Madison County

Bye St. L. It was fun being there but times have come, getting back on the road again.

When we arrived in St. Louis we went to a restaurant called Steak and Shake for dinner. It's just like a typical American diner, you get sit down, order, and wait for your food, at your seat. I ordered a Banana/Chocolate milkshake and a steak burger with egg and bacon, I specifically told them no tomato, hard fried egg. Take note of that. By the time the order came around I got given my... Runny egg, tomato-still-on burger... not to mention I didn't get my milkshake either... by the end of it all they HAD fixed my order which was nice of them. When we looked at the bill however. It appeared that my meal wasn't charged for whatsoever! All in all, I would recommend... (not to trust them with egg... (good restaurant though))

The first thing we did in St. Louis (yesterday) was the kids science museum. There was so much there! You'd need 5 hours to see everything.
There was a bridge that went over a highway, we got to use a speedometer to check the speed of the cars beneath us as well as using binoculars to zoom in on far away cars. We were also given information about the air quality, weather and temperature. Glass underneath us in 'holes' got us freaked out by seeing cars zooming by underneath our feet.
In the main building there were two things that really caught my eye. One was this huge ball track called the Energizer. It had loops and spins and lifts and many other things you couldn't even begin to process. The other was the math corner. There was a game called mind-ball where the calmer you were, the more you pushed the ball. There was this kid (similar to me :-P) who was managing the puzzles. We got told about the traditional ring puzzle, Hanoi, you know? With the three spokes and pyramid of rings? We got told that the minimum amount of moves for a five ring puzzle was 31, using this knowledge and a little bit of thinking, I worked out that the formula is m=2^r -1 assuming m=moves and r=rings. There are still a lot of things I COULD'VE covered but I'm sure the boys have done that. Now. Onto the next attraction!

Next, we went to the Budweiser Factory. It was... interesting? Looking at all the stuff we couldn't have and how it was made... heck! If you want standards the first thing they showed us were horses. That really set a low bar (Ha! Unintentional joke! Bar... ha!). The best part of it (other than Pac-Man in the lobby) was the beer aging silo. It was SOOOOO cold there! Moving along!

We went up the famous arch. Who knew it had an observation deck!? We went up in these small and cramped, semi-futuristic carts, there WERE stairs... but I didn't fancy climbing up ~200 meters... it was a beautiful view! We saw the sun setting, a red ball of light. Then we left... it was cool at the time but... how do you describe going up in an arch?

Today, just before we left, we went to the zoo that was voted the best free attraction in America. It had a train that went around the park, animals (WOAH) and multiple gift shops. The CLEARLY best exhibit there was... penguins (and puffins). They were in their own little cold zone. We saw them swimming around and even going underneath us! The puffins just sat around looking dumb. There was something at the gift shop I REALLY wanted which was a plush igloo with a plush penguin attached who could go outside the igloo! It was soooo cute! For a rough estimate $25 NZD it wasn't quite worth it... I tried to convince mum... "What if... I buy half of it, and you buy the other half? Sound good?" "No" ... it was sad... oh well!

Headed to Indianapolis! See you soon!
-AaronLes mer