Monday, 5/30. "I Didn't Do an Arrival Post" or "How Much Fun Is Too Much Fun?"

I try to do one concert per day on our music mission. Memorial Day makes that something of a challenge because places struggle to staff in such a way that they can host a group. So it became a day just for fun.

The arch seemed like a good place to start. We walked there from the hotel (we are staying just a few blocks from it!). We had tickets to go up, but due to covid restrictions we had to go in a couple of shifts.

I was in the second group, and when I came down the tram, I looked at my watch and realized it was 11:53, and our Riverboat cruise departed at noon. I shooed everyone out of the gift shop and ran (literally) from the arch down to the riverboats to get them to hold the cruise while the rest of the group came down. No pictures of that because I was running as fast as I can with a 35 pound backpack.

I crashed into the ticket window and did my very best to explain the situation while also searching mostly in vain for my breath. "I" [pant pant] "am John Cowden, and I have a [pant pant, you get the picture] group for the noon cruise. What do we need to do? "Uhm, well, we will start boarding that at 11:30, so I guess they can just wait out here for the next 25 minutes?"

Wait. What? [John looks at watch again and regrets some of his life choices...specifically his choice not to set his watch to Central time] It's funny because I spent the entire run from the arch to the boats wondering why the people who worked at the arch and riverboats didn't know how the arch and riverboats work. Turns out I'm just a dummy.

So a bunch of us casually walked back to the arch and back through security to purchase some items in the gift shop before returning to the boats for our cruise.

We had lunch on the cruise, which was really good except for the snickerdoodle. That was not the best example of a snickerdoodle I've ever eaten. We learned a lot about barges and how they operate. And why the boats that push the barges are called tow boats. It's because a group of barges is called a tow, and the largest group that generally transits the upper Mississippi is 15 barges.

After the cruise we headed to the zoo. Will informed me along the way that he figured out what happened to our AC and that it wouldn't happen again. Good news. We were reminded we are not in the south when a few folks got of the bus at where we believed we were to exit and were told somewhat curtly to get back on the bus.

For your reference, if you're ever on a bus, you need to go all the way around to the north entrance, and you will be judged harshly if you attempt to use the south entrance.

I didn't get a whole lot of pictures in the zoo. False. I got a lot of pictures in the zoo. But if you want to see pictures of a zebra you can probably do a lot better than the one I got. And I missed the picture of the strange cow-like (but not cow) creature pooping even though I observed his squat and knew what was coming. I do recommend the St Louis zoo if you're ever here, but of course I believe Atlanta to be a better zoo for a variety of reasons. We can talk about that under the oak tree later if you'd like. Oh, and before I go any further, I would like to apologize publicly to Mariann that there were no wild hogs to see.

Speaking of hogs, the chaperones have, over and over again, saved my bacon this week. Yesterday's example of this was when Megan came up to me while we were waiting on the bus and said, "Uh, all the restaurants on the hill are closed." We (mostly she) explored options, and we decided to go to the Delmar Loop for the chaperone dinner instead. So Will parked the bus and we all bailed out with our chaperones to have dinner. The Rootbeer place had a great patio that was shaded, so that's where my group went. The rootbeer was too sweet and didn't have enough bite for my taste, but the conversation was, well, it was interesting...because my guys are quite the crew. I'll never think of a 2013 Prius the same way again, and I'm still wondering what I'm going to do with my orange conjuring super power.

This was in front of the bathroom at Fitz's (that's the rootbeer place). Luke pointed out the white sticker someone added, and he commented that it seems true.

St Louis natives have all told me if I don't take the kids to Ted Drewes we didn't actually go to Saint Louis, and after dinner was our moment. We rolled up to see this:

That's, uh, that's BEFORE we got in line, after which it looked like this:

But it actually went reasonably quickly, and soon it looked more like this:

The frozen custard was good, but--and I don't want to offend anyone with this--I actually, uh, well, I think I may prefer...Dairy Queen. I'm sorry. Butterfinger Blizzards are the sun, the moon, and the stars, while the Mildred Concrete is the sun and the moon.

We wrapped up the night at the hotel working on our thankyou notes during our devotional time.

If you supported music in mission financially any time in the last year, you will receive a note written by one of our youth while we were on tour. We talk about how in addition to the greater church, specific individuals make this trip--and all these fun memories--possible. I read some of the notes. They get it, and they appreciate it. And experience has taught me that the more years they do this, the more they will come to enjoy writing thank you notes.

Dismiss to the rooms, tape 'em in, figure out why my phone won't charge, pick out some pictures, get to bed. Finally got to sleep at what, 1:00? Untaping doors a bit later...7:30. We'll head out at 10 in the morning for the first of two concerts. It was a full day today, and it'll be another full day tomorrow. We only travel one week a year...let's make it count.