June 1 – “Day Fifteen: Church, the Arch, Busch and Beyond”

At breakfast we met some folks from Buffalo, New York.  A lot of folks.  They were on their way home from a group trip to New Orleans.  The guy we talked to was a Yankees fan, of course.  He didn’t begrudge me my Astros fandom, though.  His philosophy was, “At least it’s baseball.”  A man after my own heart.

After breakfast we left for Evansville, Indiana.  We decided to surprise some old friends from our South Oaks days in Arlington.  The Central Time Zone kicked in somewhere along the road.  Evansville is located in the bottom corner cluster of Indiana counties that held out for Central time.  Good for them.  Makes it feel like we’re closer to home.  At some point along the way I woke up (Hey, it’s one of the benefits of being the navigator, and Google Siri has just announced 115 miles of “go straight”) and noticed a road sign for Santa Claus, Indiana.  Couldn’t pass it up.  So I changed our route - to the dismay of Google Siri.  Santa Claus had a massive three-roller coaster theme park called Holiday World.  It was even open for business for the three or four people who had showed up so far.  Should we join them?  But alas, it was cold in Santa Claus.  56 degrees.  I expected snow any minute.  Chris must have, too, because she wouldn’t stop.  We did take some pictures.  The Santa Liquor Store.  The Santa Claus Hardware Store.  Frosty’s Mobile Home Park. 

As we left town we inadvertently stumbled into the Abraham Lincoln Boyhood National Park.  All was quiet there.  Even the two Santa Claus police cars were at rest in the park.  Again, just photos of the huge flagpole in the trees to prove we were there.  Our next discovery was a sign designating the Warrick County Coon Club area.  Interesting.  I looked it up.  Just what it sounds like.  Coon Hunters, Inc.  Quite the organization.

We made it to Evansville in plenty of time for church.  We walked right past David’s office, but he didn’t recognize us.  We saw Kim in the hall talking with someone, so we avoided her gaze and slipped into the sanctuary.  Our efforts at incognito proved fruitless, however.  Kim recognized us from her spot in the choir.  She spilled the beans to David at the visitor welcome time, and he did some “reminiscing” from the pulpit.  We continued the rehashing over lunch.  Great fun with great friends.

Finally, we headed in the direction of St. Louis to look at that big arch thing they have there.  That meant a looooong stretch of freeway driving.  Chris handled it like a trooper, as always.  I drifted in and out of consciousness, hoping to awaken to another surprise in the category of Santa Claus.  On that particular stretch of I64 through Southern Indiana/Illinois there are lots of trees, some farmland, a river or two … and very few surprises.  Well, until we got within spittin’ distance of St. Louis (Is 40 miles spittin’ distance?  It’s a perspective thing).  That’s when traffic came to a dead stop.  Road work.  On a Sunday.  After two weeks of successfully avoiding interstates, the one time we take one, and the only one that would take us right past the attraction we wanted to see, and we get stuck with road work.  Of course.  We stuck it out, though, and finally made it into downtown St. Louis.  Oh, we never intended to stop.  We just wanted to say we saw the arch.  We did.  And for a bonus I didn’t expect, there was Busch Stadium, the home of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team right next door.  Two for the price of one.  (Well, we didn’t pay for either one, actually.  But it was exciting to see).  The only photo I missed was the Welcome to Missouri sign over the Mississippi River.  I got the R and the I.  Oops. 

We made our way around the city’s loop and found the freeway that led south out of town before we started looking for a hotel.  It was already almost seven p.m., so we pulled off in a place called Arnold.  Really.  Wouldn’t you love to live in Arnold, Missouri?  Had some crab cakes at a Ruby Tuesday’s.  Even ordered a dessert for the first time since we left home.  Mega-chocolate thing.  Yum.

Hotel Rating: Comfort Inn.  Lost its five starfish rating as soon as the elevator opened on our floor.  Distinctive odor of smoking.  Thankfully the room itself had been deodorized.  The room was pretty nice, actually.  King bed.  Four-cup coffee pot.  They had an indoor pool (no, not in the room), but for some reason it was closed.  Strike two.  Waiting to see how breakfast goes, but we’re starting with three starfish, so it’s not looking good for old Arnold.

Psalms 33:9 says, “For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.”

Father, thank you for David and Kim and their ministry.  Bless them in a great way with joy and peace as they serve you.  Amen.