On the Road: St. Louis and Fulton, MO

I fly into St. Louis today to start my swing through the Mid-west Nuke Plants (Callaway, Wolf Creek, Cooper, Calhoun, Duane Arnold and Quad Cities). All in all the first day has been a bit strange. Let's start from the beginning.

This is the first time that I have flown into the St. Louis airport and I already don't like it. All the signs are hard to read and there aren't enough of them. The signage around baggage claim was particularly terrible. And while they where at it, lets just put two bathrooms in the baggage claim area, have them as far away as possible from anything and hide them around a few corners with some signs pointing you in the general direction. It took 45 minutes to get my bag, I don't know if this was an Airtran problem or a St. Louis Airport thing but by the looks of some of the other flights that landed when we did I am going to go with an Airport thing. Next, I go to rent a car. Lady at the counter tells me all they have is a PT Cruiser (which will take a while to get) or a Mercury Grand Marquis (!). So I am in a hurry (to get to the Budweiser Brewery before it closes, more on that in a minute) and go with the Merc. Next I have to catch a bus (!) to get to the rental car lot (Nice idea, lets put all rental car and airport parking off-site and across a busy interstate from the Airport. This is the Atlanta equivalent of if they put all the parking across 285 from the airport). Once I get dropped off at my car I know I made a mistake (Review of my 5 minute experience with the Merc will come later). So I walk back to the on-site office, on the way one of the wheels on my bag comes off (day is just getting better and better). When I talk to the lady at the counter to see if there is anything else I can drive (give me anything, I'll even drive a Chrysler 300 again) she finds me a nice Mitsubishi Eclipse Convertible that I can take 1-way because it is an Illinois car anyway (Sweet! Review coming). Things start to look up, I get the car (pretty nice) and head off to the Budweiser Brewery.

Brewery tour was quite nice. I suggest it if you are in the St. Louis area and have an hour or so to kill. So far from my experiences in St. Louis this is the only thing I have liked. I am just not a big fan of St. Louis. Bad airport, strange road system plus a lot of other things, but back to the beer. Picked up a nice glass set at the store at a very reasonable $20 (2 glasses, a rubber bar mat, bottle opener plus some other swag). In fact, everything in the store was priced pretty good. Best thing about the tour is you get 2 free 10oz beers at the end. Guide explained that they give you 20oz free because the typical human can have 24oz of beer in 20 mins and still be under the legal BAC limit (thus the 20oz to keep Bud clear of any legal problems). I tried Bud Select and Beach Bum Blonde Ale. Both very good and will be bought again by myself (if I can ever find the Beach Bum stuff).

After the tour I made the 1 1/2 drive out to scenic Fulton, MO. Staying at a hotel near town. I checked my e-mails (I have 13 news one from my customer in South Korea, joy), grabbed so food and then headed out to find Callaway plant so I know how to get there in the morning. Driving through Fulton I see the speed limit change to 30 so I slow down to 30. I then see a 20mph sign with a yellow "School" marking above it. Thinking this must apply only during school hours I stay at 30 mph. After pulling away from a stop sign what (to my delight) comes on in my rear view? Cop Lights! Yeah! The cop comes out and asks why I think he stopped me, I answer that I have no idea and he tells me the speed limit is 20 and he clocked me doing 31 (great). Asks for my license and where in Illinois I am from (Quick side bar, I am in a convertible Mitsubishi Eclipse with the top down, out of state plates and the radio up. In other words a nice target to add some money to the local repaving fund). I tell him it is a rental and that I am from GA and in town to do some work at the Nuke plant. This catches his attention and looks at my license and tells me he is going to check my insurance. At this point I am praying for a warning. Thinking of ways I can argue out of this ect. Officer comes back, hands me my license and tells me to watch the speed limit, it changes quite a bit around town, explains that the school signs are all the time since I just drove through the local college (oh....) and to have a safe trip to the plant tomorrow. Sweet! No ticket, I would like to thank the officer for cutting an out of town southern boy a break. I then pull out into traffic and up to a stop light. Another car pulls along side me with the officer behind him. Light turns green, I turn left, the car next to me goes straight, and the officer follow and turns his lights on to pull the guy over. What for, I have no idea but apparently you had better have everything in order before driving through Fulton, MO (Later on in the night I saw police have 3 other people pulled over!)

So that was my day. Up and down. I am really digging the Eclipse. Plan on using the drop top mode a good bit tomorrow on my trek across the whole state of Missouri. I will post reviews of the Eclipse and the Merc sometime the week. Nite.....