Greenfield, IA to St. Louis, MO -- April 3rd

I should have checked my maps before I left Greenfield, but figured I had made it from Omaha to St. Louis before in around 6 hours, so the fact that I was 1 1/2 hours west of Omaha, would allow me to get to St. Louis in about 5 hours from Greenfield. Not the case.
I wanted to take it easy and take a new scenic route I had never seen before, but this became a problem the second I hit done on my GPS. Since I didn't leave Greenfield until about 4, the scenic route was posed to get me to my friend Marissa's house about 2 or 3 in the morning, and since we wanted to go out and drink, and she lives with her parents currently, this was not the best option for me. I drove to about Osceola, IA before I realized that I still have to go through Kansas City on my way to St. Louis to take the fastest route. I've done that Hwy 70 drive many times and wasn't really pleased that that was the way I had to go. But, the route from Osceola to Kansas City down Hwy 35 turned out to be very beautiful and I ended up arriving at Marissa's in plenty of time for us to hang out that night.
My new road trip resolution is to try and not be running late anymore, I really just want to relax and take my time.
I met Marissa at a local mall and she led the way to her parents' house. (She didn't want me driving through East St. Louis alone, she is very scared of that area) Marissa's parents' home was absolutely beautiful and they even had a large pond/small lake in their back yard. They actually live just East of St. Louis in Belleville, Il. Neither of us felt like getting all dolled up and hitting the town, and honestly, that isn't either one of our styles anymore anyway, so we hit up a couple of local dives. The first was Shotsy's, its a small biker bar that had an ok cover band playing. Most of the servers looked like WT, but the two female bartenders were attractive and everyone that worked there wore the smallest black shorts imaginable. My first friend I made there was a 6'8'' bald man in leather who was curious if Marissa and I were a couple and how that worked out. (I am 5'6'' and Marissa is 6'2'') We continued our night at Baxter's, which is a semi-large pool hall on one side of the bar, and a music venue/small sports area on the other. We watched a pretty poor cover band there and played some shuffleboard. I met my second friend of the night, a man wearing a Rams Grant Wistrom jersey. I was wearing my Nebraska hoodie and we hit it off immediately. He turned out to be a Cowboys fan just like me, too.
After that, Marissa and I went home and crashed. She couldn't take my snoring anymore in the middle of that night, and she grciously let me have the bed, even after I had insisted earlier to make me sleep on the couch. This would prove to be a recurring issue night 2. What can I say? I snore. And when I drink, I am way more likely to do it and do it louder. Sorry, riss.

Day Two-- April 4th

We got up around 10 and showered and got ready for the day. I met Marissa'a dad outside while she was in the shower, and he turned out to be a very nice man and waqs interested in traveling, so we talked for a good 15 minutes. After that we were ready for the big city. One of my goals for this trip is to eat well, so I got a good list of places to hit up along the way, most of them coming off the Food Network show Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. For lunch, we decided to try Sweetie Pie's in the Dogtown area of St. Louis. The fare was soul food served cafeteria style and had an old school feel about the place. From the man opening the door when you got there, to the framed photos of the Pointer Sisters on the wall, I knew this was going to be good. I got up to line, eyed up the food, and was very excited, so excited in fact, that I didn't rerally read the rules on the wall. I chose some catfish, ribs, black-eyed peas, boiled cabbage, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, and cornbread. I quickly learned that this usually is counted as two meals and ended up having a 30 dollar lunch after tip. It was ok though, because the food was great (the chicken fell off when I picked it up by the bone) and I had enough to eat lunch and get full the next day. I would recommend Sweetie Pie's to anyone who likes this type of food, just pay attention to the rules. I need to learn the difference between cafeteria style and buffet style evidently.
Then we went to the Science museum and had a blast, we were like little kids and my favorite part were the brain teasing puzzles they had. I completed 5 out of 6 of them, and still can't fathom how to do the sixth. We went shopping after that, I had to get a duffle bag to hold some stuff for the rest of the trip, and then we got dinner at Casa de Gallardo. We split their Ultimate Chimichanga with both steak and chicken, and enjoyed their bottomless chips and salsa. Rissa's frined Eric worked there and we made plans to all go out later on. After dinner, Riss and I were both sleepy and went home, laid down, and I watched in horror as Nova couldn't make a shot the whole game in their loss to UNC. There goes my bracket. We then met up with Eric, he picked up his new Nintendo DS from GameStop at 12:01, and we proceeded to pick up his girlfriend, Brittany, and the four of us had drinks at a local sports bar, and then went back to the house and watched Forgetting Sara Marshall. Hilarious, btw, and Mila Kunis is absolutely breathtaking. Evidently, every bar in Belleville makes their girls wear tiny black shorts, so there was never a dull moment. I'm bringing the trend back to Omaha.
This morning I got up, ate my second lunch from Sweetie Pie's, computed a bit, and hit the road for Nashville. I had a really good time seeing Marissa again, even though she thinks she isn't as fun anymore, she is. We had some really good discussions about relationships, confidence, confrontation, communication, addiction, and assuming that other people know what you want. I am going to miss that type of interaction this coming week, because after StL, I will be by myself until I meet my father for the first time, besides meeting strangers.