VW Road Trip
Day 2: Tuesday, July 3rd
After not a lot of sleep at The Lafayette, Tim and John decided to grab a real breakfast at the Busy Bee in the Harmar area of Marietta. It was a great down home breaky…although we were the youngest in there by decades. Tim and John enjoyed a scene right out of central casting. One of the regulars, Rusty, asked Joe if he had seen the headline about Anderson Cooper being gay. Joe replied, “Who?” Rusty says, “The news guy on CNN.” Joe replies, “Oh him. Who didn’t know that?”
Off to wild and wonderful West Virginia and some very nice road--thank you, Senator Byrd. Into Kentucky with some unremarkable roads and landscape. Seems that horse country somehow missed I-64. We did stop for lunch at what Tim thought was Crate & Barrel, aka Cracker Barrel. Tim got the meatloaf special, John got the salad…a surprise choice.
The car handled well and we averaged close to 39 mpg for the 9 plus hour trek to St.Louis. First stop the arch. Glad we did it, but we were hot and tired. It’s a racket, but a 50 Year old engineering marvel and something to see in person. After going to the top in an MRI/2001 type pod, we headed to our hotel, The Moonrise. Think Kimpton meets Schrager. Very hip and cool. Lindsey prepared a month aged rye manhattan with brandied cherries. Hmm. Jason, the commander (front desk clerk), at the Moonrise recommended Pi for deep dish pizza. Our waiter David was a movie buff, and John chatted with him about films. Of course “American Beauty” came up. Tim hated it, John loved it, and David was nonplussed. Ain’t that America?
Tomorrow it is off to Oklahoma City in the Beetle TDI, but first we tour the underground Meramec Caverns as we start the Route 66 part of our journey. Photos and more at the Facebook page, Focus Group Radio.
