Roadtrip 2010 Part I

As always, I'm behind on updating my life (because frankly, I'm behind on life in general :)).  Two weeks ago I took off with 3 girlfriends on a roadtrip.  The plan: start in Franklin and head over to St. Louis.  Stay the night there, spend the day shopping, checking out the city museum and lunch at Goody Goody Diner.  From there head up to Iowa to stay with our longtime family friends, the Phillips.  Spend a day at the Iowa State Fair (largest state fair in the US!), play on the farm and then take off Monday morning for Galena, IL.  Spend a few hours in Galena and continue east to Chicago.  Stay 2 nights in Chicago and head back Wednesday morning to Franklin.  That was the plan.  Lesson learned?  Planning is overrated :).

Here's what REALLY happened...

We took off Thursday evening and drove to St. Louis and stayed in the hotel there as planned.  However, we were all exhausted and took our time getting up and getting ready and therefore decided to skip the City Museum.  Next time.  Instead, we headed over to Goody Goody to grab some grub.  We ended up ordering way more food than our stomachs could take - but being a diner that's been around since 1948, you know there's a reason why it's still there. Everything is AMAZING.  We would have loved it for the food alone, but then we got a chance to meet the owner - Mr. C.  He's in his 70's and his dad purchased Goody Goody when he was only 13 years old.  He chatted with us for a long while, getting choked up over stories of the past and sharing with us how he still loves serving coffee to people everyday and getting to know new faces as well as greeting the regulars everyday.  He sent over a round of rootbeer floats on the house (yum!!) and after we'd all purchased our Goody Goody tshirts, we put them on and went outside to take a pic with Mr. C. in front of the Goody Goody sign.  He hugged each of us before we took off and said we were the "highlight of his day".  He was the highlight of ours too.

After lunch we headed to the U-City Loop to do some shopping.  While there were some cute shops, it looks as though the economy has taken it's toll in that area and there were a lot of empty storefronts available for lease.  Regardless, we still enjoyed walking around and checking out everything even though it was blazing hot out.  The vintage Tivoli Theatre was awesome as well as a few other fun and whimsical shops.

We took off from St. Louis around 3:00 and made our way up to Iowa.  We had a few pit stops along the way (Target is fun no matter where you are :)), drove through an AMAZING lightening storm and made it safe and sound to the Phillips' farm around 11:00.  We were greeted with hugs and homemade peach cobbler, clear star-filled skies and a sweet breeze outside.  Man it was good to be home.

(to be continued...)