Our son is stationed about 20 miles East of St. Louis. I’ve been more concerned about that then the fact he’s in the armed forces. A bit more concerned when he moved off-post with a few of his friends to a place even closer to St. Louis. I’d been there professionally, a few times.
It was good to see they live in a house that doesn’t have bars on the windows and doesn’t need them. There’s plenty of trouble nearby if you’re looking for it, but that’s not his way and his friendly, easy going confidence glides unimpeded through traditional demographic walls. He’s always been like that, a man with some sort of social osmosis superpower.
This stop was more like being on vacation. We ate out every night. We played a lot of ping pong. I’m still able to consistently loose, Renee is still quite good, and Sean crushes everyone who picks up a paddle against him. We’re used to it, but his roomies still get miffed.
Thursday one of Sean’s friends – we’ll call him “Bees” – joined us for dinner at a place in O’Fallon called Peel Wood Fired Pizza. It was the best GF pizza Renee has had, with bacon and pickles. It was busy, slow even – if you’re hungry, but friendly and delicious. The young Airmen regaled us old folks with stories that had everyone except Bees laughing most of the time. And at one point Bees said, “Hey, Sean. Why did you order tires?” Given the context, I thought it was setup since the tires weren’t supposed to arrive until Saturday. But it wasn’t.
Friday took a couple of trips to Walmart and a few hours, but we got the tire mounted, new winches for the dolly – that dolly takes more maintenance and spare parts than a British sports car – and a trip through Menards. We also moved the furniture and miscellaneous items we’d brought for Sean from our house to his – and Mom helped organize his room – before heading to a local “street taco joint” for the best asada burrito I’ve had outside of Texas.
Saturday we went to the Cahokia mounds which Sean described as, “hills with grass on them.” There were also long winding paths around the mounds through open fields in the hot sunshine. Then we went to the zoo and got a great parking spot right near the entrance.
It was one of the best zoos we’ve ever been to, much better than the National Zoo in DC. We saw animals we’d never seen before, wouldn’t believe were real if we hadn’t seen them. Enclosures that were closed with armies of zoo workers inside cleaning. Animals with room and shade and running water and clever toys and company. The grounds were clean with hardly any litter and the other guests were being excellent to each other.
Sunday we went to church with Sean. While he was at BMT, Renee and I went on a cruise and met a couple who had recently retired from 38 years pastoring a church a bit outside of St. Louis. We struck up a friendship and have stayed in touch. Sean’s plans got changed around a few times and when he ended up at Scott, my friend said, “Hey, that’s where my church was.” The couple running things now grew up there, went to China and ran an orphanage for 20 years or so, and came back, ultimately taking the reins when my friend retired. And this is where Sean goes and is known and involved and valued and where people couldn’t wait to meet us and tell us how thankful they are for him.
And, since it was Father’s Day, I got a root beer float too.
We drove into St. Louis to explore Arch Park then went to Pappy’s Smokehouse for the best BBQ in the world as a late lunch, early dinner. Then back home to exercise the pup and then off to “Inside Out 2” which, if you liked the first one (we did), was a good sequel. [Rant about lack of original story telling in movies deleted.]
Sean had an early day on Monday so he stayed at our house, wrapped up with a sleeping bag and the happiest border collie in the whole wide world.
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