FoolKiller visits St. Louis (56k Warning)

[FoolKiller]

I went to St. Louis for Memorial Day.

Click the picture for the full 275 image gallery


One of my wife's high school friends moved to just outside of St. Louis a few years back to pursue her career as a lawyer. That friend is now just over 8 months pregnant and so that meant we had to go see her. They were only free for a day (pregnancy stuff), so this long weekend also worked into a vacation trip for us as well.

Our plan was to leave right after work Friday and make the ~4 hour drive in. With the exception of my wife thinking C is A on the directions, and the GPS we borrowed not knowing that I-64 is closed in St. Louis we arrived with minimal incident at about 9:30PM local time.

Since we weren't staying with my wife's friend we had to find a hotel, and my wife had to take the chihuahua. I thought it would be overly expensive, but as it turns out La Quinta Inns & Suites is pet friendly for no additional charge ($60 a night) 👍


So, here is Bruiser, charging his (Blu-Ray?) lasers in the hotel room Friday night.

And then I went to the gas station (Quicktrip) next door to find some local beer that I can't get back home and ran across Kansas City brewed Boulevard. I could have also bought some Schlafly, but we were visiting their brewery the next day.

It's not bad. More like Blue Moon than a hefeweizen though.


So, the next morning we headed out to our friends' house about 45 minutes outside of town and chit-chatted for a bit and then put Bruiser in his pin in their house and headed out for a glorious day of brewery touring.

First stop, lunch at Schlafly Brew House. I didn't take a lot of pictures during the tour because they are fairly small and there wasn't a lot to take pictures of. They are so small that they don't even run the brewery all the time, just when they need more of something.

So, here is the only thing I took a picture of, the fermentation tanks. That is our tour guide on the left.

During the tour I noticed it was a very small group, some were home brewers, and they all seemed fairly intelligent. We also got unlimited samples of their beer while the guide answered any and all questions we had, or just talked beer. During this session I discovered that Kentucky actually had their first Schlafly shipment delivered to Louisville and Lexington in the form of a bourbon beer for Derby, and we will be getting it regularly from now on. 👍

Before we left I purchased my a few souvenirs.

First, a sampler pack. The seasonal right now was Kölsch, which tastes similar to Bass, only not as bitter.

A shirt:
Front

Back

And a pint glass, which I am beginning to collect from breweries I visit when I travel.

Our next stop, was a much bigger, but less tasty brewery tour the Anheuser Busch brewery.

First we got to see the Clydesdales.

And went into the stables, which is some sort of historic landmark.

Then it was on to the actual brewery.

It is much bigger than Schlafly.

One of these holds more than the entire Schlafly brewery.

Is Alpha Beer like Alpha Male?

The logo on the outside

Remember me saying that Schlafly was a small, intelligent group? Frat boy central here. I was surrounded by fashionable name-brand T-shirts.

Oh, and that's Adolf Busch.

After looking at how beer was made (through glass) we then headed over to the bottling facility. On the way I passed a few nice pieces outside.

And the bottling plant.

And inside

Yep, it is definitely bigger than Schlafly.

I don't like drinking Bud Light (but will if it is free), and this is still a beautiful sight.

Schlafly's restaurant and brewery could fit in here.

Then this bus took us back to the beginning.

And we then got free beer here as well, but just two, you had to wait in line for it, and it was near impossible to get to ask any further questions at this point.

If it weren't for the massive industrial achievement on show at Anheuser Busch I would call it boring in comparison to Schlafly. At Schlafly I got to handle and taste the individual grains, walk in and around the machines (no open toe shoes), and get into personal conversations with the employees. At Anheuser Busch I got to watch a very poorly acted video about making beer and then take a bus ride, but the massive industrial complex was amazing to watch, until they rushed us along because there is a tour every 10 minutes. So, I suggest visiting both to see the two sides of beer making. It is either made in mass quantities while having a large appeal, or made slowly and with care by guys who just wanted to make really good beer that they will enjoy themselves.


Then before heading back to the house of our friends for dinner we stopped off to visit the Arch. I didn't go in as my wife is scared of heights and we have both been before. Plus, since 9/11 the security check has made it a huge hassle.

This shot was harder than I expected. I had to lay down.

I will pause here and continue with our 100 miles of Route 66 later.

 

[Eric.]

Hey, I bet you passed through someplace near me on your trip.

*looks at Google Maps*

Yep...Should have turned south on I-57, you were about half an hour away.

 

[Aldo]

Niuce pics
Inside the brewery/bottling plant looks awesome
That dog is seriously scaring me

 

[Bram Turismo]

How old was that brewery FK?

I once visited a very, very old Guiness brewery in Ireland, and a very old one in Belgium. Viewing such old breweries was awesome! 👍

 

[Duke]

Ahhh, the good old A/B tour. We used to do that a couple times every warm season. Can't beat free beer, and you don't have to stick to the Bud Light; you can get anything they make. Mich Dark wasn't too bad. You only get 2 beers in the main reception room but if you step outside to the hospitality tent they will let you spend the afternoon drinking on their nickel. At least, they used to.

I lived in Saint Louis from 1986-1989, just north of the west end of Forest Park, not too far from the intersection of Skinker and Delmar, a few blocks from University City. In the image below, if you follow the axis of the perspective straight back into the background, my apartment would have been just past the edge of the picture. I'd like to go back and see what the place is like now. It was a nice town and we liked living there. If my wife's job at Monsanto had panned out a little better, we might have stayed longer.

I worked right downtown. My desk was right at the point of the red arrow below (just inside the glass, of course, not stuck to the outside of the wall). On nice weather days it was hard to get things done.

How is STL these days?

 

[FoolKiller]

Continuing on:

I left off as we ended our day on Saturday. Sunday we got up, loaded the dog into the car and headed out at about 11:00 AM to find Route 66.

We started out by stopping by the Route 66 State Park, which really just included a small half-mile strip of the original road on the edge of a park, which required crossing a one-lane bridge.

After realizing it was more park than Route 66 (took about five minutes) it was back across the one lane bridge and into the visitor's center.

Inside the visitor's center they had a small Route 66 exhibit with a few of the signs from the old stops.

This is the sign for what used to be in the building.

From there it was down I-44 to find the exit (two down) to start on our way down Route 66.

First sight along the way was a prison...we didn't stop in.

As we were driving we got to practice a classic act for Route 66 drivers, racing the train.

We won.

First thing we saw was the Red Cedar Inn Restaurant.

And then we passed a few old motels, some still running, some shut down.

And across from the Diamonds Gardenway Motel (above) was this:

Hey Boo Boo!!!

We didn't stop because I didn't want to have my pick-i-nic basket stolen

Then we stopped by this little joint Indian Trading Post joint. If you don't buy anything they charge you $2 to look around (at least they told us we would be charged that), but I found some buffalo jerky to try. I haven't tried it yet because I wanted to be sure that I was safe and home in case it did anything...odd.

They were rude, smelled like pot, and if they had Native American blood in them it was a distant relative, by marriage, 10 generations back. Looking online after the trip I see it is labeled as "Must Avoid" and many people suspected it was a front for drugs, which I can see, as you have to pay extra to do more than the gift shop (But I could let my dog run around! 👎 ).

And from there we got lost as the route is poorly labeled. I discovered that sign postings, a souvenir map, a free map, and a AAA map all failed me and it was only after I pulled up Google Maps on my phone that we found our way again. No map can replace a zoomed in satellite view.

Once we found our way again, we made it down to Meramec Caverns (Jesse James' hideout). We didn't go in because we couldn't take the dog, but we did buy some fudge.

They have chocolate fudge with Reese's Pieces in it. Nuff said.

The site is also the location of a campground a canoe area. as we were leaving multiple police trucks towing boats came flying in.

I snapped some pictures, ate my fudge, and made a comment about them finding Jesse James. This morning I discovered that three people had drown.

Of course, we were oblivious to all this and went on our way.

Next stop, the Antique Toy Museum.

Attended children, serious crime.

Radio ventriloquist, easiest job...ever.

Working train.

Lasers again.

This would never be sold today.

If I was too old to have it, is it an antique?

This place was big.

This place was really big.

I have a couple of these - not antiques.

Finally, we headed back out on the road.

But first, a picture.

Now, we are back on the road.

We are thinking of actually staying here some time.

And back on the road.

Kids, no appreciation for history.

And then my favorite stop along Route 66:

Wait for it.

Wait for it - yep, that's a mower attached to a bike.

TADA!!! My life is now complete.

Then I went inside to use the restroom and found these gems.

Then we continued on down a small bit, but we realized no one can top the world's largest rocker.

So, at the next I-44 spot we hopped on headed back toward St. Louis. We made it 100 miles by sheer luck.

I will have to check this out next time.

And here it is, my only souvenir from Route 66. Personally, I think this is brilliant.

We really enjoyed Route 66 and intend to take a week and catch it in Illinois, then skip over what we already saw via the interstate and continue on until we only have a couple of days left to get back and start driving back on the Interstate. I figure we won't get too far, as we took 6 hours (including getting lost twice) to go 100 miles.


Yesterday I was hoping to check out some golf or disc golf, but it was raining so we just headed home. We got home with enough time to do some laundry and work on the garden.

If anyone wants to see all 275 pictures, unedited (blurry images included), feel free to check out teh gallery here.
http://img34.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=dscf3830.jpg

That dog is seriously scaring me

I hope that at this point you can see he is mostly harmless.

How old was that brewery FK?

Which one?

Schlafly started in 1990 at their other, smaller location, and this one they only opened about 12 years ago (I think he said). Anheuser-Busch has been there for over 100 years, although I imagine what you see in these pictures is not that old. Only two buildings, the Brew House and the Clydesdales stable are historic landmarks.

 

[FoolKiller]

Ahhh, the good old A/B tour. We used to do that a couple times every warm season. Can't beat free beer, and you don't have to stick to the Bud Light; you can get anything they make. Mich Dark wasn't too bad. You only get 2 beers in the main reception room but if you step outside to the hospitality tent they will let you spend the afternoon drinking on their nickel. At least, they used to.

Was that the brewmaster tour? There was the free one, which we did, and a paid one that wasn't running due to the holiday weekend and the brewmasters being on vacation. The hopsitality room only allowed you to have two drinks of whatever they had on tap that day, and no tent.

How is STL these days?

St. Louis is still a great town. This is my third visit, second as an adult. It is a great place to go with lot sof free stuff to do, like Forest Park, the breweries, the science museum, the zoo, and Route 66. As this trip was part friend visit and part vacation I didn't get to do everything I wanted, but now that my wife knows we can take the dog and eth hotel is teh most expensive part we wan't to go back more often.

Next time it will hopefully be during football season so I can catch a Rams game.

 

[Kylehnat]

Awesome trip! I, too, dislike AB products, bud I've heard the sheer scale of everything at that brewery is unbelievable! As a beer-drinker, I could care less...as a dorky engineer, I must go see it .

 

[TB]

Nice write up, FK. I've only been through (not even to) St. Louis once and then I was doing 75 mph in a 55 zone and being passed by everyone. I vaguely remember my mom saying something about seeing the Arch but I was too busy watching the road trying not to die kill us.

Title damn near needs a DSL warning, though.

Or maybe it loaded slow because I'm also downloading a 600 meg file on the laptop, an almost 600 meg file on the PS3 and who knows what the TiVo's are doing...

 

[Northstar]

At first I thought this was just a long beer run.

Looks like it was fun though. I don't think I would touch any of the hotels on that road though as they are old and who knows what has happened over the years.

 

[FoolKiller]

Awesome trip! I, too, dislike AB products, bud I've heard the sheer scale of everything at that brewery is unbelievable! As a beer-drinker, I could care less...as a dorky engineer, I must go see it .

They said it was something like 15 6 packs a minute. They also said that if the brewery shut down all the beer currently in the tanks would take an average of 20ish minutes to be consumed once it was delivered, and they are only 1 of 3 breweries, only serving the middle of the country. Why do people drink so much Bud Light? I can't drink it fast enough to get drunk and the taste is barely there. It fails in both purposes, but on the plus side my wife discovered that she likes Bud Light with Lime so she will now drink beer with me.

Since you don't like A/B brands much I suggest hitting Schlafly too. Their hefeweizen is top notch and their No. 15 is a good Belgian wheat beer (definitely better than Blue Moon). If you prefer more of an English style the Kolsch or Pale Ale is good as well, and the oatmeal stout is very nice. They also make a cider for people who don't like beer.

Nice write up, FK. I've only been through (not even to) St. Louis once and then I was doing 75 mph in a 55 zone and being passed by everyone. I vaguely remember my mom saying something about seeing the Arch but I was too busy watching the road trying not to die kill us.]

On the way home I was doing about 70mph (speed limit in Indiana) when the light rain we were having turned into a zero visibility down pour almost instantly. When it hit I was just back and in the left hand lane from an 18 wheeler, making visibility even worse. I started to slow down, but we went over a bridge/overpass in a turn and couldn't slow too fast for fear of hydroplaning. As I started on the bridge the car drifted from the bounce. I swear I caught a brief glimpse of the yellow line going under my hood and started to pull back centered into the lane just to feel the back end fish tail ever so slightly. My wife slept through the whole thing while I had a death grip on the wheel and felt my heart trying to come out of my chest. Fortunately the car slowed down enough at that point to handle properly again. We were in my wife's Yaris, and I know that had I been in my Rabbit it wouldn't have bounced as bad (if at all) and it would have corrected the fish tail on its own (if it even did it at all).

When we left Friday my wife had met me at work and we left my car there, so when we picked it up on the way home it was the most relaxing moment of the trip for me. The difference between those two cars is huge and it really shows when you find yourself in a tough situation. To this day I do not know why she likes that car. But it did get 40mpg on the trip, so I can't complain too much.

Title damn near needs a DSL warning, though.

Or maybe it loaded slow because I'm also downloading a 600 meg file on the laptop, an almost 600 meg file on the PS3 and who knows what the TiVo's are doing...

I did include two links to the Imageshack thumbnail gallery. You may even find pictures that are of more interest to you.

At first I thought this was just a long beer run.

All my vacations look like that as I love to sample new beer. If I go out anywherre I always like to find local brews that I can't get at home. I treat beer like others treat wine.

Looks like it was fun though. I don't think I would touch any of the hotels on that road though as they are old and who knows what has happened over the years.

You have to reasearch in advance or find Wi-Fi first to get reviews online, but some are still run by teh original owners or their families, who take pride in keeping a nice, if slightly rundown, place and others are new or newly renovated but designed to provide the authentic Route 66 feel. And then others are probably roach nests in disguise.

 

[homeforsummer]

Excellent photos 👍 I actually remember going past a few of those motels and landmarks actually so we can't have skipped as much of the Route in Missouri as I thought we did, though in our experience we did find it very difficult to follow.

We didn't find the security at the gateway arch too bad really, there was a metal detector and a few guards on the way in, but it was certainly no worse than a small airport and only took a minute. I could imagine it would be worse if there were queues but it was fairly empty when we went, and there's a real James Bond feel to going underground and then being taken up through the arch in little pods that are no wider than your armspan.

My mate bought some of that Route Beer when we were out there, he still has it on display above his fireplace next to photos from the trip and models of classic American cars

Interesting seeing the brewery pics. I've just been on a tour of a micro-brewery probably smaller than Bud's gift shop!

 

[FoolKiller]

Excellent photos 👍 I actually remember going past a few of those motels and landmarks actually so we can't have skipped as much of the Route in Missouri as I thought we did, though in our experience we did find it very difficult to follow.

We mentioned how hard it was to follow it to the lady running the Antique Toy Museum and she said that the state doesn't place the signs, rather a historical preservation society does, and so when the signs get stolen or whatever they don't have the resources to replace them quickly. Once I got Google Maps going on my phone it became a lot easier because I could zoom in and it was just a matter of figuring out if we should follow alongside the interstate or the railroad at the next intersection.

We didn't find the security at the gateway arch too bad really, there was a metal detector and a few guards on the way in, but it was certainly no worse than a small airport and only took a minute.

I was there on a holiday weekend, so they had lines coming all the way to the surface and at one point even wrapping around the corner of the base.

 

[Digital-Nitrate]

Great pics FK! I especially like the beer and Route 66 shots!