Day 3: Gender equity, arches, hash tags, and women scorned

Yesterday (Day 3) started, as usual, at about 11am after a long night sleep and early morning blogging.  Given that we woke up in Metropolis, IL, it only made sense to head straight for the Super Museum where we took full advantage of various photo ops.  Visitors to Metropolis will be heartened to know that the giant Superman statue and museum are strategically located right next to the local police department in case residents of the nearby Happy Hearts Senior Center start to get unruly.

After getting the obligatory pictures with the statue and life size cutouts, we ventured into the gift store (i.e., junk store) and museum.  The price of admission to the museum was a little too steep ($5) to walk through a 20'x20' room full of more junk, so we decided to pass.  As far as I could tell, the only difference between the gift shop and the museum was that the junk in the shop was for sale whereas the junk in the museum was not.

After walking out of the store with a few tacky gifts for friends (which ones of you will we hoist these treasures upon??) and a new Superman mascot for the dashboard, we headed down the street in the name of gender equity to see the Lois Lane statue.  Lois had no gift store or museum dedicated to her but she did have a statue that provided more photo ops.  Tanya decided to try to read what was on her notepad while I, despite the temptation to be a little more inappropriate, was a gentlemen and simply gave her a pat on the belly.

Our time in Metropolis was up, so we made our way to our next destination of St. Louis.  The main attraction, of course, was the gateway arch, although Tanya seemed equally excited about seeing the Mississippi up close for the first time.  We parked right on the water, chatted with a family from Birch Run, MI (half hour away from where I grew up), and proceeded to take many pics of the arch from various angles.  If you've never seen it up close, it's a very impressive and majestic structure that towers over the city and its skyline.

After filling our memory cards, we walked toward what we thought would be an oasis of lunch possibilities.  We were near the arch, near Busch Stadium, and near a thousand hotels, after all.  What we found instead was a food dessert.  If you've ever famished and on the verge of death, the last place in the world you want to be is near the arch in St. Louis.  Frustrated, we headed back to the car, but were distracted by the allure of the Westward Expansion museum at the bottom of the arch, where they had a very nice permanent exhibit on the history of the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark expedition.

We then headed back to the car and decided to get a bite to eat at a riverboat snack shop we saw as we walked past.  That's when we encountered Woman Scorned #1.  As we approached the window, we could see someone on the other side who appeared to be there ready to take our order.  Instead, she simply gave us a dirty look and slammed a "CLOSED" sign against the plexiglass.  What was even worse is that she did so as she ate her lunch right in front of our hot, tired, and hungry faces.

We then stumbled to the car and got out of STL as soon as we could in an attempt to get to KC in time to make it to Oklahoma Joe's before they closed at 9pm.  Despite my best efforts at pushing the speed limit the entire length of I-70, it was clear we weren't going to make it in time.  We instead got in touch with my old Chapel Hill friend, Mark, who now lives in KC.  We knew he'd be good for food recommendations.  What Tanya didn't know was how entertaining her dinner was about to become.

Mark took us to local institution Winstead's, where we once again spited the health foods goods and gorged on double cheeseburgers and milk shakes.  The conversation was filled with references to kangaroo pouches, viral marketing of pharmacuetical policy classes, and discussions about the overuse of #hashtags.  Mark kept us laughing the *entire* time to the point that I couldn't tell if my stomach was upset because of all the grease and fat I just ingested or because of Mark's contagious laughter.  No matter what happens the rest of the trip, I have a hard time believing I'll have a more enjoyable two hours than the two we shared with Mark.

The night was getting late and it was time to make hotel accommodations, which is when we encountered Woman Scorned #2.  She came in the form of an unnecessarily rude hotel front desk clerk who couldn't believe our audacity at calling to see if they had any rooms available for the evening.  What an unreasonable thing for us to ask.  Tanya was the one talking to her on the phone, but I could hear enough of the 10-second conversation to know that she was getting nothing but short, curt answers to simple questions.  Our next call was to a very friendly man at a Best Western in Olathe who gave us a price break, so we hightailed it out of KC and went to the 'burbs.

As I laid in bed and reflected on the 1100 total miles traveled so far, all of which had been spent listening to pop and country commercial radio, I realized that at least 90% of the songs we've heard have been by woman who at some point have been done wrong by the man in their life.  Kelly Clarkson seems to have a bottomless well of betrayal on which to draw, Carrie Underwood seems to favor an approach that advocates for smashing headlights with baseball bats, and one unknown artist last night was signing about blood stains in the context of her cheating man.  Woman Scorned #3, #4, and #5.  I think we'll be listening to some Ben Folds Five today.

It's now time to leave Olathe and head to Kansas to see the University of Kansas and Phog Allen Fieldhouse.  Despite our deep desire to see the world's largest ball of twine in Cawker City, KS, we will instead heard north towards Omaha in the search of more adventures.  Yesterday will be hard to beat, though.