It was a six hour drive and it was a pleasant six hours because of the changing leaves. There were a lot of dead trees which did affect the look of the fall colors though. We arrived at Saint Louis and checked into our hotel. The entire band stayed at the LaQuinta Inn. This is not where we normally stay, but they had a continental breakfast that included eggs, sausage, bagels, waffles, fresh fruit etc., it was a nice deal. We got a discounted rate because of the large group we were with. We saw pilots and stewardesses staying there as well, so I think its a pretty good hotel. It was reasonably clean and the staff were nice.
When we finished there, we drove to the city to Pappy's Smokehouse. This was on "Man vs. Food" We were also told by a friend to try it. We got there and waited in line about a half hour. It's a true dive, but the music was great if you like Blues and the BBQ was amazing. When we got there, they had already run out of ribs and beef brisket. We settled on the pulled pork. We read bad reviews about the sides for the meal, so we each ordered different things and tried four. My husband ordered the fried corn on the cob and the potato salad. He said the corn was hard and the potato salad bland. I had the cole slaw and the steak fries. Steak fries weren't on the menu, but I saw someone eating them, and they looked good so I asked. My sides were good. We read the slaw had too much vinegar, but it wasn't bad.
By then it was about 9 pm our time and we were tired from the drive, so we headed back to the hotel and called it a night. Next morning we decided we needed to get some exercise. Actually, my husband has one of those "fit bit" type things and his told him the day before to "get moving!" So we headed over to the Saint Louis Zoo. The nice thing about the Saint Louis Zoo is, it's free! Yup, Free! We paid 15$ to park and we got there early, so it wasn't crowded. We had a nice walk and the grounds are really pretty. It's a nice zoo, but not as nice as our Cincinnati Zoo. Some of the animals weren't out yet and apparently there was a scandal that had occurred with the gorillas, because the zoo keeper and the security were there and we overheard them say, "we will have to watch the security tapes to see what happened!" Later, they had two of the male gorillas out, but that is all. They do have a really nice Sea Lion exhibit, that should not be missed if you go.
Finally, around noon we headed out to find something for lunch. We had a Chipotle gift card so we found one of those and had some lunch. We drove to the city to see the Arch and Edward Jones stadium is right there. That is where the band competition was. It was the most expensive part of our trip. We paid $10 to park and $40 to get in, no readmission and the finals were an additional cost. We did not pay for finals, as our kids did not make it to the finals, although they did awesome and its a great experience to perform in a professional arena like the home of the Saint Louis Rams! We were glad we decided to eat at Chipotle, because food inside was expensive and they did not allow you to leave and come back. "NO RE ENTRY" One woman had this huge slice of pizza and we asked, "how much is the pizza?" She told us it was $9! And her little girl had a small cup of water, and she said she had to beg for the water. Ridiculous! We hung out there til awards were over then we headed back to Ted Drewes for another taste of that "concrete" This time I had mocha and my husband had carmel twist. (It had pretzels and caramel in it). We both agreed that the pumpkin pie was better. We headed back to the hotel and called it a night. We headed out early on Sunday, making it home before 3pm. We ate at the hotel and did not stop for lunch. We decided to make a nice meal at home on the grill. (Thanks Honey!) All told we spent under $500. That included hotel, gas, Band of America and food. We did a lot in a short couple of days and we really enjoyed it!
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