"East bound and down"

Logan's new favorite song has been "East Bound & Down" from Smokey & The Bandit and that's the direction we've been heading. The last two days have been full of lots of surprises! Sunday night we stayed in North Dakota with my parents in tow at an amazing hotel by accident. We pulled over because it was 1:00a and found a Ramada with an indoor pool, play place and miniature golf. We had some quick morning fun there! Then we were in five different states on Memorial Day right through the middle of America: South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri. We fell across a wonderful place in Omaha, NE called Rick's and ate lunch there on the Missouri River. The weather was incredible and we enjoyed family time outside on the river walk. Kansas City, Kansas was ghetto! We got stuck there trying to find gas (0 miles to empty) and had to find a bathroom but didn't want to stop. Plus, all of the gas stations were closed down and we thought we were going to run out of gas, scary. Luckily one place on the GPS was open and we think we saw the area my great-grandfather had his blacksmith shop in the old part of Kansas City (cool!).

After a lot of driving in the rain and no Starbuck's anywhere we finally arrived in St. Louis where we had reservations for a large suite. The room is amazing with a corner view and windows everywhere! It is like a house. If you know my mom some how she got us the hook-ups and we all landed in the VIP room on the 29th floor for free breakfast and afternoon snacks with views of Busch Stadium and The Arch. We enjoyed the day at the St. Louis Arch underground in the museum about settling the west and then took a small futuristic-looking pod to the top of the Arch. The view was WOW and at the same time you kind of wanted to get out of there because it was cramped quarters at 606 ft. off the ground. My parents left after the arch back to Cali. and we ate lunch at Max & Irma's with delicious food and a half-dozen of there hot fresh cookies to take with us on the Mississippi River Boat tour. The tour was one-hour with nice weather and you felt like you were at Disneyland because of the river boat tour there. We made it into our hotel room just before a thunder storm hit and we watched a family movie while watching the rain and lightning through the large hotel windows. Imo's pizza was recommended by our St. Louis friends and we had it delivered for dinner. Yummy!! Tomorrow we're driving through Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and ending in Kentucky. Can't wait to fill you in there! Miss you all and look for our surprise location coming in 5 days!! hehe