Life in St. Louis

For those of you who know Joe, you must know I'm on the craziest road trip of my life. He's the kind of character that can captivate crowds with his charm, personality, and endless stories. Extremely quick witted - he's rarely outmatched by any verbal exchange. He joined me at the end of 2006 for a road trip from Seattle to New Orleans via St. Louis and this trip is sort of a ride down memory lane for us.

We made our way across Kansas on I-70 stopping in Hays for a night of debauchery... somehow trouble finds us. I'm finding it very difficult to get people to believe me when they ask what I do. That night we were stars in such a small college town... at one point we decided to change bars and we drug almost everyone with us for some dancing and drinks at a club up the street. The after party always ends up at the road house - and sleep is a luxury that I'm learning to live without while on the road. Waking up the next day we realize we can't leave until we recovered Joe's debit card which he has a knack for leaving at bars. Of course that bar didn't open until 5PM so we spent the day at the Wal Mart parking lot emptying and repacking every storage hatch to get a little more settled in.

I knew when we arrived at St. Louis that we'd be spending a lot of time with Joe's family - and it turns out he's rubbed off quite a bit on his younger brother and younger cousins. They really look up to him and have tried to prepare for a crazy few weeks while we're here. St. Louis is just about lawless when it comes to drinking - Pops is a bar that serves 24/7 and we're here in the midst of Halloween season... The roadhouse is equipped with all kinds of crazy wigs and costumes and I'd find myself wearing almost all of them at some point during my stay here.

Eric is Joe's younger brother and on his days off we kidnap him as our newest roommate driving off to give him a taste of the road. He always arrives with his rent; a suitcase of beer and shots at the bar of the night. I've never laughed this much in my life and if you want to see the best dance moves of any white kid ask Eric to bust out his invisible frisbee! Every time we walk into a place we seem to be the center of attention - but maybe it's cause we're all wearing sports coats and at random times in the night someone yells "SWITCH!" and we make a big scene of trading our jackets. What can I say we're fashionable guys... I like that we manage to make every ones night around us better. I was given a silver coin when I was out diving and I've attached it to a silver necklace that I bought - but at the time I fully intended to wear it under my shirt just as a nice reminder of how much fun I had out there; but it has now taken a life of its own when we're out making me look like a cheesy porn star who claims to be a treasure hunter... haha at least we're entertaining!

Joe's cousin Zach is about as shameless as they come and he knows how to have a good time. He's an equal opportunity employer of his dance partners and doesn't disciminate in any way... With "Call G Ma" written on his hand in permanent marker you immediately get a sense of how kind hearted he is, however he's notorious for getting kicked out of every place he goes... what can I say he knows how to drink.

I love everyone I've met here in St. Louis, they've truly taken me in as family and I'm sure a few will be life long friends. I just don't think I could keep a job if I lived here. My liver is crying and I feel like everyone here is waiting for the Road House to pull out so they can get back to their day to day life. With our extended visit reaching an end we'll head south to Tennesee for a quick stop before driving to New Orleans for some more crazy adventures with my friends and family.



Peace and Love,
Jon

PS... If you've never seen a Micro Wrestling Federation match I highly recommend it! These midgets brawl WWE style smashing trash cans on each other and flipping off the top rope of the ring - it's totally worth the cover charge at the gentlemen's club they'll be at.