Friday 20th September

Following a nice breakfast at our hotel, we had a full day to explore St Louis. Just across the road from our hotel is the Union Station, built in 1894, and at the time it was the biggest and busiest railroad station in the world. It is still the largest railroad terminal building in America, but sadly is no longer utilised as a railroad station. The last passenger train left this location in 1970 and it has since been redeveloped into a 5 star hotel and entertainment centre. So we wandered across to check it out.

It presented very well, although the train sheds at the rear (all 10 acres of them) are undergoing substantial renovation into an aquarium and entertainment park.

We got in our car and drove to the Soulard Farmers Market, operating since 1779 and the oldest farmers market west of the Mississippi. Interesting to see even though it was not in full weekend mode, a number of stalls were not open.

Next was a visit to The Loop, along Delmar Blvd, where there is a St Louis Walk of Fame and apparently named one of the 10 great streets in America. Big Statement ! It was interesting and we discovered some famous St Louians that we didn't realise came from here, e.g. Phyllis Diller, Betty Grable, Kevin Kline, General Sherman, Ike and Tina Turner, John Goodman, Tennessee Williams, Miles Davis, Shelley Winters, Jimmy Connors, Robert Duval, T.S. Elliot, Ulysees S Grant, William Holden, Scott Joplin, Agnes Moorehead, Vincent Price and of course Chuck Berry - just to name a few !

Apart from the Walk of Fame there are ethnic restaurants, burger joints, a root beer factory, two great pop-music concert halls, an independent movie theatre, a world class hotel and a trolley car. We checked out Blueberry Hill Restaurant and Music Club, where the owner has a huge pop-art collection ... along with a photo of him with just about every well known person you can think of.

We stopped for lunch at the Peacock Diner with a neon sign that was voted best in the world for 2015, and has a Green Rating because of its commitment to recycling and using renewable energy... but quite a nice lunch!

We also ventured a little distant into University City, where some impressive old buildings were located ...

We then had a drive around Forest Park - very large, 1,326 acres, but no where near as impressive as Central Park in NY. The 1904 Summer Olympics were held here as well as the Worlds Fair in the same year. There is a zoo, 2 museums, a science centre, 2 golf links, playing fields, a skating rink, water courses and more.

A quick drive around St Louis downtown to give us a feel for the city ensued, we tried to drive across the Dr Martin Luther King bridge as a finale .... but unfortunately it turned out to be closed !

After another night of complementary drinks and nibbles in the hotel, Graeme returned straight to the room whilst Tania headed out to put some gear in the car nearby. After conversing with a person outside for a few minutes, she entered the hotel approaching the lifts. The doors opened and she/I entered with another hotel patron...Brian was his name and about my age. Our different floors were chosen, the doors closed and within moments the lift started bouncing up and down about 5cm for about 5 seconds but we were going nowhere !! The 2 chosen floor lights on the panel went out and Brian started to get anxious. We tried unsuccessfully to open the doors using the door opening button, so Brian started pushing random buttons on the panel. The lift started bouncing again. The lights would not stay on, we were going nowhere, so it was time to hit the alarm button and then the phone button to hopefully speak with someone.

The guy's voice on the phone was very faint but after explaining the situation, he gave me directions to try which unfortunately didn't seem to work. Brian started stressing out more which made it harder to hear the guy I was speaking with. I told Brian to calm down to enable me to hear and after a further discussion on the phone, we were told that they would have to reset the lift. All we could do was wait. I asked Brian if he had a phone to call someone but for some reason he was having problems. Very much on edge he successfully pried open the doors a few centimetres which showed the lift had moved up about half a floor. Brian was calling out through the gap and I also started wolf whistling to get someone's attention...but to no avail.

Suddenly the doors closed up on us and then I noticed the display panel flicked through the different floor numbers. Unaware, we must have moved upwards as the doors then opened. Not quite level with the passage floor, we stepped up out of the lift which was timely as Brian was not coping. Finding the nearby stairs, I headed down 1 flight to notify the desk of the issue. Two staff members were already standing in front of the problematic lift...it had already returned to the foyer and its doors were open. I approached the nearby front desk and discussed the situation with a staff member, the same guy I had actually spoken with whilst in the lift. I left my details with him and headed back to the room.

It is hard to judge just how long the ordeal lasted, I feel it was about 8 to 10mins. but if you ask Brian, I am sure he would say it was a lot longer.

I returned to the room and Graeme was busy writing the blog, obviously lost in time and unaware of the time that had elapsed !! Sadly I was not missed !!