Are You Into Nines?

The October car show at Life Christian Church was the last of the season. Cheryl didn't come this time so it was just Beth & myself looking at the cars on display. Athough we were in October, the weather was nice & warm so we didn't need a coat or anything similar. The sun was shining for the entire event & the local news channel helicopter put in a few passes, filming the show from the air.

As usual, there were loads of great cars at the show, but there were a few that really stood out. There was a gasser style 50's Chevy that was more of a 'rat rod' than a show car. This still looked cool thanks partly to the unfinished look of this genre of hot rod. The shark teeth down the side reminded me of a WWII fighter plane & probably caused some double takes when out on the road.

There was also a totaly wicked Plymouth 'Cuda with the number plate RU-N29S (are you into nines?) which no doubt refers to the times it runs in the 1/4 mile. With a 622ci V8 (just over 10 litres) I'm surprised that it isn't into the 8's.

School Visit To The Zoo

Beth's first field trip with her school was to the St Louis Zoo. Cheryl volunteered as a helper & so also went along. Unlike the school trips that I have been on where the parent helpers travelled on the coach with us, Cheryl had to car share with the other parents whilst the children made their own way on a school bus.

When they arrived at the zoo the children had a talk about animals & also had the opportunity to see & pet a variety of different creatures. They then split up into small groups with the parent helpers & walked around the zoo for the rest of the morning looking at the various other animals.

Halloween

Halloween in the US is totally different to the UK. It is a really big event with shops selling decorations, costumes, Halloween candy, & just about Halloween themed everthing else from mid-September. We kept our decorations very low-key compared to some of the houses in St Louis, but made sure that Beth got involved in as many Halloween activities as possible to get a feel for this 'new' occasion. These included making halloween decorations & decorating artificial pumpkins at Michaels, & trick & treating at Kirkwood & around our neighbourhood.

Old School Busses Don't Die, They Just.....

With the number of school busses in the US, it comes as no surprise that there are quite a few that are retired from the school run. The local Autotrader often has adverts in for old school busses, with prices starting at about $4k. Most are bought by charities & organizations & put back into service. Some, though, have a much easier life being retrofitted with air-conditioning & converted into RVs or luxury coaches - cool!

Dinner at 'The Mills'

To celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary we went out for a meal. As our anniversary was on a Sunday, rather than going out in the evening (which would have meant that Beth would be up late on a night before school) we went out during the day. Cheryl chose Johnny Rockets which is a 50's style dinner at St Louis Mills. This is probably the largest mall in the St Louis area & also has a cinema, an ice-rink, & the NASCAR Speedway indoor/outdoor 'go-cart' track. Although we didn't look around the entire mall during this visit, Beth really liked it as there is also a large play area that she had a great time in.

Fenton Founder's Day - Part 3

After popping home for tea we went back to the Fenton Founder's Day event to see the fireworks. Earlier on in the day, we were able to get a parking space in the middle of the park, but when we got back the entire park now seemed to be one huge parking lot. We were right out at the edge of the park & it took over 15 minutes to walk from our parking space to the entertainment area.

We saw one of our friends, Sherri, in the afternoon & we agreed to meet up with her & her family in the evening. We found Sherri, her mum, Emily & Jordan sat close to the play area with a really good view of the stage. After the band finished, the lights in the park were turned off in readiness for the fireworks. These were set to music & were still going 20 minutes later. When the finale started it literally became daytime in the park with so many fireworks being set off at the same time that you couldn't actually see all of them. Both Cheryl & I agreed that this was the best fireworks display that we had seen (even bettering that at Disneyworld during our Honeymoon) & couldn't believe that it was free! We're already looking forward to the founder's day celebration next year!

Fenton Founder's Day - Part 2

After watching the parade we made our way back into the City Park to see what else was going on. There were a number of stalls selling refreshments & other activities/displays put on by local groups & associations. Beth had a ride on a minature train & petted the horses that had been in the parade. We also had a look at the display by the local police force which included a robot that can climb stairs (similar to UK bomb disposal robots seen in the UK) & is used to enter into dangerous situations.

D.A.R.E, which is an association that uses police officer-led classroom lessons worldwide to teach children how to resist peer pressure & live productive drug & violence-free lives, also had a display. This included a top of the range Corvette that had the D.A.R.E logo on it & had been converted into a high pursuit, sort of unmarked, police car (reminded me a bit of Miami Vice). In a couple of places the car had been signwritten with the message that 'this vehicle was siezed from a drug dealer' to show that the program was a success.

As we made our way back to the car, the band started playing. Their stage was really cool as it was a semi truck trailer that opened up to make the stage & the canopy over the musicians. The band was due to play until about 9:00pm. As we didn't have chairs or anything else to sit on, we thought that we would go home & come back later to watch the fireworks that were scheduled for after the band had finished.

Fenton Founder's Day - Part 1

Whilst taking Beth to her Ballet, Tap, & Jazz dance class, we noticed a sign at Riverchase advertizing the Fenton Founder's Day Parade. We had just enough time to get to Fenton City Park to see the parade after Beth's finished & so thought that we would check it out.

There were quite a few people already there but we were lucky enough to get a parking space at the main car park adjacent to where the parade entered the park. As we hadn't planned to come to this event, we were obviously less prepared than most other people. When we got to the parade route there were bankets, chairs, & coolers where people had obviously set-up early & then chilled out whilst waiting for the parade. Most children also had carrier bags, which we found out was so that they could carry all the candy that would be thrown out from the parade.

There were a large variety of different parade vehicles, including a car club's hot rods (including a cool pro-street Chevy pick-up that the owner shouted out to me had a built 454 big-block under the hood) to tractors & Amish carriages. There were also some marching bands, dance troupes, & of course the obligatory Ronald McDonald (shame he wasn't throwing out Big Macs!). The parade lasted for about 45 minutes, after which we went back into the park to look at the cars, oops, I mean to see what else was going on.

Family & Friends at the Zoo

Mary, Tony, Tanya, & Bubby have adopted an animal at the St Louis Zoo, & kindly invited us as their friends to the Zoo 'Family & Friends' day. As Beth was at school, we didn't get there until about 5:00pm. This still left us plenty of time as the zoo had extended opening hours for this event, & being a Friday evening there were less people there & so were no queues. We had a look at most of the animals, allthough we didn't get a chance to see the newly born elephant. We did a circuit of the zoo on the minature train, & this time whilst making our way to the Penguin & Puffin 'house' the bears were well behaved!

St Louis Air Show

The St Louis County Fair also included the St Louis Air Show. The air show downtown on the 4th July had been cancelled this year & so other than the show at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois, this was the only other event near St louis that I knew about.

The show included the three-ship dog fight “TinStix of Dynamite” with Jim LeRoy, Rich’s Incredible Pyro & Jurgis Kairys as well as the returning Red Baron Squadron. The red Baron Squadron is sponsored by Red Baron Pizza, which is a really yummy frozen pizza which, after cooking, tastes as good as delivered pizza - it's not so good when frozen though :) The pilots were on hand to sign autographs & there was free pizza all day at the red Barron wagon.

The planes flying this year included F4U-5N Corsair solo & the commemorative Air Force B25 & TBM Avenger fly-by. There were also a number of military aircraft demonstrations & fly-bys, including the USAF T-6A Texan II Demo team with Heritage flight, F/A-18 Demo team with Legacy flight, A-10 'Tankbuster' Demo Team (with wicked pyrotechnics which made the ground shake!), 3 Ship Heritage Flight with the A-10, QF-4 Phantom & P-51 Mustang, the AV-8B Harrier, & F117 Stealth plane. There were also quite a few static aircraft displays as well.

St Louis County Fair

The St Louis County Fair was held over the Labor Day weekend (1-4 September) at the Spirit of St. Louis Airport in Chesterfield, Missouri.

I had been warned by some people at work that this weekend was usually really hot & that there was absolutely no shade whatsoever at the airport. Even the event web-site mentioned that there would be misting tents (where you're sprayed with water mist, which Beth loved) & cooling busses (Metrolink busses with parked with their air-con on) to ensure that people didn't overheat. Although it had been really warm & sunny during the week, it was a bit cloudy over the weekend which helped to keep the temperatures down to almost bearable levels.
The fair looked to be similar to the Kent County Show back in the UK (which is expensive to get into, but the attractions are mostly free). It was really cheap to get in, but you had to pay for everthing with tickets. Coolers & bags weren't allowed in & everthing was really expensive with soft drinks starting at about $3 each.

There were quite a few things to look at & do, including Anheuser-Busch’s world-famous Clydesdales (horses), the Purina Farms exhibit, the Animal Ambassadors from SeaWorld & Busch Gardens, the high-jumping BMX show, Craz-E-Crew sponsored by Dierbergs (which is a local, top-end, supermarket chain - think a cross between Sainsburys & Marks & Spencer), Turner Classic Movies’ DC-3, “Rose”, the Great Lakes Timber Show, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, & the Johnsonville Big Taste Grill. The latter was supposedly the worlds largest grill (read barbeque) which was the entire trailer of a semi-truck. Johnsonville brats were cooking the whole day & if you bought a hot dog you were able to pose with the grill & have your photo taken.

The exhibits were quite spaced out which made it feel like there wasn't really that much there. The lines were also quite long, & we spent about 20 minutes queing for Beth to make some rope. It was worth it though, as she did a really good job!

Fun at T & M's

We spent another fun filled day at Tony & Mary's house out in the country. We were treated to really good food (as usual), & whilst Cheryl started making a sugar pumpkin with Mary, Tony, Tanya, Beth & I settled down to watch some old episodes of Doctor Who whilst Bubby was at work. Tony had rented the DVDs on-line & had selected some episodes with John Pertwee & Peter Davidson as The Doctor. One of the episodes was shot at Dungeness which included filming in & around the nuclear powers stations. These aren't far from where we used to live in the UK, & when I was younger I had been on a tour around the power plants.

Mary had told us that Hummingbirds were common in Missouri & suggested that we should get a feeder, which we did. Although the nectar gradually went down, we were not been lucky enough to see any of the birds. When we arrived at Tony & Mary's house we could hear a humming noise & as we got closer to the house saw that there were about 25 Hummingbirds feeding from the feeders in the front garden. These are really mad birds, moving so fast that they are a just a blur & then suddenly stopping. They don't slow down, just stop in mid-air. They were obviously hungry, as Mary was having to refil the feeders daily. Maybe next year we'll see them using our feeder.

Blowers & Screaming Chickens

It was time for the monthly trip to the local car show at the Life Christian Church, which this month seemed to include a much larger contingent of blown (supercharged) cars & Firebirds (screaming chickens). As usual, the car park was full to capacity with cool cars & the weather was excellent. Cheryl stayed with Beth whilst she played on the indoor play equipment at Woody's Cafe, whilst I looked at the cars.

JAG Summer Picnic

JAG once again organized a blinder of an event. Apparently, the Summer Picnic used to be an event just for the civil department, but after the success of including facilities in 2005, this year it was decided to invite all departments to the festivities.

The picnic was held at the Turkish Pavilion in Tower Grove Park. The park was first authorized by a state law passed on March 9, 1867, and came into existence on October 20, 1868, when Henry Shaw conveyed his lands to the City of St. Louis, by deed of gift. It is a nearly rectangular area of land that is approximately 290 acres in size, which makes it the second largest park in St. Louis.

The pavilion was originally called the called the ‘pigeon’ or ‘dove-cot’ house & had a cupola roof which ‘ascended with diminishing curves’. The roof was brightly painted with the upper section being arranged for pigeons and other birds. In 1892, the Board of Commissioners for the park extended the pavilion roof by adding the large, lower tier & at the same time closed the bird roosts to create the Turkish Pavilion.

Approximately 300 were signed up to attend the event, but the weather was being fickle. Despite a 3-week period of no rain & very hot temperatures (100+), the day of the picnic started off with torrential rain which kept a lot of people away. The rain stopped about 20 minutes before the picnic started & it wasn’t long before most people were making use of the hundreds of water pistols that JAG had provided to make sure everyone got a good soaking. JAG also organized the food for the event which was from Bandanas (BBQ chicken, pork, & beef) & provided Ted Drewes ice-cream for desert – yumm!

All staff were given a cool bag that had candy & a gift card inside (these are like gift vouchers in the UK). I got a card for Wehrenbergs movie theatres & was also lucky enough to win a $25 gift card for a local restaurant as a door prize – cool!

Shelby Mustang Lives Again

The latest generation Mustang is a really cool car. Ford got the styling spot-on with a modern interpretation of the classic '60s shape. As soon as the car was launched there were a number of aftermarket manufacturers that offered performance & handling upgrades.

One of the most famous of these associated with the original Mustang was Shelby, & Ford collaborated again with them to produce their own high performance derivative - the Shelby GT500

Forty years after the first Shelby GT500 was produced, Shelby & the Ford Mustang have been reunited with the 2007 Ford Shelby GT500. This is the most powerful powerful factory Mustang ever built, using the 500-horsepower supercharged 5.4-liter 32-valve V8 engine from the Ford GT supercar.

These cars retail at about $45k, but with all the hype surrounding them, as soon as a launch date was issued there were numerous on-line auctions where the auction was actually how much you would pay extra over list price (I saw figures in excess of $20k!).

The first time I saw one of these vehicles was at the St Louis Auto Show back in January, but the impact was lost due to the other exotic machinery on display. Having now seen a couple of these cars on the road, they look seriously cool & the revised styling really makes for a purposeful looking car.

Dodge & GM are keen to not lose out to the success of the Mustang & have both recently announced new performance vehicles, with modern retro styling (Dodge Challenger & Chevrolet Camaro). It looks like history might be repeating itself with a modern day version of the Musclecar Wars - I can't wait!

Photos not taken by the Author courtesy of Ford Chevrolet & Dodge

Wot No School Run?

Unlike the UK, my commute takes about the same time whether schools are in session or on vacation. This is probably partly due to staggered starting times (high school starts at about 7:00am), but mostly down to school busses. These are a great idea since each bus probably eliminates between 10 & 50 vehicles that could potentially be on the road.

Beth gets picked up & dropped off at the end of our road when she uses the bus. The school car park is filled with busses when school finishes, but it seems reasonably well organized as each teacher is responsible for making sure that their students are all on the correct busses.

Another cool aspect of the busses is the swing out sign & barrier that each one has. Along with the warning lights, these indicate to surrounding traffic that the bus is picking up or dropping off students. Bus stops are located so that students only have to cross over a maximum of one lane of traffic & there are very strict traffic rules which prevent vehicles from passing the bus. This creates quite a safe environment for students to cross over the road if necessary.

Baseball Heaven

2006 is the inaugural season at the new Bush Stadium (home of the St Louis Cardinals). When I arrived in St Louis last year, the new stadium had been partly built & the old 'cookie cutter' Bush Stadium was about to be demolished.

The works had a box at the old stadium & they also have a box at the new stadium. As St Louis is a baseball city, & there are a lot of baseball fans at work, I was really lucky to get the opportunity to watch a game in the box.

The box is almost behind home plate & as it is up on the first level you get a really good view of the pitch. Most of the seating is outside on the balcony, but there are also sliding glass doors, so if the weather isn't so good, you can be protected from the elements whilst still watching the game. As well as the usual corporate facilities in the box, there is also a selection of baseball memorabilia displayed which is a nice touch.