Weekend Trip

Now that the surprise is over, I can talk about my trip. I went to St. Louis for a friend, Tozsha’s, surprise 30th birthday party. Another friend, Melissa, and I arranged our flights to meet up there and spend the weekend with Tozsha. (Melissa is from Dallas, but is currently living in Richmond, VA).

Tozsha actually lives in Troy, which is a smaller town outside of St. Louis. From hearing her talk about it, we expected it to be much smaller than it actually was.

We did some touristy things – shopping in a cute little old town section of St. Charles, went to a Casino (I won $8 – woo hoo) and visited the Arch. Unfortunately, the Journey to the Top at the Arch was sold out so we didn’t get to go up – bummer. However, it was still cool to see it and we checked out the museum.

Tozsha has told us so many stories of her hometown-country-living, that Melissa and I were probably most interested in her pastime of bar hopping in the small towns around her home town. We managed to hit a few of them. First was Little Dick’s in Troy. Like I mentioned though, Troy isn’t really very small, so this place seemed like any little hole in the wall bar you would find anywhere. Next the plan was to go to a little bar in the town of Silex, “If it is still open, because they just kind of set their own hours.” This was around 10pm on a Friday night. We were in luck… they were open. Unfortunately they served *only* beer. (I don’t drink beer). Oh well, we got our fill of the locals there (all 4 of them) and then moved on to one of Tozsha’s favorites in Onley (No link - couldn't find any data on this town). Again, some interesting locals and we really got a kick out of the waitress.

So… You know you are in a small hick town bar when you hear the following:

• Amy (Friend of Tozsha's) – “Do you have wine?”
• Waitress – “Yeah, we have that pink stuff in a box, I can’t remember what it’s called.”

• Melissa – “Could I have a Vodka and Tonic?”
• Waitress – “What all’s in that?”

• Melissa orders a second
• Waitress brings it in a plastic cup and says – “Sorry we’re out of glasses”
• Melissa looks around the bar and determines she is the *only* person drinking out of a glass. Hmmm….
  

I’m sure all of the above were funnier in person, but I had to share. We really got a laugh out of them. Overall, we had a great time in Missouri and it was great to see Tozsha and Melissa. Missouri does look quite similar to North Dakota, so it made me a little homesick. I'm ready to go home for a visit now. :-)

At the same time, I couldn’t wait to get home since I was really missing Gary. :-) He picked me up at the airport (brought me tulips– what a sweetie!!). Hopefully I’m not embarrassing him by writing that here. :-)