Upon leaving the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge, we entered city of St. Louis. We briefly missed Route 66 and went a bit north somehow. The roads were terrible. There were potholes and deep cracks everywhere and this turtle back of a road went on for a good while. Sumi said looking at the map on her phone that the place of Michael Brown shooting wasn't far from here.
Ferguson is a northern suburb of St. Louis. It is a place with chronic condition of discrimination against Blacks. Recently when Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager was shot 6 times and killed by a white police officer, resulted a national outrage and protests. Also near Ferguson, a black man stole two cans of soda from a convenient store and was quickly surrounded by police officers. He then approached police yelling 'shoot me,' and the police really shot him several times in broad daylight. He also was unarmed. Someone on the street filmed the whole thing on his camera phone and I'd seen the video right before we left for the trip. Ferguson tragedy once again put American society face a turmoil stemming from deep rooted racial discrimination.
In twenty minutes or so later, we happened to drive by Forest Park, near city of St. Louis. All of a sudden, the rocky roads became smooth as if they were ironed. And unlike the northern neighbors, streets and lamps were adorned with flowers and most of passersby were whites. It was a stark difference to us as travelers that got off Route 66 briefly and drove through St. Louis from north to south.
Mom and Pop Store
Mom-and-pop store means a business that is run by mom and dad. In other word, a small, independent, family-owned business. One of the reasons Route 66 brings out certain nostalgia is because there are many mom and pop stores along Route 66. The section of Route 66 (now called Chippewa Street) that passes through St. Louis, there were two notable mom and pop stores. The Donut Drive-In that opened in the 1950's and Ted Drewes Frozen Custard opened in 1929. Perhaps, the fact that they are well and prosperous within the competition with those large franchised businesses also pique interest in people.
'Open' neon sign is lit. The friend we're going to meet in L.A. recently had a donut shop in Dallas, Texas just a year ago. It wasn't a franchise but a mom and pop store which he and his wife made all donuts themselves starting in the crack of dawn. He once told me that the people in Texas prefer donuts made in small stores than big chains like Dunkin Donuts. He believes the donuts made in far away factories can't compare in taste to his donuts made from scratch all in his store. I agree with him. He also described the scenes of his store in early mornings. When he and his wife make donuts from dawn and turn on the neon sign when it's still dark, it meant the freshly made donuts are ready. And because Dallas was so flat, people can see the light and come to buy his donuts from far away. Now, looking at the donut store that existed over 60 years and the tall sign standing above the roof, I thought that people in St. Louis also like donuts from mom and pop store and the owner of this store started to make donuts from the crack of dawn every day, just like my friend.
Ted Drewes is popular for its frozen custards. Until then, I thought custard was a bread with a cream filling. It was because of a well-known bakery brand in Korea that I thought such. It turned out the custard that I knew was just bread, but the cream filling itself was called custard. When I found this out from Sumi, I felt empty for being misinformed about custard, but was satisfied for learning it before I was dead. Puuhaha! I could only laugh a hollow laugh. Sumi expected to taste a good custard at this store, but when we saw the long line, gave up at once. I think we're not, so called foodies.
Ted Drewes' custard is supposed to be so thick that it doesn't spill when you turn it upside-down. I wondered what that meant exactly, in the world of custard. Instead of tasting it, we only gathered facts about the store being started as an ice cream truck in 1919 and now Ted Drewes, Jr is running it, then left for our next destination, Meramec Campground.
On our way to Meramec campground, Joongdeok(aka JD), the friend in LA, who used to have a donut shop in Dallas had called. JD asked, "I heard you started your trip, when are you going to get to LA?" I answered him, "We're on our way. It'll take about 10 days." JD told us to give him a ring 2-3 days before arriving in LA and I told him that we'd call 7-8 days later. After hanging up the phone, 'What a strange conversation,' I thought. Back in Korea, we used to live 5 minutes apart by walking. Now I'm telling him that it would take 15 days to get to his house to see him. And he says, "Okay, give me a call 3 days before." What a strange situation. 'America is so big,' I talked to myself, incoherently.
Meramec Campground was privately run. Basic camp site was $18 and site with electrical hook-up was $25. Usually, electrical hook-ups are for the RV's, but anyone can use it if you're particularly in need of electricity. Usually, other campgrounds are shaped in circles, but Meramec campground was a large grass field with sites scattered all over. There were many campers already there to enjoy the weekend.
Some photos of Meramec Campground.
We pick a spot under a big tree. The picnic table was moved from an area several feet away. It is all right to move tables little bit as long as it is not tied down. We like to put the table close by so we can shorten the distance between tent and table. It makes it efficient for us to go back and forth between working, cooking, and going into the tent. We weren't going to make camp fire or use barbecue grill, so we put everything even tighter than usual.
Inside of our tent. For a long trip, we've set up a few rules as below:
Tent.
We need to move to a new location every day, so we wanted to minimize the stress from having to set up and take down the tent. We had the specific needs in mind while shopping for tent. Now it only takes a minute for us to pitch the tent and another minute for taking it down. Tent is from Kelty, for 4 persons and 3 seasons.
Inside the tent.
Let's put only necessary things in the designated places inside the tent. It's faster to pack up that way, too.
Pillows.
For a good rest everyday, we should have the most comfortable pillow. So we brought our pillows from home that we've been using.
It's nothing too grand, but we planned to keep everything comfortable and also simple. I thought it was important for a long trip such as ours.
After pitching our tent, we started to paint and write, then cooked up a spicy stew with sausages and veggies. Looking at the stew inside the pot, I suddenly remembered the streets in St. Louis.
A melting pot!
America is often mentioned as a good model of melting pot with all its different races, ethnicities, and cultures mixed together. However, to me, it was a melting pot that still hadn't been successfully melted, as long as there were flawed ideas of superiority and aversion to integrate.
However, at Meramec campground, these people with different skin colors, races and ethnicity, were all melting away, having sweet and restful Labor Day weekend and enjoying the pleasure of camping outdoors. We were also melting together with them in good harmony and our fourth day of the trip was slowly closing down.
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