The first day of the "Griswold's Go West" Adventure of a lifetime

June 27, 2014 Knoxville to St. Louis, Missouri

Mileage:Nearly 500 miles...forgot to look at the odometer!

Points:  Nana was in the lead because she spotted the Arch first.

Favorite building of the day:  Rainbow lighted building (Pride Fest is scheduled for tomorrow and the boys haven’t even noticed the diverse couples enjoying the city all around us. J) 

Favorite Sayings of the Day:

Joe-Nicholas:  How do you turn this thing off???? (about an umbrella)

“I’m not making any promises!” (about riding up to the top of the arch)
Benjamin: (mom) Okay, now we can mark going up into the ARCH off of our bucket list! Benjamin: Well, it wasn't really on my list ...but I can add it to the list then just mark it off again.

  

Weird things we saw along the way:  many dead deer---like an unusually large amount! A dead armadillo, a top fuel dragster on a truck, A VERY LARGE Sailboat from Key Largo on a truck in the middle of Illinois (where was it going?), Very impressive lightning storm.

Christopher's story:  shtfhfsfghassqwertyuioplkjhgfdsa (His attempt to be funny and drive his mother insane.)  Actually, he said he was speechless. 

Kayden's story:  Too busy to type today.

Benjamin's story:  My favorite part of our trip so far is the arch.  I loved how tall it was.

It was beautiful.   J :D

Joe-Nicholas's story:  My favorite part was hmmm, going to the museum under the arch and seeing the robots (Abraham Lincoln, an Indian, and a cowboy) with my nana.  We went to the museum while the rest of the family went into the arch. J

Jennifer's story or as the kids want to call it- The Amazing Adventures of Big Doggie, Little Doggie, and Combat Wombat:

Captain’s log-The Atkins Clan left on their “Griswold’s-Go-West-trip-of-2014” from Knoxville around 6:45 this morning and headed west!  We stopped at Hardees in Halls for breakfast and had to run back in to get our missing biscuit!  We ALWAYS have order issues :)

We headed to Weigel’s for gas.   About 23 miles out (near Turkey Creek), we managed to spill our first whole bottle of flavored water on the carpet.  Between Ktown and Kingston, we had two death-defying stops on the side of 40 West to fix the stinking DVD players so that we could "Let it Go!" and sing/watch the rest of the Frozen  for the rest of the trip!   

Nana, Christopher, Kayden, Benjamin, Joe-Nicholas and I rode in our spunky, little minivan complete with Ex-cargo container on top and cooler and food tubs strapped to the carrier on the back until we got to Cookeville, where we had our first pit stop.  We drove through Nashville (saw the Titan Stadium) and headed north to Kentucky.  (So far, the kids have been AMAZING in the car!)   We had a few more pit stops and ate lunch at McDonald’s in Clarksville near Fort Campbell Army base.  Note to self...no matter how hungry you are at 11:15 Eastern time, McDonald's in central time is still serving biscuits.  

  

As we entered Kentucky, we stopped at the rest stop to get our traditional photo in front of the "Welcome to Kentucky "sign.  We also happened upon a group of retired folks who were showing off their corvette collection and allowed Benjamin and Joe-Nicholas to get in the car and have their pictures made (Big Doggie, Little Doggie, and Combat Wombat participated!).  We drove on across the state and stopped again in Metropolis, Illinois at the rest stop.  We found an Illinois sign for our picture and a super cool Superman cut out for super photo session with Big Doggie, Little Doggie, and Combat Wombat! Kids watched movies, played on their games, and napped.  (Christopher has slept all day- didn't sleep at all last night).

We finally arrived in St. Louis after surviving a crazy, midwest thunderstorm!   It was still raining as we drove around deciding what to do first.  I had been told about an amazing Lego exhibit at the Missouri Botanical Gardens (http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/ )  by my friend, Mary Kay Connel, so that is where we headed first.  Another note to self:  Don't rely only on GPS from your phone in a strange city...you will hear the phrase "GPS signal lost" roughly 18, 342 times.  Although still sprinkling, we made a pact that rain would not keep us from enjoying our trip at all!  This place was AWESOME.  Even the 17 year old enjoyed the beauty.  The Lego experience was very cool (http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/things-to-do/events/special-exhibitions/nature-connects.aspx )!  Our favorite species:  the giant palm tree with 50lb seeds, chocolate and coffee trees, red pineapples (Joe-Nicholas),  banana tree (Benjamin), and a Baobab tree.  This Japanese garden and English gardens were beautiful as well.  This was about $50 for the event for a family of 5, but well worth the adventure!

As we left the park, we remembered how starving we were and how it was actually an hour later to our bellies!  Christopher's friend, Jackson, had told him...okay texted him that the best BBQ he had ever had in his life was in St. Louis and was called Pappy’s BBQ (http://www.pappyssmokehouse.com/).  It sounded amazing, so off we went with sketchy GPS directions.  Miraculously, we showed up just five minutes later to an open meter in front of the building and a van full of hungry souls.  This place was oozing BBQ culture!  Blues music blaring, bbq smoker radiating the delicious smell of pork down the city block, and very funny t-shirts and signed celebrity menus hanging all about.  You go in and wait in line and order first (no kids' menu so be ready to share if you have little ones).  After you order, they find you a table and the food is delivered in minutes!  We all had the pulled pork which was some of the moistest meat I'd ever had...with a choice of four sauces--I preferred the sweet sauce.  Pappy's also serves this sinful side called fried corn...literally a corn on the cob deep fried in some sort of buttery goodness (not breaded).  The baked beans and baked potatoes were yummy too...mom sent back the potato salad though..way too vinegary.  Overall, this was a great dinner and atmosphere...Good call, Jackson! Total about $50.00.

St. Louis Sheraton (http://www.sheratonstlouiscitycenter.com/) was our hotel and it was just down the way from Pappy's.  We had our own unique experience tackle the parking garage.  Imagine the Brady Bunch minivan loaded down complete with carrier on top and carrier on back.  Now imagine the most terrifying 60 degree incline up a tiny parking garage inside the hotel...needless to say, after seven thousand attempts, folding and unfolding of the carrier, and rearranging 13 days worth of luggage, coolers, and food tubs...we finally were able to park with only a small portion of the carrier scraping off onto the garage floor.  As we checked in, the sweet lady asked what brought us to St. Louis...and without pause, I told her I was here with the body building convention (which I had seen on the sign and had seen personally in the elevator when we rode with Hulk looking men that were tanner than Malibu Barbie).  She just stared at me...so I "re"-replied...we are on vacation.  Anyway, good older hotel with bedroom and living room with plenty of room for 6 peeps.  I would recommend the Drury Hotel instead because it is literally on the grounds of the Arch and you could walk anywhere. 

After we settled in, we headed to the Arch...open until 10:00 in the summers!  (http://www.gatewayarch.com/)  We had to park downtown at the Hilton garage (only $4.00) and walk a few blocks.  We got to see the horse carriages along the way.   The Arch itself is just amazing...it is so tall.  You can't even imagine how tall it is even when you are standing underneath it.  After going through security (Even Big Doggie-Chuck the security ranger was called over to pat him down) we walked beneath the giant Arch.  Four of us took the trip to the top- an adventure that includes riding in a deathtrap of a pod up 600 ft with one other stranger.  Actually, again, totally worth it, but not for the faint of heart.  Joe-Nicholas and Nana stayed below and toured the Western Expansion museum and took lots of pictures.  Both groups had an awesome night!  

We were so tired that we didn't even tryout the 13th floor swimming pool at the hotel.   Good Night!