St. Louis!

It was with some trepidation, on my part, not Jude's, that we departed with John Patrick for St. Louis, MO, Thursday morning. Jude's cousin, Christie White, was getting married and almost the entire White clan was scheduled to be there for the festivities. I was more than a little nervous with the idea of traveling with John Patrick for five hours in a car, in addition to being couped up in a hotel room with him for a couple of days and nights.

The trip to St. Louis was largely uneventful. Much to our delight, John Patrick slept almost the entire way, with Jude sitting by his side in the back seat of her Honda Pilot. I had burned cds of several podcasts of shows Jude and I watch on television or listen to on the radio. We particularly enjoyed listening to an episode of Bill Maher's show (HBO), laughing hysterically at his take on the election as November 4 draws nearer and nearer.

About an hour out of St. Louis, we stopped in New Baden, IL, at what turned out to be the cleanest, friendliest and most hospitable McDonald's I've ever visited. I realize that sounds kind of strange, but we had a great time there. Inside, it looked like a McDonald's from the 1950s, with a red and white tiled floor and a statue of Ronald McDonald sitting on a bench, facing the cash registers. Jude danced with John Patrick, as we sang along to "golden oldies" music playing over the speakers in the restaurant. We sat down together (my family, wow!) at a booth, fed John Patrick, ate a little ourselves, then left . . . but not before taking a photograph of John Patrick sitting in Ronald McDonald's lap!

We got to our hotel - the Mayfair downtown - early that evening, where we hooked up with Jude's parents. Jimdad and I ordered takeout food from the restaurant just off the lobby. We had a beer while we waited . . . and waited . . . and waited for our food. After eating dinner in our room, Jude, John Patrick and I turned in for the night. John Patrick went right to sleep and I was convinced Jude and I were the smartest, most worldly parents in history. That all changed about 4:00 a.m., when the alarm on the digital clock suddently went off right next to where John Patrick was sleeping peacefully in his Pack n Play. He immediately began screaming and it took Jude 30 minutes or so to get him back to sleep.

Friday morning, I went for down Washington Avenue, then ran into Jude, her brother James, and his fiance, Megan, at Starbucks afterward. While I worked in the room for a while, Jude and her folks strolled with John Patrick down to the Arch, then to lunch.

Friday night, we had a very nice babysitter from a local babysitting service, Shirley Decker, watch John Patrick while we attended Christie White's wedding at the old Cathedral downtown. The church was beautiful, as was the wedding service. The reception was right across the street at the Renaissance Hotel, so Jude was able to go return to our room to feed John Patrick and put him to bed, then come back to the reception to eat dinner. We danced a couple of dances, then went back to our room about 10:30 p.m. when the reception ended.

This morning, it took forever to check out of the hotel, as only two elevators were working. Also, the hotel was overrun with high school band member in town for a band contest. It was crazy. Jimdad, James and I ended up carrying the stroller and most of John Patrick's other accessories down seven flights of stairs in a very narrow stairwell. What a mess.

Next, Jude, James, John Patrick and I got lost on the way to the zoo, where we planned to meet he cousin, Chad White, his wife, Misty, and their two children, Colton and Maddie. After stopping to ask directions three different times, we finally found the zoo. We also located Chad, Misty, et al., saw some animals, then headed over to Joe White's (Jude's uncle) house for lunch. Finally, about 3:15 p.m., we got on the road to Nashville and actually arrive home about 9 p.m.

Overall, we had a wonderful weekend on the road. It's nice to know we can travel with John Patrick.