Friday, August 27, 1982
Up early to see Karen before she left for work, had English
muffins for breakfast, packed up, said goodbye to the three cats (one of whom
Kathy invited to our bed last night!), and started off. We stopped at a bank
that wasn’t open yet, but the drive-thru was to allow Kathy to cash travelers
cheques. We followed US 34 through the corn and milo fields before heading
south on US 73/75 to Nebraska City. Crossed the Missouri River on NE 2, into
Iowa and took US 29 south into Missouri.
Missouri seemed to have more hills and trees as we more or
less followed the placid Missouri River. In Kansas City we crossed the Missouri
River again, and took I 70 headed eat. An uneventful drive except for getting
gas and changing drivers. We crossed the Missouri River twice more before
pulling into St Louis. We turned south on Rte 270 and joined the rush hour
traffic down to US 64. There we turned to exit to Brentwood Boulevard, heading
north. We mistakenly turned right on Clayton Road and we were not seeing any
landmark street names. We turned north and got back to Brentwood Boulevard, and
at last found Bonhomme Avenue, having driven around the perimeter of Clayton,
MO. Bonhomme was a street of upper class offices and apartments, and we found
the Holiday Inn Clayton Plaza Hotel. We were hoping for the weekend rates of
$35 with our $10 discount coupon, plus they have HBO cable TV. But it was
orientation weekend at the Washington University, so we paid $56. We went up to
our room number 815, which was right across the hall from the noisy ice
machine. We checked the HBO schedule, then left to find a place to eat. We took
Brentwood Boulevard down past US 61 and wandered through some nice
neighborhoods to US 44. We took US 44 into overcast and hazy city of St Louis
and could barely see the Gateway Arch. Kathy exited at Grand Avenue and turned
north trough a renewing African American neighborhood. We drove past boarded-up
buildings to I 70, which we took west until we saw a sign for a Wendy’s and
exited. We had chili and a salad. After dinner we took I 70 out to the airport,
then south on US 67 to a mall where Kathy wanted to go through a Famous Barn
department store. Very ritzy, and the home store didn’t sell needlework
anymore! Bought some chocolate fudge ice cream at Baskin-Robbins and drove back
to the hotel.
Saturday, August 28, 1982
At 00:10 we turned on HBO to watch the movie “It’s My Turn,”
which ended at 1:30.
We left at 9:00 and Kathy called her relatives In Louisville
to let them know we were coming. It would take 5-1/2 hours and we told them we
would arrive at 15:00. But then we realized we would be entering another time
zone, and it would actually be 16:00. So we hurried off, taking US 64 through
the still hazy city. We saw the Gateway Arch, but not the Mississippi River as
we crossed it. Traveled through Illinois and Indiana, having to swerve around a
car slowing at a fork, and then around a police car directing people around a
stalled car. Kathy drove and managed to cut an hour off the driving time, so
that we arrived in Louisville at 15:00.
We mostly snacked and played our usual car games such a trying
to find the alphabet in letters on signs, or objects starting with the letters,
or coming up with names through the alphabet. We played 20 Questions about
animals, or coming up with place names or animal names starting with the last
letter of the previously named animal. We had also made up an operatic story to
go along with the Muzak on the radio. Our radio listening was limited because
Kathy didn’t like any static and neither of us could listen to country and
Western music for too long. We also had been keeping a checklist of state
license plates and finally found the rare Rhode Island plate in Louisville. We
had even found Hawaii and Alaska!
We arrived at Kathy’s Grandpa G’s and Aunt Elanor’s
house. Kathy did an assessment on Grandpa’s swollen leg and then we sat on the
screen porch for lemonade and zucchini bread. We saw Eleanor’s very impressive
doll collection that filled the attic to overflowing, with displays downstairs
as well. All sorts of dolls, and smaller ones were put in display boxes put
together by Eleanor with miniatures and handmade things. The attic was full of
display cases that were lighted, and some revolved round and round. There was a
big neat old doll house, and mechanical dolls, porcelain dolls, etc., etc.
Eleanor also takes a picture and cuts around objects in the
picture, lifting them above the surface of the picture to create a
three-dimensional effect. Downstairs we looked through a 5” thick loose-leaf
notebook of a photo album going back to Kathy’s great-great-grandparents on her
mother’s side. Eleanor had photographed old pictures and put together three of
these notebooks for herself, her brother, and her sister who is Kathy’s mother.
It was time to drive to the nursing home to feed Grandma
G her supper. Her area of the 3-bed room was crowded with cards and
pictures, handmade mobiles, and stained-glass suncatchers in the window. While
Grandma quietly ate, her roommate screamed. After an ice cream treat, we drove
to the other side of Louisville to Kathy’s Grandma C’s house. There we
met the spry 80-year old, and Kathy’s Uncle George and his wife Joyce G,
as well as the Yorkshire terrier Cyndie.
We went too Danner’s restaurant for dinner, all seven of us!
We had to wait a while for a table at the family style restaurant. We all had
the soup and salad bar, and most of the others got spaghetti. I had the fish
sandwich that came in inch-thick bread. I couldn’t eat it as a sandwich, or even
an open-face sandwich! I ate the fish and the bread separately!
We drove back to the C's for a picture taking
session, then George and Joyce left, and later the other Gs. I wrote in
the journal as Kathy talked with her grandmother, and we went to bed there at
23:30.
Next: Heading Home.
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