St. Louis to Kansas City

Public transportation in STL is a bit of a joke.

Here is a big map of St. Louis for reference.

And if that wasn't a dumbass enough observation, I'll just add Nelly.

Nelly.

The arch of course...don't write it off as a tourist trap, it is truly a marvel. Walk around downtown while you're there and see some of the lovely architecture like Powell Symphony Hall, the old post office, the Kiel Center, and more.

There is spectacular and sad urban decay slightly to the north of the downtown area as well.

Drive to the southwest and see some of the parks and residential areas:
Tower Grove park is an old-timey victorian strolling park!
The Missouri Botanical garden is one of the top botanical gardens in the world.
Forest Park is the Central Park of St. Louis (it's actually larger) and is an absolute treasure. Everything in it is mandated to be free to all, including the art museum, the science center, and the esteemed St. Louis Zoo.

The Museum of Western Expansion underneath the arch is one of the most amazing museums I've ever been to, and it's free too. The best thing about St. Louis is how many amazing things you can see for free.

The science museum was great too. The art museum was closed, unfortunately.

I always thought the Nelly line was "I'm from the 'lou and I'm proud".

Provel cheese is used extensively in St. Louis. I don't know how this happened, given the city's Italian heritage, but this foulness is a blight on the good name of cheese. It's like a highly processed provelone, I guess, or a white Velveeta.

You make St. Louis style pizza with provel. You love it or hate it. If you already enjoy melted velveeta on saltines, come to St. Louis.

Fried Ravioli: St. Louis claims it as their own but it is now served other places as well. Sometimes it is cheese, more often it is meat. Just what it sounds like: breaded, deep-fried ravioli. It's good.

Gooey Butter Cake: more like an english baked pudding, very sweet, made with a ton of butter.

Frozen Custard: Ridiculously high milkfat content, possibly eggs as well? It's like getting Ben & Jerry's soft-serve.

I had no idea, bnw. I was there for that semester in 1989... I actually played football on the freshman squad and was the lightest player on the team (I think like 114 or something ridiculous like that). It was a pretty miserable experience, having gone to the same school for 9 years beforehand and knowing that I'd be moving to Detroit soon. This girl named Olivia who was really sweet and pretty asked me out, but I was too young and moronic to go out with her.

The best place to see movies in St. Louis, in my opinion, is Webster University - their film series is AMAZING. According to their calendar, they are showing Beyond the Valley of the Dolls December 12-14!! Tons of foreign/indie/classics...the good stuff.

Living in Soulard...hmmm...maybe I didn't see the right parts of it, but it kind of looked like a dump...too few trees for my taste. Go for the Central West End!

A lot suburban people still do work downtown. Just look at 40 going west during rush hour. And I've never heard of staying in your own suburb. That's a bit extreme and unfair. The whole high school question is partially meant to say something about you, but it's also evidence of the biggest small town in America sort of thing i.e. you probably know someone the person went to high school with.

You know how you can make fun of your family members for hours but if anyone else does it you get pissed? St. Louis is like that.

Anyway, other cool areas to check out: South Grand, Laclede's Landing, the renovated Washington Ave.

xp: And bnw is OTM about toasted ravioli, yes! And I also like that phrase 'biggest small town in america'...mr teeny went to hazelwood central, by the way.

I really don't get St. Louis but I'm fascinated with it. It seems like it's got so much good stuff and then so many problems too. Maybe it's no different than any other big midwestern city...I'm from such a small town that I just don't have perspective. Also my perception is very tainted by mr teeny's relatives, some of whom moved out of Florissant because it was getting too black. :(

I have some friends who have been buying up abandoned building on Cherokee St near South Grand, and have converted them into a nightclub and art galleries. You should look up Fort Gondo and Radio Cherokee when you move there. The Lou sorely needs more people doing things like that.

http://www.railtrails.org/find/totm/archives/images/01-09oak.jpg

I think I went to see it with my parents and the three of us wouldn't have even come close to putting our arms around it.

xp: It's the Ranch, I know that kid. Son of a politician/wealthy family, but he does great stuff with his money. also see ragtagfilm.com, that's his baby too.

Lambert issues aside, I've found StL to be pretty visitor-friendly;
good hotels, decent record stores (VV especially), reasonably easy to get around, and good food. One of the best meals I've had this year, despite the decor and yupscale-mall surroundings nearly scaring me off: Cardwell's (in (or near) Frontenac).

I didn't get there early enough to take any pictures of urban ruins, but I did take a picture of the white knight sandwich shop:

http://starstarstar.net/whiteknight.jpg

Apparenly this was part of the movie White Palace, which I've never seen. Here is a better picture of the diner but it doesn't have all the great patriotic stuff. More missouri diner info, beware of cheesy midi file.

Here are some more pictures of St. Louis.

I swear I'm going to get to more of Kansas City but right now the hangover is starting to kick in.

It's $5 to get in and it's open until 1 on Saturday's and Sunday's. And
yes, they serve the liquor (but I'm too young fer it.) On Saturday's they
show movies for free in the Museum of Mirth Mystery, and Mayhem.
I can't vouch for how good the movie picks are, but the times I've been
there on Saturday's they've shown Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Heavy
Metal, Clerks, and Mallrats.

It's about the best deal in town, tho. $5 is nothing.

Jefferson City is one of the only state capitols not on an interstate. Back when I was at Mizzou, the trip up from Arkansas to school took seven hours. Now that the speed limits got raised, it only takes five and a half hours. You can now legally drive 70 MPH through the JeffCity area.

I once wrote a song about Moberly: I've seen the lights of Moberly / Shining o' so bright / It's where General Omar Bradley / had his first full fistfight!

Maybe I should've kept that last one locked up in the car.

Of course, Boone County next door still has the "e", but no need to tell Watt that.

I will be making this journey next month. What shouldn't I miss in St Louis or Kansas City? I've never been to either. What route should I take in-between?

Is the Daum art museum in Sedalia worth the stop, for example? And is there awesome lunch to be had nearby?

I am (slightly forlornly) bumping this to give it one more chance.

we have other threads specifically about KC & (I think) STL, bbq recommendations, museums, etc. but it sounds like you want more about the route in between? I've driven between the two a bunch of times, but I don't have much to say about the route. other people on here know a lot more about Columbia than me.

Thanks! Obviously I'd be excited to hear anything desperately exciting happening in either place which those other threads / innumerable other internet places might not have picked up on, but yeah I'm having trouble figuring out an excellent plan for the journey between the two. I'll be making the journey in April FWIW.

Plus any recommendations for record shops which might suit a skinflint who likes buying cheap country vinyl from the 60s and 70s.

might revive a thread on Columbia then? I don't know of anywhere else in between that would have record shops. I mean you could head down to Branson, dunno what they have down there.

I had fun at the Jesse James farm in Kearney once, that's sorta on the way. Hannibal is goofy but that's pretty far north from STL.

can only speak to St. Louis - I think Vintage Vinyl or Record Exchange (if you feel like digging) are your best bets for country records.

going to be in KC for a day. thinking about... american museum of jazz/negro baseball museum and a brewery? anything else i can squeeze into one day?

p much everything of historical interest was razed. Arthur Bryant's if you like barbecue.

jazz museum sucks

The Truman presidential museum in Independence is interesting

Otherwise yeah the food. LCs is the best restaurant in America

baseball museum is alright but has too many replicas rather than original artifacts, at least as of 3 summers ago

I liked Arthur Bryants well enough but Joe's Kansas City blew my mind.

I enjoyed going up the tower in the war memorial.

i hear great things about the food but more or less BBQ is not relevant to me :/

this isn't worth much, but even with 17 years in SE missouri (far away from KC, i know) and ~5 years living in columbia, i never once heard anyone say "hey, let's go to Kansas City"

Amazing: This Guy Says He Wants To Visit Kansas City, But It's Not The One In Missouri

Know what town you're in if you drive due north out of North Kansas City?

That's right... Kansas City.

I had plenty of instances of some dudes going "hey, let's go to Kansas City," but usually, we'd always somehow end up at a rock quarry outside Prathersville instead.

regular boulevard brewery tour is fine but doesn't take that much time.

the nelson-atkins is free and you can get in and out pretty easy if you don't want to spend too much time there.

other boring museum options:
world war i museum (you can just go up the liberty memorial tower by itself, but it's apparently closed for maintenance right now)
toy and miniature museum (recently renovated)
steamboat arabia museum (lots of stuff from 1850s steamboat that sank in the missouri river)

http://i.imgur.com/XCdExwu.gif
http://i.imgur.com/of8LWTN.jpg

Nelson-Atkins is a good one