"The Mississippi's mighty / It starts in Minnesota..."

[robotech_master]

Well, okay, I didn't actually cross the Mississippi, but I crossed its brother the Missouri, five times on three different bridges.

I got up Friday morning at about 9:30; spent half an hour or so packing and another half hour on the computer checking my email and noodling around. Then, certain I'd gotten everything important together (aside from the couple of niggling little things that I was sure I would notice having forgotten later), I set out to visit the library, where I could print out maps and instructions, then the gas station, then the open road.

At the library, I hit a slight snag: my brother hadn't given precise names for any of the destinations, meaning that I couldn't look them up in the Internet phone book and then use the addresses to generate Mapquest maps. Well, he did mention the Hampton Inn--but when I did a lookup on a Hampton Inn in St. Peters, the town where the wedding would be taking place, nothing came up. (I later found out that this was because there were actually two suburb-towns in the area, St. Charles and St. Peters, that fit together sort of like a yin-yang. The hotel was in St. Charles, but the church was in St. Peters.) And I didn't even know the name of the church. Finally, since it was getting on, I decided just to go with the written directions Alex had sent along. I headed on out of town at 11:30 a.m., stopping briefly for gas on the way.

As I got started up I-44, I noticed an accident had closed the westbound lane, between Glenstone and the Schoolcraft Freeway. As I drove by eastbound, I looked over and could see one of the casualties of the accident--a red compact car that was crumpled like a crushed aluminum can, and missing its roof altogether. Further on, there were the remains of another accident, though mostly cleared up, and a police car with orange cones across the road. The policeman was directing westbound traffic onto the north-south Schoolcraft freeway exits. When I got to the hotel, Mom & Dad recounted that when they'd passed by at 7:30, the accidents were there, too, and that it had even spilled over onto the eastbound, closing one of its lanes and backing up traffic considerably. So, the road was closed for about four hours. Wow.

The drive up to the vicinity of St. Louis was largely uneventful. I played some CDs to help the miles pass. Inspired by a recent post by mgrasso mentioning them, I started out with the Indigo Girls' "Rites of Passage." (It occurs to me that I should add the song "Chickenman" to my next Nobilis mix--the first verse is clearly a Power of the Wild talking to one of her Anchors. If you don't know what I'm talking about, gentle reader, don't worry about it.) Next came Yes's recent album, "Magnification," and an album by Asia--the one that started with "Don't Cry". I can't remember the name at the moment, but I think it was something that started and ended with "A". :) That CD ended while I was right in the middle of following Alex's instructions for getting to the precise area of the hotel, so I didn't bother trying to fiddle with it while my mind was on things.

And speaking of Alex's instructions, what instructions they were! I followed them without first tracing the route along the map; if I had, then I might have extrapolated a different path for myself. Alex's instructions might have been geographically shorter, in terms of distance between Point A and Point B, but they ranged from a small highway to smaller backroads through cornfields to a brief stretch of freeway with tricky exits (on which I crossed the Mississippi for the first time that day) to a through-town road with lots of stoplights to another brief stretch of freeway with tricky exits. If I'd had my wits about me, I would just have stayed on I-44 up to I-70, and then gone along I-70 to the hotel exit. Fewer exits, fewer turnings, and it might even have taken less time. On the other hand, I did get to be slightly amused by the name of one of the back-country cross streets: "Centaur Road". Leah, my compassrose character, heartily approved.

Speaking of compassrose, I had plenty of time to think about Nobilis things on the trip up. I had an idea for another In-Character Off-Camera vignette that I'll have to see about working on when I get back. In fact, I had a librarian do a bit of research for me here in the St. Peters library where I'm sitting and typing all this that should help me add a bit of verisimilitude when I sit down to work on it.

I have to admit, Alex did give precise instructions, even if they took me around Robin Hood's barn. I didn't have any trouble at all following them, and they got me to the hotel at about 3:00, where I met the parentals. They were gratified to see me, and they got out and ironed my suit for me...and it was at this point that we discovered that when I had packed my stuff and grabbed around for the most formallish-looking shoes I could lay hands on...I had gotten shoes from two different pairs! Boy, didn't I feel silly, then. I had also forgotten to pack dress socks, and hadn't been able to find my formal belt. (Just the one I was wearing, a Western embossed leather belt with "Licensed CB Operator" on the front, which I somehow doubted would go very well with a houndstooth double-breasted suit.)

And so, I decided to remedy this. I called around to find out where the nearest Kmart was, and got a bit of a surprise. I'd never expected that I might ever be personally affected by the closing of Kmarts across the country, but as it turned out the nearest stores to me had both been among the casualties. Live and learn.

The parents were nonplussed by my insistence on a Kmart; they had passed a Walmart on the way up that in-town highway with lots of stoplights that I mentioned; why couldn't I just visit it? (Well, for one thing, I don't like Walmarts, and for another, I didn't want to brave that tortuous stretch of road again.) But after calling a couple of the franchises, I learned there was indeed a Kmart near me, in Bridgeton--about 10 miles away, and not far at all from the main highway, I-70. I called, got directions that I could follow precisely, and set out to make some remedial purchases.

I take great pride in my powers of navigation. I guess because it's something that I know how to do, and it provides concrete benefits when I do it right. I can look at a map, figure the exits and the route, and generally know what to watch for to get me where I'm going. I don't get that feeling about a lot of people, like my parents...they seem to prefer the route they know to one they don't, even if it might get them there faster.

Of course, even the best of us manage to make wrong turns. And so it was that I found myself on I-70 heading west, instead of east as I needed to be. I took the first exit, hoping for a place I could turn around...but it turned out to be I-270, yet another freeway!

A bit of hasty map-consultation later, I determined that this road actually looped around to my objective from the north...so that, though it might add a few miles to my trip, it would be less trouble just to stay the course and enjoy the scenery than to try to get turned around and go back the other way. And so I did, crossing the Mississippi for the second time that day.

After a bit of exit confusion, I managed to make my way to the Kmart with little difficulty. I found a belt, socks, a gift bag for my "wedding present," and even a decent pair of formal shoes. I also picked up a small spiral-top-bound notepad on which I could scribble down this journal in the absense of Internet access. It was a bit more than I really wanted to spend, but I didn't want to be the one person at the wedding wearing a formal suit...and tennis shoes. And it was defrayed a bit by the $10 I was able to wheedle out of my Dad for the belt.

By this time, it was about 4:30 p.m., and since the wedding rehearsal started at 6, I figured I'd better make my way back to the hotel. I managed to get back onto I-70 through a very complicated exit that gave me new respect for the geniuses who design city highway interchanges, and I crossed the Missouri for the third time, on the third different bridge. By this time, rush hour traffic was starting to pick up, so it took me about 20 minutes to get back to the hotel. After that, I just had time to take a quick bath, then to dress and head out to the wedding rehearsal.

By the time I left at 5:15, traffic was incredible! I always forget what a true city rush hour is like until I am in one. Bumper-to-bumper freeway, and me without air conditioning. But at least I was able to put the time to good use, beginning to pen this journal entry on the pad between spurts of movement. At last, traffic picked up and cleared to the exit, and I was able to get off the freeway. Then all I had to do was drive south and turn right on Mexico Road. I could do that, right?

Wrong. I drove and drove, looking at every intersection for a sign that said Mexico Road, and not finding a single one. At last, when I was sure I must have passed it by then, I pulled over into a Mr. Silky's custard stand's parking lot and consulted the road atlas minimap...and I had, indeed, passed it. I pulled back out and went north again, looking even more carefully as I went. When I found it, I could see why I'd missed it--the sign that said "Mexico Rd." was flipped up, so that it was upside down and facing the wrong way!

I made it to the church at about 5:45, and spent the time waiting for and sitting around in practice scribbling down the draft of the rest of this journal entry. Hey, it passed the time while I was waiting for the ushers to get told how to ush, and the bridesmaids and groomsmen where to stand.

I have a relatively small, yet important, part in this wedding: I'm doing a reading from the Bible as part of the ceremony. The verses in question are Ruth 1:16-17 and 1st Corinthians 13:1-13. I suppose it's a step up from what I did at Aaron's wedding, in which I was an usher; the problem with being the brother of twins is that they already have their best men ready-made, meaning they have to find some lesser role for me. Of course, if I were the Best Man, I suppose I'd find the required duties and such irritating, so perhaps it's for the best that I have such a small role. Great orator that I am, reading Bible passages--even from the New King James, which has all the annoying stiltedness of the Old King James but none of its poetry--will not be a problem for me.

One thing that amused me about the church was seeing all the little Kleenex pocket-packs scattered around on or under the chairs. I suppose for those people who "always cry at weddings." It was funny to look around and see all these packets of kleenex sitting around in otherwise empty places.

Also amusing: in the wedding program, the various ways were listed of contacting the bride and groom: by mail, telephone, e-mail...and, at the very bottom, "By Owl"--giving the name of their apartment building and "second floor, sixth window from the left." Heh.

After the rehearsal, we had the rehearsal dinner, upstairs; it started with a salad, then continued with a buffet table that had breadsticks, mashed potatos, rice, veggies, beef brisket, and chicken patties. I was seated with my cousins Roy and Rhonda Sorbet, and their son Raime (pronounced Ray-me). Raime is a cute little fellow with a pronounced drawl, and he's right at that age where kids say strange things. He's going to be the ringbearer, a role that I had in my very first family wedding (my Mom's sister Cammy, somewhere more than 20 years ago).

After everyone had eaten, we were treated to a slide show of pictures from the youths of the bride and groom. This also meant that, in various group shots, I was treated to many pictures from my own youth, as well. Those brought back some memories I'd forgotten...heh. I need to check the website mentioned in the wedding program and see if I can download some of them. The slideshow was kind of neat...but the problem was it flashed by too fast--at a rate of 3 seconds per slide. Since some of the slides had captions, it was just too short a view; they've promised it will be longer when they run it at the reception tonight (Saturday).

After that, the previewers decided to head out to a nearby gaming place. But that was not for me--no, I wanted to access my Internet. And so I girded my loins for battle, checked the maps, and headed into the inner city--and, since I'm about out of time, my harrowing tale of city travel will have to wait for another time.