• 40 days and 40 nights. Who knew we would actually make it this far?  The morning starts out with our usual slow start but we are pressed as we have to make Glenda’s 4th doctor appointment of the trip.  As we have mentioned before, we are going to name all the docs with names of colors so this one, Dr. Firestone, is Dr. Red.  Nema takes the patient, Glenda, to the doc while Sue wanders around KC Plaza, a shopping center of southwestern architecture full of fountains and beautiful tile work.

KC Plaza

Plaza

Glenda and Dr. Red and her x-ray

Glenda and Carla the hand therapist

Making the cast

Do you recognize this arm sans cast from “Person of Interest”??

• So once she is all fixed up, we say goodbye to Nema and head out east on Rte 70 to St. Louis.  Nothing to report on the way, just highway and we land at our hotel across from the Arch.  The Arch looks really cool, beautiful and huge!  We will explore it further tomorrow.

The Arch

• Dinner tonight we decide to try the “Little Italy” of St. Louis — “the Hill”.  We take a cab which takes forever…through the city streets, highways, crossing rivers, on main avenues etc and we finally arrive at one restaurant.  No sign of a “village” like the little Italy we were expecting.  Oh well.  We eat at the restaurant and find out that Yogi Berra and Joe Garagiola grew up across the street from each other on Elizabeth Street here.  We walk over to find the street now named Hall of Fame Street.  Wow!!  The cab ride home takes half the time, half the cost and such a pleasant driver.  He advises us against taking the rickety capsule ride up the Arch to the top describing the awful ride.  We agree wholeheartedly and thank him for his wise counsel.  No Arch ride for us.

At Cunetto’s

Toasted ravioli – a “Hill” special

Hydrant at the “hill”

Jersey Junket

Today we have 2 junctions.  First, Carla, of hand therapy fame, announced that she was so impressed with customs at EWR.  She loved it.  So much better that London, apparently.  Second, Yogi Berra, a long time Jersey resident, of Montclair and late maybe of Caldwell, an icon…was raised here in “the hill” in St Louis.  5447 Elizabeth St.  Here is his house:

Sue in front of Yogi’s house

#5447 Elizabeth

Theme of the Day: Arms.  Broken arms, great throwing arms, catching the great pitching arms etc.

Up next: Lexington, KY

SInce we both brought our old HP12C financial calculators on the road (you never know when you might need to do a quick present value calculation when driving across America), we felt the need to calculate something.  So for you number cruncher people, here is our trip quantified:

Number of Days on the Road: 43

Number Miles Driven:  8,590

Number of Fill-Ups: 53

Number of States Traveled In/Through: 22

Number of Hotels/B&Bs Stayed In: 27

–       11 chain hotels

–        7 non-brand hotels

–       5 National Park lodges

–       3 B&Bs

–       1 ranch

Number of Homes Stayed In: 4

Number of Medical Professionals Consulted on the Road: 4

Number of Animal Species Seen/Noted: 37 plus 2 dead horses

Number of Waking Hours Spent in Silence: 0

Number of Books on Tape Completed: 0 (but we got through 2 separate halves)

Number of State Tourism Bureau-Provided CDs: 1 but it was a good one!!!

Number of Meals Missed: 0

Number of Days without an Alcoholic Beverage: 0

Number of Stamps in our National Park Passports: 42  woooo hoooo!!

Number of National Parks/Sites/Monuments Visited: 21

Number of Photos Taken: 4,558 (9.71 Gigabytes)

Number of Strangers Photographed: 111

Highest Elevation Reached: 11,312 Feet Above Sea Level – Monarch Pass, CO

Lowest Elevation Reached:  282 Feet Below Sea Level – Death Valley, CA

Highest Legal Speed Limit: 80 MPH, UT  (Sue never exceeded the speed limit!!)

Average Number of Miles Driven per Day: 200

Total Dollars Spent on Travel (Gifts Excluded):  $8,781.82

Average Cost per Person Per Day: $102.11

Number of New Taste Sensations: 51