St. Louis Road Trip Yields Fun, Urge To Live In Big City

All of my Twitter followers probably figured out that I went to St. Louis this past weekend since I had extra time off due to the Labor Day holiday.

I went with my friend Stacy Goble, and we had a great time.

We both agreed that there was a lot more to do in St. Louis than in Wichita or Moundridge, and the trip furthered my urge to live in the hometown of my favorite baseball team, the St. Louis Cardinals.

The purpose of the trip was to see two things.

Primarily, we wanted to visit the Anheuser-Busch brewery before it become the Belgian abomination that InBev is sure to turn it into now that the foreign company has bought one of our nation’s most prolific icons.

Secondly, we wanted to visit the Gateway Arch because it is so cool.

We accomplished both and had many adventures along the way, most of which involved get lost and struggling to find a hotel room in the face of the Mizzou and Illinois football game taking place Saturday downtown at the Edward Jones Dome.

I got my first taste of gambling and found I really like roulette, even though I lost $50.

Rather than recap the entire trip here, I am going to send you to my Twitter page at www.toddtwitters.com to read a minute-by-minute account of everything that happened during the trip from start to finish.

If my St. Louis entries aren’t visible, just check out my archived posts. I assure you they are all there.

For this blog post, however, I am instead going to share 18 of the 229 pictures I took.

After all, if a picture is worth 1,000 words, 18 photos ought to say more than even The Voice could shout out.

Beer flows through these overhead pipes at the brewery. It’s like a wonderful dream . . .

This is a display of some of the products A-B makes.

I’m a journalist and word nerd. I had to buy this T-shirt.

This year is the 75th anniversary of the Budweiser Clydesdales. They are beautiful horses.

Here’s a beer-loaded wagon that the Clydesdales would pull.

One of our tour guides shows us a piece of beechwood, which the beer is aged in vats with beechwood to help make the beer naturally carbonated and a product that is uniquely A-B.

This reminds me of the Hollywood sign, and it kind of is. A-B is the Hollywood of beers.

So much Bud Light. So little time. Ahhh . . .

Cans of Bud Light go flying by on the their conveyer belt. I like to think they are on their way to make someone’s evening with their in-laws go a little smoother.

Stacy is definitely happy to see the Bud Light cans.

There were cool fountains on the brewery grounds. Also, the architecture was amazing!

Speaking of architecture, the Gateway Arch is incredible. I have been told that when it was constructed, the two sides didn’t line up correctly, so water had to be used to get one side to retract so it could be attached to the other side. Crazy!

From the top of the Arch, I could see down into Busch Stadium, the home of my beloved St. Louis Cardinals.

Stacy thought it was cool.

The Arch is huge. Just look at how small other things look next to it.

Stacy stood next to the sign signifying the very top, which hangs 630 feet in the air. I don’t know what she’s doing with her hand.

When Ledger Editorial Assistant Sara Rice heard I was going to St. Louis, she obviously became worried about my wild ways.

She took the proactive approach and wrote me an obituary just in case I met an untimely death due to my depression of her taking a job elsewhere and no longer being able to work at The Ledger.

Thanks, Sara.

Todd Ray Vogts, 22

The Ledger newspaper asks you to join us grieving the death of our editor, Todd Vogts. Todd’s tragic death occurred on Saturday, Aug. 30 when he jumped off the St. Louis Arch after realizing that not getting to work with Editorial Assistant Sara Rice was going to suck. Witnesses to his death claimed he had a large bottle of glue in his hand with a Milky Muscle Moo milk label on the side. Memorials may be mailed to The Ledger newspaper.

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