This is the travel journal of two British girls travelling across the great expanse of North America. Spending most of that time on very slow trains…
We ran for the train in Chicago and jumped aboard the Texas Eagle just in time. Arrived in St Louis at about 8pm and were greeted by the most desolate Amtrak station so far. Niagara Falls hadn’t been too inspiring, but the St Louis station appeared to be down a dirt track with no sign of life. You’d think this would have given us a clue but we rashly threw on our backpacks and headed towards a main road to find a bus or some kind of public transportation (we were on a pretty tight budget). This move wasn’t the best one because in the space of twenty minutes we bumped into a few of St Louis’ less salubrious residents. Slightly creeped out and very tired and hungry, we took shelter in a hotel where we called for a cab to rescue us.
We’d booked ourselves into the dubiously named Econolodge. If the name wasn’t inspiring, the locale wasn’t either. But safely locked in our room we ordered Domino’s, showered and watched cable TV until we fell asleep.
In the light of morning everything looked more positive and promising. Except the headline on the local newspaper: “The hottest day EVER?”. Oh dear. This might be a good point to say that this phase of the trip (St Louis and Texas) was notable for two things:
- The ridiculously hot temperatures
- Locals seemed to think Martina and I were rather attractive. Whilst neither of us has been hit by the ugly stick, we didn’t expect the rapture that was headed our way from those around us. And our reception as we headed further south into the US (like the temperature) was very warm indeed.
We’d already fitted in one ice cream by midday. We decided anywhere with air conditioning was the way forward. So we hit the City Museum – a curious place with no discernible displays about the city and more, um, slides and tunnels.
It was like a labyrinthine adventure playground and we amused ourselves merrily on the slides and the retro games machines. After exhausting our inner 8 year old, we decided it was time for alcoholic refreshment. Our friend India is a native of St. Louis and had recommended a bar called Schlafly’s – a really great microbrewery with its own bar. It was a little quiet when we went in but our British accents soon made us lots of new friends. People were so friendly and lured in by our foreign accents chatted we chatted for hours (all were men so I’d be naive if I didn’t say that the fact we were girls was also a factor…)
First up was Vinnie and Dannie who worked for a napkin company. They bought us a couple of pints and were very interesting, so the least I can do is plug their company here. Next we met Bryan and Michael, both a little younger than the previous couple and just as chatty. We talked politics for quite a while and then they treated us to a Mexican at El scorchio in the Maplewood suburb. They were so nice they deserve a plug too, so here is some of Michael’s artwork.
The next morning was a bad one for Martina as she was blighted by a mighty hangover. I amused myself watching telly whilst she was sick. I then dragged her out of the motel as we needed to check out and more importantly, to explore St. Louis. To add to her discomfort, today was even hotter than the day before, cranking the temperature up to 104 degrees Fahrenheit.
We took the Metrolink out to Forest Park (where Martina was promptly sick against a tree – sorry St Louis!) and we had a lunch in the park cafe and met another 
lovely St Louis resident in the shape of a Park guide lady. We then went to the brilliant St Louis Zoo where most of the animals had sensed it was a bit warm so sensibly stayed very very still in the shade. The place was deserted both of animals and people – but obviously a great place when the animals had the energy! However, we did see bears, penguins, tigers, zebras and some brilliant lemurs. We cooled ourselves down in the heat using some giant wet fan contraption (something we would never have the need for in Britain, so quite a novelty to us!).
We enjoyed ourselves so much in the zoo gift shop that we again lost track of time and had to leg it back to the motel to collect our bags before our next big train ride. This time it was another over-nighter…
