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Do You Have a Pen: Missouri

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I wrote another book, but it's about travel this time! This one is pretty big, actually, with close to 60 chapters. The book, Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air, can be pre ordered or, depending on when you see this, purchased by clicking the link HERE. A new chapter will post daily and then the book will be available for immediate purchase.

I also released the rough drafts of the book chapter by chapter on my website and you can read what I wrote and get the gist of the chapters. Honestly, you don’t even need to read the book. There is enough information between the blog postings and the resources pages found HERE that the rest of the book might just be fluff.

With that said, the blog is a very first draft, mostly notes, of the final book. It’s out of order and a tad messy. This gives you a peek inside my writing process where I do the technical, eclectic part first and the voice tends to change depending on the topic I am discussing and the research I did for the chapter. Paraphrasing from common knowledge sources in the first draft gives it that eclectic look and feel. So please, enjoy my scattered brain and typos in this draft of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air.

The book itself its a much easier format to read plus adds a lot more of me into it as it goes on with real world, easy to grasp examples where I could put them and honestly, I would truly appreciate your purchase.

Missouri

Antiquer’s dream!  I was surprised about that too,  but if you take Interstate 44 across the state and you are into antiques of any kind,  you will be happy. 

St.  Louis is also where I found out that IKEA has a food court with really good food and really bad pop that tastes worse than the crap from Aldi.  It was my first experience with IKEA so I was a little weirded out by the one-way pattern around the stores.  I understand the concept of the stores now and why people like them,  but it’s mostly too modern for my personal tastes,  but I at least get why people go there now.  I think I’d still be more likely to order from Amazon Prime or Wayfarer though.  

One trip to St. Louis,  I was training a couple of new guys.  One of them was from Ohio and was excited to be in a region with White Castle and insisted that we went to a White Castle for lunch.  In Michigan City,  we have one,  so I can literally go any time I want,  which meant I was unimpressed.  For me,  in the St.  Louis area,  I get impressed about Jack in the Box,  a nice,  rare treat for me.  I mapped the closest White Castle to the train station and called up an Uber to there.  Both guys were very happy with their means and I sat there not eating.  It’s not because I don’t like White Castle,  but like I said,  I can go whenever I want.  I noticed a restaurant across the street named Broadway Oyster Bar.  After they were done eating and we completed our paperwork,  they took an Uber to the train station and I walked across the street.  They served Cajun food that was a good holdover till I could get back to New Orleans.  Though it wasn’t the best Cajun food I ever had in my life,  it was damn good.  The best I have ever had has always been in New Orleans,  so them not being the best is by no means a slight against them in any way.  Walking over I saw beads laying on the street and sidewalk.  It was the day after Mardi Gras,  so you know whatever party they had there was off the chain.  The local area may be the definition of  “gentrification”  with mixed use properties and nice restaurants that I wouldn’t be willing to go to after dark unless I was with a group because you can tell it’s not the best neighborhood.  It’s fine in the daytime,  but at night it looks like it could get a little rough. 

Archway Park is also really cool and a must see.  From the interstate,  you see the arch among the rest of the skyline,  but the park is closer than the downtown area,  so you assume it just looks big because it’s closer.  Nope!  It’s huge!  I went there after lunch at Broadway Oyster Bar,  a great blues-themed restaurant and bar,  one time.  The first time at Broadway Oyster Bar I saw the arch and considered walking to it but was low on time so I simply Ubered back to the train station.  I mentioned it to my Uber driver and he assured me that it was a lot farther than it appeared to be from where I was.  When you are standing at the base of the Arch,  you almost lose balance from looking up at it.  Sitting on the riverfront,  there is a set of steps down to a grassy area.  When I was there,  the Mississippi was so overflown that they had the bottom steps cordoned off because the water had risen that high and was flooding a big part of the lower park.

I knew a girl from my old job who moved to St.  Louis a few years back so I messaged her on Facebook to see if she wanted to get together and she did.  Facebook is full of second chances to hook up with women you didn’t hook up with before.  Courtney is a short,  thick girl with fair skin and nice boobs so the conversation turned—personal.  Hell yeah,  I’ll be there for what she offered.  It was maybe a week or two before Christmas but she had a work Christmas party she had to go to so I showed up at her place after when she said she was on her way home.  I still had to wait on her drunk ass.  So she gets home with her even drunker friend Michelle,  a slender black girl who sat down on the couch and near instantly fell asleep.  Michelle was wearing tight jeans,  a white top,  and instead of a bra she opted for pasties.  Classy!  Well at least I won’t have to deal with her drunk friend cock-blocking me on what was an absolute guarantee for the night.  Courtney and I go into her room and do our thing and had a pretty good time.  A personal life highlight for me was when she whispered the most perfect words in my way I had ever heard,  “I have no gag reflex.”  I knew it would be a good night.  After we finished things and were talking,  the bedroom door flew open and her friend walked in and said,  “what’s going on?  I don’t hear anything.”  Wow, you little pervert!  Michelle then took off her top and fell into bed between us.  I guess Michelle is a team player after all.  It was a really good night. 

When you cross the river into the city and eventually get near the Arch you see a fantastic engineering marvel signifying the gateway to the west and it really is.  Even today it seems to be the last home base of civilization on your way as you travel west.  Though Missouri is quite civilized,  it’s where major U.S.  cities get farther and farther apart.  Interstate 44 is rather populated all the way through but once you pass Joplin and hit Oklahoma,  it’s much less.  I’m not sure St.  Louis is the gateway to the west still,  but Missouri definitely is.

Thank you for reading this little piece of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air. If you received any value from what you read, I ask you to please consider purchasing this book by clicking HERE. Thank you for everything!

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