Day 25

Somewhere around 7:00AM I woke up wondering where the heck I was and what was going on. Then I realized I was in a bed, inside a house. From the moment my head hit the pillow until the moment I woke up, I slept totally soundly, which is something that never happens when camping. So it was a bit of a shock that the night had gone by so fast.

Denise did a great job of providing me with not just one, but two breakfasts, to which I have grown quite accustomed. First it was a bowl of Cheerios with sliced banana. I realized that I had probably just gone through the longest period in my life between bowls of Cheerios, so it was nice to put an end to that. Then a little while later, Greg came back over, and we all had eggs and toast. Yum.

Then we headed out for the day around St. Louis that Denise had expertly planned for us. First we headed downtown to visit the Arch. Once again, the weather was absolutely perfect, and the bright blue skies made an excellent backdrop for the gleaming stainless steel arch. We went inside the museum/vistor's center underground and saw a bizzarely dramatic 70's-era movie on the engineering and construction of the arch. It didn't have much information on the origins of the project, but it was quite entertaining nonetheless. It sure would have been interesting living in St. Louis during the years of its construction. Then it was time to get into the little tiny space capsules and take a ride to the top. It's definitely a good-sized arch, and with the clear skies there were good views all around. The only unfortunate thing is that there's not a whole lot around downtown St. Louis that's really worth viewing, besides the arch.

We made our way down, walked around the grounds a bit more, and then headed up to the Crown Candy Kitchen, a little old candy/ice cream/sandwich shop for lunch. I had a Reuben and chocolate shake. Yum. After that we headed over to Forest Park, which is sort of like a combination of Chicago's Lincoln and Grant Parks, except with out the lake. There are golf courses, bike trails, ball fields, an art museum, a history museum, all that kind of stuff. We went through the Jewel Box, a big tall greenhouse and a popular place for weddings (and it uses the arch as a major form of its construction). Then we walked over to the zoo. Since we were using Denise's direction-finding skills, we got to see a good bit more of Forest Park than we would have if we used my computer's direction-finding skills. All part of the master plan, of course. Then once we found the zoo, finding the entrance provided an opportunity for even more exploration. Entrance was free, and we wandered around for a while, but failed to locate the famous hairless monkey. We did locate the new penguin exhibit, which was much colder inside than any other penguin area I've been in before. We were hoping to see them defecate on each other, but as close as they were to us we ended up just being happy that they didn't defecate on us.

There's something about walking around that's far more tiring than riding the bike. Although whatever it was, it was hitting the other guys too. I think we were lucky to actually make it out of the zoo without falling asleep there and getting eaten by a grizzly bear. So we decided we'd had enough excitement for the day, and headed back to Denise's. She went to go get her driver's license renewed, while Greg and I just hung out for a while, trying to recover a bit. Then when Denise got back, we helped install a new chandelier in her dining room that had just arrived on her doorstep (along with at least a million other Internet purchases). I need her to come and decorate my place, because right now her little bungalow is a lot cooler than my house.

After that project (where it was really Greg who did all the work anyway), I spent some time on the computers figuring out the final days of my trip across Illinois. And then it was time for Girls' Night! Greg checked out a little beforehand, so that left me and four lovely ladies for dinner and a viewing of "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy." Denise's friend Ellie brought over three uncooked homemade pizzas and put them in the oven there. I had to keep checking my shirt while they were baking to see if I was drooling on myself. And when they came out one by one, they tasted even better than they smelled. Especially the one that had fresh tomatoes on top. The salad was great too. I made a complete glutton out of myself, although I guess at least there were a couple of slices that were spared. To top it off, Denise passed around her amazingly-good polka-dot cookies, of which I'd already eaten about a dozen during the previous day. I haven't had homemade baked goods since I ran out of banana bread and chocolate oatmeal brownies about four days into the trip, and I had forgotten how wonderful they are. So all in all, it was by far the best meal I've had on the entire trip, and I'm thinking I might have to go back every Tuesday for more. Oh, and I weighed myself (before eating the 14 pounds of pizza), and I was right around 175, which is exactly what I was when I left home. So I guess I'm eating enough food, and nights like this definitely help a whole lot.

After that I did a bit more trip planning, did some laundry, and Denise and I hung out for a bit staying up way too late. Coming in to St. Louis, I didn't even feel like I needed a day off from biking, but I sure am happy that I was able to make this stop. Because I had a really wonderful time. And now, I'm into the homestretch.