder to a clothes dryer, we were like Chevy Chase and his family at the grand canyon in the movie Family Vacation.
We looked out the window to the east, we looked out the window to the west, we turned around and caught the next train down.
We made it to the ball game in the top of the third inning and saw one of the best games I have ever seen. Cards win in the bottom of the night off a two run single by Rick Ankiel with the bases loaded.
Ankiel, a pitcher-turned-power-hitter and fan favorite also hit a solo home run in the sixth. The final score, 5-3.
What a game!
Bobby Burns is associate editor of Internet news and information at The Daily Reflector. A native North Carolinian, he grew up in St. Louis, Mo.
The Baity-Burns family in the tram car preparing to climb to the top of the arch.
A view of the ball game where we are supposed to be from the top of the arch.
Madison, Bobby and Abigail at the ball game.
With Stan the Man after the win.
This morning we are climbing back in the car and heading East. I will be posting lots more video, audio and photos when I can. I have recorded more than I can edit and post quickly in my limited time on line. But keep checking back for more cool stuff from St. Louis and elsewhere, including advise on ways to learn from our mistakes and successes if you plan to make a similar trips.
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Expenses stack up
Traveling is not cheap.
We’ve filled up the car, a 2001 Toyota Highlander, three times so far, including once in Greenville before we set out for St. Louis. At more than $4 a gallon, that comes out to be nearly $70 a pop for a total of about $210. And the car is sitting on empty right now.
The hotel room is $197 a night, plus expenses. That comes to nearly $480. The meal I wrote about last night and the festival food came to about $170.
Tickets to the Cardinal’s game for four of us were an outrageous $360. The game essentially was sold out so I had to go to a team-sanctioned scalping Web site. I hope to post more about ticket prices later.
Still to come: tickets to the top of the arch — don’t know what the damage there will be yet; whatever we buy at the ball game; at least another night at a hotel, although we’ll find cheaper accommodations; another three fill-ups at least; and a few more meals.
We found a few ways to save: We brought a lot of food and drinks with us from home; we crowded into one hotel room; and even though driving has its downsides, it’s still cheaper than flying.
Still, the trip will set us back close to $2,000 by the time we get back home.
And that’s a lot of money for a family who still uses furniture handed down from their parents.
So we rationalize that the memories we are buying are priceless. But that’s hard to believe when you’re looking at the raw numbers.
Bobby Burns is associate editor of Internet news and information at The Daily Reflector. A native North Carolinian, he grew up in St. Louis, Mo.
The Burns cousins, Alex, Andrew, Madison and Abigail, take a break from playing in the fountain in behind the Old Courthouse in downtown St. Louis on July 4.
Yours truly.
An obligatory shot of the arch.
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Fireworks spectacular
The miles started to wear on us.
What had been a good day for the most part with my nephews, Alex and Andrew, turned into an nightmarish experience trying to get dinner for four children, my mother, her friend Mereda, my wife and me.
Many frustrations played into the scenario. My mother was edgy was on my nerves. Crystal was tired and the children were hungry and complaining.
I made the mistake of trying to get us into a popular Italian place on the Fourth and the night of a home baseball game.
The restaurant made the mistake of telling us it would be just 45 minutes before we could be served.
It turned out to be much longer, and what was supposed to be a nice sit-down meal turned into takeout.
I left with the kids before the food even got to the table so we could see the fireworks show.
After some juggling, we did end up enjoying our meal, just a lot later and in a different locale.
And we did get to see the show.
And Alex thanked me for a great day. I’m glad to know he enjoyed it.
Here’s a snippet of the fireworks.
I’m afraid the video doesn’t do it justice.
Bobby Burns is associate editor of Internet news and information at The Daily Reflector. A native North Carolinian, he grew up in St. Louis, Mo.
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This is typical
Me in nutshell.
I start off to do something good, that needs to be done, I get distracted, I forget something, and a minor disaster strikes.
Drake Bell rocked. We managed to get close enough to see him. But my camera had no memory card because I failed to reinsert it after emptying the files.
The process was necessary to have enough memory to record Bell and other stuff at the fair.
This type of thing happens, I guess, to a lot of folks, especially after 900 miles and two days on the road from Greenville to St. Louis for the Fourth of July.
But one of the great things about this trip, so far, is that we have muddled through little things like that pretty much with a smile.
At least I got some audio, and I made some great images from some of the other things we did, and will be posting them soon along with, I hope, great shots of the fireworks, tonight.
Right now, we need to eat. So I will sign back in again later.
Bobby Burns is associate editor of Internet news and information at The Daily Reflector. A native North Carolinian, he grew up in St. Louis, Mo.
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Coming into St. Louis
Madison and Abigail, my 10- and 7-year-old daughters, students at Wintergreen Intermediate and Primary schools, have never been to a big city, at least not that they can remember. The idea of going to St. Louis thrilled them, even if it meant two days in a car.
In fact, the idea of driving excited them two. Abigail, who loves geography and interesting facts many of us know as trivia, wanted to see states besides North Carolina that she had read about in her world record books.
Still the driving with your family for 16 hours and 900 miles offers it’s hazards in addition to the excitement.
I’ll post more about the journey’s ups and downs later. Some of it’s cool, some of it is interesting, and some of it is family drama at it’s best. But for now, here is a video of us coming into St. Louis, which at the very least captures some of the excitement.
It also captures my wife Crystal’s inexperience with the camera, one of those things that could really make you mad after a long trip.
It also captures some of the white-knuckle driving that makes me glad I live in Greenville. (The footage was shot at 60 mph.)
And of course it captures some pretty cool sites, more of which I hope to provide as the day progresses and fireworks blast tonight during one of the biggest shows on earth.
Bobby Burns is associate editor of Internet news and information at The Daily Reflector. A native North Carolinian, he grew up in St. Louis, Mo.
Hope you enjoyed the video. It’s about 11:15 a.m. here, central time. I’m off to gather up my nephews and get them back downtown, hopefully in time for the Drake Bell concert. My wife and kids are on the street right now watching what sounds like a pretty good parade. I will post again this afternoon.
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900 miles later, the fun begins, at least after some sleep
It’s 12:24 a.m. on Friday, Central Standard Time. Happy Fourth of July.
Twenty four hours ago, we were settling into a Howard Johnson in Biltmore Forest off I-40 near Asheville, N.C.
My 74-year-old mother, my daughters, 7 and 10, my wife and I tucked ourselves into a couple of double beds and a roll-out for a few hour’s sleep before hitting the road again.
Now I’m on the 18th floor of a hotel on the riverfront in St. Louis, Mo., with a view of the mighty flooded Mississippi, the Gateway Arch, the new Busch Stadium and the impressive dome of the Old Court House, where the Dred Scott case was heard.
We arrived here after driving 16 hours and 900 miles over two days, on the road from Greenville. We pulled in about 6 p.m. Thursday, then headed back out to visit a high school friend and her family, visit my sister-in-law and nephews and drop my mom off at the home of her best buddy.
We’ll get a good night’s sleep tonight because, one, we’re tired and, two, we will need it for tomorrow.
The Fourth is one of the city’s biggest days. Tens of thousands head downtown for the annual Veiled Profit Fair, which features free music, great food from St. Louis’ melting pot of German, Italian, African and Irish cultures, and, of course, one of the biggest fireworks shows around, with rounds shot from a river barge on the Illinois side of the Mississippi.
Drake Bell from one of my girls’ favorite Nickelodeon television shows, Drake and Josh, will be singing, and my nephews will be spending the day with us.
We might even swim in the pool on the top story of the hotel.
Obviously there’s a lot going on, and that’s just Friday.
Not as much detail is necessary for Saturday. Suffice it to say we’ll be climbing the 630-foot arch and watching the Cardinals take on the Cubs in sold-out Busch.
Of course we hope to catch up with a lot of friends along the way, and eat a lot food that they just don’t make back in the North Carolina.
Before you know it, we’ll be back on the road for another 16-hour trek back to Greenville.
But until then, we hope you have a great Fourth and keep checking back here for a lot more, including some photos, video and audio we’ve shot along the way.
I’ll post as soon as I can in the morning, but now, some much-needed shuteye.
Bobby Burns is associate editor of Internet news and information at The Daily Reflector. A native North Carolinian, he grew up in St. Louis, Mo.
Here is an image from the room of the Arch on Friday morning, after a good night’s rest. Fireworks will be shot from a barge on the far side of the river tonight.
Here is an image from the room of the Old Courthouse. Just behind it is the new Busch Stadium, some lights and red seats peak out between the dome and the building to its right. We’ll be watching the Cards play the rival Cubs there on Saturday. People are beginning to line the street for the 118th Veiled Profit parade.
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I really enjoyed reading your story about your trip. I am also a native North Carolinian, but I spent 5 years in St. Louis while I was in High School (Hazelwood West ‘95). My dad was in the military. I miss living in St. Louis, especially around
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