The challenge with working full-time on the road is – when do I get to have any fun? My typical work schedule keeps me busy Monday-Friday, and Sunday is working out to be our travel day, so that really just gives me Saturday as my “free” day. But sometimes, one day just isn’t enough. I know a number of people in St. Louis and there were a handful of things we wanted to see, so I took Friday off last week to squeeze it all in.
Animals
Friday morning we met up with my old college buddy Jon and his wonderful family for a quick trip to the wonderful (& mostly free) Saint Louis Zoo. Eli didn’t get too much out of it – he had a great time running around the children’s zoo, but didn’t seem particularly interested in petting the goats. Otherwise, zoo time overlapped his nap time, leading to some crankiness and a very off-schedule day.
Friends
We visited more with Jon and Lisa at their nearby home, and even got in a game of Settlers of Catan with the Cities & Knights expansion. We never did get both little ones (our Eli and their Kate) napping at the same time, but we perserved a marathon game until Susan (almost unknowingly) won!
After a quick dinner for Eli back at the camper, then we went out for dinner with our other friends Matt & Sarah at a local Irish pub. Good food, great company! Came back to the campground and spent a few hours enjoying a campfire (eventually – had to burn an entire old Epic UGM brochure to finally get it going!) and a couple of s’mores.
Man, what a day!
Science
Saturday was a little less crazy. The three of us had a leisurely morning followed by an afternoon at the Saint Louis Science Center. That was a neat place to visit – I got to experience tornado-force winds inside a phone booth-like device, Susan single-handedly built an arch, and Eli just loved running around non-stop! Susan & I also faced off in a long match of Mindball – this is a device where two people each wear a headband with electrodes, and a computer moves the ball between the players based on who has the greater relaxation & focus (as measured in EEG by alpha & theta waves). This was very interesting! It was made more so by the “Eli handicap” – I was holding him, but Susan was likely more tuned into (& thus influenced by) his frustration / tiredness. I ended up winning, but it felt like it dragged on forever, indicating we were pretty well-matched overall!
Oh My!
Sunday was a travel day – we took our time in the morning getting ready & didn’t really pull out until around noon. In hindsight, we should have been a little more motivated, because we had a 360 mile trip ahead of us to the Mammoth Cave area in Kentucky. We pulled into our pull-through site at Singing Hills RV Park just moments before sundown, and moments after an Eli meltdown. These long travel days are tough.
Some technical notes:
We’re probably going to find a new theme that presents our site a bit better, so don’t be surprised if the look & feel changes in the coming week or so
I’m still figuring out how to setup a way for readers to get email updates when we make a new post. Stay tuned for that.
Obviously we need to add more pictures, as well. We’re still figuring out an expedient process to get photos from our phones & camera on to my laptop, uploaded to the blog.
Good summary! I also want to add that the “arch” I created by myself was my height and made of 11 big blocks. Supporting it during construction involved resting blocks on back, shoulders, and head. And when Dave tried to help I almost bit his head off. “Don’t touch me! What are you doing? Go away!” Competitive doesn’t capture it.
Speaking of that, during our settlers game I realized more deeply the extent of my potty mouth. With a 5 and 7 year old around it is more detrimental. And Eli is listening too. We have already started spelling around him. I. need to add the “f-word,” “s-word,” and “douche” to my list of no-no’s.
One Response to Animals, Friends, and Science, Oh My!
Good summary! I also want to add that the “arch” I created by myself was my height and made of 11 big blocks. Supporting it during construction involved resting blocks on back, shoulders, and head. And when Dave tried to help I almost bit his head off. “Don’t touch me! What are you doing? Go away!” Competitive doesn’t capture it.
Speaking of that, during our settlers game I realized more deeply the extent of my potty mouth. With a 5 and 7 year old around it is more detrimental. And Eli is listening too. We have already started spelling around him. I. need to add the “f-word,” “s-word,” and “douche” to my list of no-no’s.
Comments are closed.