27 September 2014

We are taking a day break here in Grafton and then a day trip to St. Louis on Sunday via a rental car. So step one was getting the rental.

The Enterprise agent picked us up and we got Alton around noon. We were on the hunt for lunch, transmission fluid and Spray 9 cleaner.

Quo Vadimus is 21 years old so it has older technology in it. Trying to find transmission fluid was hard. Our fourth place, Car Quest had it, and more importantly had it in 5 quart containers. Each side holds just under 4 quarts and the transmission cooler holds another quart. So I picked up 3 containers (so I have some to top off with) and we were off….

To WHITE CASTLE!!! Yay us! It’s been quite a while since either one of us have had “Belly Bombs”. Since there was one only a mile away, we were there in a flash. Susan stuck with the more traditional sack of 5. Since I was last there White Castle has branched off to have two kinds of cheese, bacon, plain chicken and an Italian chicken with sauce. Being adventuresome, I tried all 5. Not sure what I was thinking. Chicken sandwich is a chicken sandwich, you go to White Castle for the steamed burgers and the onions. Kudos to the Castle for trying to branch out, but on my next visit I’ll stick with the classics. In any case, lunch was good and it was a pleasant surprise.

At the next table there was discussion about a combined Car and Air show at the St. Louis Regional Airport. We talked it over and agreed to go for a short time. Neither one of us had thought to bring hats and Susan had flip flops on, not the best thing to walk long distances in. Luck for us, to get to the air planes you needed to walk through the fire station. It was cool inside and Susan opted to stay there in the shade rather than walk the hot tarmac.

Lots of plane, most of them private. Lots and lots of experimental / home built aircraft. Only a few military and they were of the training style. There was one called the “Teeny Two” that was 10 feet long and had a 16 foot wingspan and sat just 24” off the runway. The owner / builder called it “a sky go-cart”. It took him just over a year to build in his two car garage.

There was also section with about 50 model planes. They were flying a few at a time. As we were leaving the airfield, one of the larger ones started doing stunt flying.

The grass for the auto show was a little easier to manage, but it was super hot out. We managed about three rows before we called it a day. Older cars was the norm, but some really nice chopped hot-rods and 3 DeLorians! My favorite was an open wheel touring car, it had the most amazing paint job.

We got back and decided to do a load of laundry while we waited for the “Parking Lot Party” to start. We were walking up when Susan got a call from the Admiral of Pier Pressure. Yay! We have been trying to meet up since we were in the Delaware Bay. We’ve traded emails back and forth for months. She was HERE!

We met up with her and had an amazing time, it’s like we have know each other for years. She was very gracious, ignoring our manners faux pas while we moved laundry around and folded things. We talked about a huge amount of stuff it was a great three hours. We hope to see her and the Captain farther down the loop.

After dinner and conversation we headed back to the boat. We paused briefly to listen to the band at “The Parking Lot Party”. They were good, but we were tired, so it was off to bed.

Sunday is our big day doing St. Louis.