Day 13: The Return of the Rollercoasters!!!

Day 13 – Return of the Coasters

Odometer Reading – 5938

Alright!!!! After three days of driving across the country, it was time to get back to what this tour is all about: Rollercoasters

We were in St. Louis. It is the home of the St. Louis Rams, Cardinals and a good portion of the Dnomlas clan. It was sky was filled with dark clouds and the pavement was wet from the previous night’s rainstorm. We almost skipped this park due to the weather but we figured we were already here…we can handle a little drizzling rain.

Check the video:



We left the park satisfied and headed south to Sikeston. Sikeston is home to Lambert’s Café (http://www.throwedrolls.com/). One of the best restaurants I have ever dined at. The portions were huge. The side dishes kept coming. It was almost like family dinner at your Grandma’s house where the food fills the table. They used Travel Mugs as their glasses. This place is tied with the Big Texan for the best restaurant we visited on the Tour.

Check the video:



We made it to Memphis around 7:00 PM that evening. I have a friend from college who lives there I call Moe. She works for a prominent law firm in downtown Memphis and she, along with her folks, were kind enough to open their beautiful home to us, the weary road warriors. We caught up on old times and discussed our BBQ options for the next day.

One other item worth mentioning…Da MF Man met his match in cigarette smoking. Moe matched him round for round while we were in Memphis. Go Figure!!!


Another thing worth mentioning...this was the first park where I have ever seen Marvin the Martian out for everyone to see.

Day 12 - St. Louis (or St. Boogie)

Day 12 – Play Ball

Odometer Reading – 5639.1

Da MF Man is a baseball fan. He can quote stats about the Chicago White Sox at the drop of a hat. I pay attention to baseball during the World Series and the snippets I catch on ESPN. On this day, we went across town to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

I had some knowledge about this part of baseball history but I had no idea how about the number of teams, the depth of the stories, and the true significance of the Negro Leagues. It was amazing, inspiring, and downright awesome. I left the museum with a newfound respect for the game. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures inside the museum so…here are a few shots from outside:

After the museum, we headed towards St. Louis. The drive was relatively quick. We stayed at a Holiday Inn Express. Out of all the places we stayed at on this tour, this hotel gave us the best customer service. We got a discount on the room. They called inside of an hour to be certain we had everything we needed. And the continental breakfast….NICE!!!

Tomorrow…Six Flags over St. Louis (More roller coasters!!!)

Day 10 - 11: Mountains, Mountains Everywhere The Eye Can See!!

Day 10 – 11: Six States + Two Guys = Boring!!!

Final odometer reading – 5392.5

When Da MF Man and I decided we were going to take this road trip, we discussed the route we were going to take numerous times. We were excited about the prospect of driving from state to state, riding roller coasters. That got old once we drove from Nevada, through Utah and Wyoming, and ending in Colorado. As the video shows, we finally got a real continental breakfast in Elko, Nevada but by then, I had lost track of the day number when I went through my opening line to start the video:



I should not say that the ride was boring. I did watch two DVD's on my laptop somewhere between Salt Lake City and Cheyenne. I also played a few rounds of The Sims 2 and Pirates Gold, two PC games. Outside of seeing the a few Mormons and the actual Salt Lake of Salt Lake City, there was nothing else to get too excited about. Not a big day for pictures or videos. Once we reached our hotel in Ft. Collins, CO., we were glad to only have one more round of all day driving.

Day 11

We drove through Denver, CO., all of Kansas (The Kansas state troopers have five different versions of their squad cars: Kind of makes it difficult to keep track of which vehicles could be trying to pull us over - Thank Goodness for "Road Dogs), and finally made it to Kansas City, MO. The hotel was fine. We went to a BBQ joint called Grady's. Great BBQ!!! I admit the picture is very dark but...it was a last minute decision to get a picture of the place.