Day Sixteen: I miss you already

As the days and weeks remaining in this road trip creep toward us and fly by, I imagine we'll look back on Day Sixteen with much fondness. We woke up this morning with a kitty on our bed and a gentle breeze bringing the smell of spring rain into our third-story window. I felt so rested that I assumed I must've slept far past noon, and that our plans on exploring Holly's neighborhood had been thwarted. But it was only half-past ten. The bed was just that comfy. And, since it was really only 8:30 back at home, I figured we could justify sleeping just a bit longer.

Fast forward to one o'clock, when we finally quit snoozing and rolled out of bed. Bacon, eggs, and Frosted Flakes for breakfast, then more lazying about until finally, at around three, we made it out the front door. For the record, it was the front door of this house:

We have heard much negative talk (aka jibber-jabber) about St. Louis during the planning stages of this trip. Clearly these people who were surprised to see this stop on our Tour d'America Prospectus have never walked the streets of the university district in late April. Clearly they've never seen the street trees blossoming and the lawns achingly green, with happy sidewalk puddles to hop over. We wandered the neighborhood a bit until we found The Loop, a lovely hodge-podge of independent shops and college kids. We got our weekly comics at Star Clipper, possibly the coolest comic shop ever. Then, after a stop at a very odd Ben & Jerry's, we walked back home, where Holly was home from work and ready to take us to a delicious dinner, an independent new/used bookstore, and Ted Drewes (famous) Frozen Custard.

All of this, and then there was a new Office on tonight. Ah yes. This is a day that will shine brightly in our memories. I imagine that we'll begin to be nostalgic pretty soon, too, because it's 11 pm here and we still don't know where which direction we're driving tomorrow morning. I imagine that, when cat allergies and exhaustion finally claim me late, late tonight, I'll be wishing there were some frozen custard waiting for me tomorrow evening.

Today we listened to: Very loud hip-hop music at the very odd Ben & Jerry's

Mystery words: "Maybe he's trying to get us to laugh"

Mike talks about it: astoriedyear.blogspot.com