My flight to STL was over three hours late leaving Tampa. Very rare for Southwest. The captain kept coming on saying that some light wouldn't go out. Uh, this was a 6:15 a.m. flight. Aren't things like this typically taken care of the previous night? I fired off an e-mail to Southwest and asked that and I closed my e-mail with the six P's--Proper planning prevents piss-poor performance.
That evening I got a response saying that Southwest was giving me a $150 credit, which is good because that will greatly reduce the cost of my ticket when I see the Foos in New Orleans in February.
I went to the Gateway Arch and while it was impressive the pods that take you to the top can be claustrophobic as can the experience at the top. If you're taller than 6', which I'm not, things can be cramped. Fortunately I'm at 6' even. It was cold, rainy and foggy so I didn't get the best views and the only reason I could see Busch Stadium was due to the bright red Budweiser sign outside the stadium.
After that I went down the street to a restaurant called Caleco's. They have a very mixed menu and I got a large pizza with jalapenos and onions and I also got a side salad. It was almost 5 p.m. and it was my first meal of the day. I fought off sleepiness and cleaned my plates like a good Amurcan. I went back to my hotel, the massive two-towered Hilton at the Ballpark and watched football while I farted up my hotel room. Victory!
The next day I got the hotel breakfast which was a buffet and was reasonably priced for a Hilton - only $16.95. After that I took a walk around the city and I saw the Edward Jones Dome where the Rams played. That neighborhood is going to crap pretty quickly. Across the street is a casino so I went in there and blew $20 and left. I walked over towards the Enterprise Center and met some friends from New Jersey who were camping outside waiting to get in for general admission.
I went back to the Arch and took a look at the Mississippi River and all the debris floating down it. Damn, that's an ugly river. Among all the tree branches floating down the river I saw an upright traffic cone. Was there a body underneath it?
On to the concert. The opening band was Gang of Youths and they were quite good, much better than the band that I saw open the previous two times. That would be The Struts and they did nothing for me. Gang of Youths sounded like a cross between Social Distortion and INXS.
The Foo Fighters came on at 8:15 and played for almost three hours. They opened with "Run" and they employed a similar play list to what Rush did on their last tour - play new stuff and work backwards. At one point they covered Queen and David Bowie's "Under Pressure." I was kind of disappointed they didn't do anything from the Saint Cecilia EP. The Foos didn't strictly adhere to the new-to-old formula because they played "Best of You" towards the end and did "Everlong" as the closer.
Overall, it was fun. St. Louis is a decent city but I don't think I'd want to live there. Give me Chicago any day.
I do need to make a return trip to take in a Cardinals game and maybe someday a Blues game.
And I still need to try some toasted ravioli.
