I'm on vacation and my blog is really long

I am in St. Louis, and I am on vacation.

Tuesday morning my ex-roomie and I drove from Boulder to STL. 900 miles, 14.5 hours, a lot of rock music, some awesome car snacks, silly conversations (like when was soap invented...what was it like in the time before soap?), some serious conversations (oppression and privilege in the US), political conversations, and just generally a fantastic time. We stopped four times total, more than I'm used to, but it was nice to do. Our last stop before landing at my parents' house was in Booneville, Missouri for dinner. We at at the Bobber Cafe, and had some good midwestern fare. John had a giant bowl of chili and a side of coleslaw. I had the aptly named Big Belly Buster fish sandwich with seasoned fries and ranch dressing to dip 'em in. My sandwich was more than a foot long. I ate about half and got the rest boxed up to take home. Big Belly Buster indeed!

Wednesday John and I went to the St. Louis zoo. I love the zoo...or at least I have very fond memories of the zoo from when I was a kid. After living in San Diego and frequenting that zoo, it is hard to still be as impressed with the St. Louis zoo. But I had a good fun time and saw snakes and butterflies and orangutans and elephants and bears and sea lions and hippos and lots of other things. I'm sad I didn't see the camels, but we ran out of time. Wednesday night we had Pasta House for dinner....mmm pasta house salad. I have a little sad in my heart for not getting to eat toasted ravioli, but they're meaty and I'm not.

Thursday it rained and rained and rained. In the afternoon I took John out to St. Charles for his family reunion stuff and I went to see my grandparents. My grandma likes to purge her closets whenever I'm around and most of my visit was spent with her saying yes or no to things she pulled out of the closet because my grandma thinks that fashion is forever and unchanging, even for things purchased over many decades for a woman who is 55 years older than I am... more on this later.

Friday was the Day of Running Errands with my parents. We got lunch from St. Louis Bread Co. And even if it got bought by Panera and now can be found all over. in St. Louis, it is still Bread Co in St. Louis. After lunch the errand running resumed and culminated in them going to Wal-Mart. I refuse to shop at walmart for lots of reasons. If you need some reasons why, see the following for some good info on why they are so bad: http://www.walmartclass.com and http://walmartwatch.com. While my parents were in Wal-Mart, I went walking and ended up taking a nice sweaty 2.25 mile walk...I forgot how sweaty I get when it is humid out and sweat doesn't evaporate! For dinner we had another St. Louis favorite, Imo's Pizza.

Friday night I played Fashion Show Barbie. You can check out my photo album for the dress-up fun. I love my grandma, and sometimes maybe I act like a grandma, and maybe even dress like one. But there are certain items that I found tactful ways to decline from taking:
• a red leather coat with built in shoulder pads that would have looked great in a Madonna music video in 1988
• a white shirt with multicolored 3-D chenile poofs and squiggles all over it. poofs and squggles were on the front and back. I wish I had gotten a photo of that one.
• a box full of bathing suits from approximately the 1980s...lots of ruffles and bright patterns and even some bermuda shorts
• gold and bronze purses covered with fringe, rhinestones, and/or metal studs

Today I woke up early and went out on a solo adventure. I drove out to New Melle, MO to a farm to pick blueberries and peaches. The peaches were $0.99 per pound and the blueberries were $2.10 per pound. I was out there picking for 2 hours and came away with 6 pounds of blueberries and 24 pounds of peaches. So my Colorado friends...lemme know if you want some fruit! I'll likely be making pies when I get back to town. I had really a wonderful time out there in the fields. The blueberry picking was really wonderful--it was slow, methodical work picking one berry at a time. The bushes were not overflowing with fruit, and the conditions were described as "scant" but I really enjoyed going from bush to bush. I was really in the moment and my mind rarely drifted...well, ok, maybe when I heard a rooster crowing, I got super nostalgic and misty-eyed; maybe I had one brief fantasy of ditching my life in Boulder and buying land in rural Missouri and planting fruit bushes and fruit trees and buying a cow and a goat and spending my time making cheese and jam and pies. Being outside doing some light manual labor, being connected back to the land...I miss it.

Coming back from the fruit farm was a whole other adventure. I got lost. I mean I got seriously lost. I drove out the way I came in, carefully retracing my route back, and about 20 minutes along I knew something wasn't right...the farmland was too manicured, there weren't enough trees. Suddenly I was at the intersection of Route D and Route T. Route T? There wasn't any Route T on my way to the farm. Maybe it changed names and I didn't notice. I drove on a little more and then decided to head back. I turned around and went back to within a quarter mile of the farm and started over. I tried again. When I got to the same stupid intersection of Route D and Route T, I said--hm, this 3 way stop must be where I messed up. I should go this OTHER way on Route T.

And I drove and found myself in Marthasville, Missouri, home of Daniel Boone. And there was a turn for Route 47 North and the word "Warrenton" with an arrow. North felt right, Warrenton (if it was the Warrenton I was hoping for) was on the highway that could get me back to where I needed to be, so I drove on Route 47. And I drove, and I drove, and I drove. I drove for almost 30 minutes. I finally got to Warrenton, and it seemed like another 1-gas station town. My adventure was starting to feel not so fun anymore. I gave up.

I pulled over, and thankfully for the first time in what felt like forever, I had cell reception. I called my parents asking if they could look up my location. I was at the intersection of Route 47, Route M, and Route MM in what I thought was Warrenton. My parents directed me to find someone to ask for help.

So I called my brother. My brother, my hero, my KITT. He was sitting at his computer, he google mapped Warrenton, he found my crazy lettered intersection and he told me to stay on Route 47 north. I got back on 47 north and 2 minutes later I was on Interstate 70! Whoopee! I knew where I was.

When I got home, I checked on the map and found my mistake--it was right back at that stupid point where I started. Right after leaving the farm, I should have gone right on Route D instead of left...sigh. 2 hours and 70 miles of rural road adventure!

Tonight I got to see my grandparents one more time. My grandma was sick--we think it is food poisoning, but aren't sure. A bummer of a way to end my visit, but I'm still glad I got to see them once more.

Tomorrow morning I get back on the road...with a brief stop to see my friend Bob and his family! :)

More (pithy?) updates after I'm back in Boulder.