Droopy's Journal

Attention, the woman who was just in Victoria's Secret with the cat in her arms, please return to Victoria's Secret, you left your cat.

At first, I thought I must have misheard it, surely they said "cash", not "cat". But then they repeated the announcement and the woman next to me turned and said to me, "they really said 'cat', right?"

I forgot my blackberry on travel again. Guess I need a big sign on the inside of my door...

I wish I could say that I had forgotten how ugly and nasty the Saint Louis Airport was. I did not. I emerged into the same circular spaghetti of concrete I had last been through ten years ago. The last time I was here I was following a colleague out of the airport to go to a restaurant nearby that he said had good food. I could figure how to get out of the airport, but he could not. We hopelessly followed him in circles around the front of the airport three times until I broke free of the gravity of him and the airport. I pulled into Lombardino's, which just happened to be the restaurant he was thinking of. It had been 2pm when we arrived there. It was dark inside and we were the only customers in the restaurant. I had the impression that this was the closest to fine dining you could find in this area around the airport.

As I passed Lombardino's today on the way to get my rental car, the restaurant was dark and there were no cars in the lot. Had it gone out of business? I decided not to investigate and go for something less fine dining. I ignored my cockney accented navigator "Mikey" and headed towards the Wendy's I saw in the distance. I pulled into the lot to find it was also closed. Permanently. How does a fast food restaurant next to an airport go belly up? Ok. Let's just find a McDonalds.

I eschew the TomTom. I let Mikey keep jabbering to try to steer me to downtown Saint Louis. I do not need Mikey to find a McDonalds. They are everywhere, right? Half an hour and four towns later, after I passed the Berkeley Fire Company, I finally find a McDonalds amongst the check cashing stores and the $20 shoe store in Northwood, Missouri. I am the only white person in the whole restaurant and I am severely under dressed in my fire company t-shirt. Everyone else is in their Sunday best for lunch after church service. I was in my Sunday worst for lunch after flying in.

After lunch, Mikey navigated me to I-70 for the trip downtown. I soon saw the familiar arch in the background. I was near. I was finally at the Marriott property that would be my home for four days.