The title is taken directly from Red Paden:  It is what it is.

I decided to combine the last two days since nothing at all happened on the second day, except the drive through rain to get home.

 

What time is it?  What is all this light?  Why am I up so early?  Didn’t I just go to bed?

With sad faces and sad hearts, we packed up our stuff and loaded the car.  It was time to return to the north.  We will miss the south with its hospitality, great music, great people, and warm weather.  Only there was a storm coming and we should get out of here.

We stopped for breakfast up in Tunica at the Blue and White Restaurant again.  Rich was feeling the need for some good ole southern ham and redeye gravy.  Today, it was fairly quiet.  Still no donuts available for breakfast.  I think they are just taunting us with the idea of homemade donuts.  Rich picked up a t-shirt from here.  It has a 34 Ford roadster on the back.

Back on the road, we head into Memphis and get on 55 going north.  We did pretty well until we got around Cape Girardeau, MO.  A sign along the highway was flashing a tornado warning for the area.  We changed to the radio and found an AM news station broadcasting storm information.  The conditions were right, but no tornado was spotted.  We got up around Oak Grove and a rest area.  We stopped to wait out the rain, which was coming down and we could hard see.  We figured we wait for it to pass us by.

Half an hour later, we were back on the road and watching the storm move off to the northeast away from us.  The rest of the drive into St. Louis was uneventful.  We made our way into downtown to find the Schafly Taproom for dinner.  This area of downtown is seeing a lot of updating and rework.  Schafly’s is in the old St. Louis Brewing facility.  It was very nice.  The food was pretty good and the beers were good.  It was a great stop.  The only thing was the server didn’t seem like he really wanted to be.  He ignored me at the table until Rich returned from his pit stop.  Then he just wasn’t that attentive.  I guess I should realize I’m in the south anymore.

Rich loves the cask conditioned ales.  His first was the Oktoberfest followed by the cask conditioned APA.  Both were delicious.  Rich got the plate of swine with all of the pork portions that you can image, including deep fried bacon.  I went for the simpler schnitzel plate.  Just what we were looking for.  Great food, great beer, and great atmosphere.  Next time, we’ll have to stop for longer to enjoy more.

We finally rolled into our hotel for the night.  The poor guy behind the desk had to answer the phone as we came in.  As we were waiting, a group of young men were wondering around the place.  I assumed they were getting ready for work and waiting for their ride.  When Rich was coming back up to the room after returning the luggage cart, he was in the elevator with one of them and he asked about the situation.  Yes, they were part of an industrial cleaning crew and were waiting for the van.

Rich relaxed as I wrote out the blog for our day in Clarksdale.  It took me a couple of hours to completely post the text and pictures.  A lot of work went into that post, but I was happy with it.  Believe it or not, it was not everything.  I thought of it as the highlight reel.

Today, we made it home without any further incidents to report.  It was quiet and leisurely ride.  Sascha was overwhelmed to have us back and couldn’t stop following Rich around.  Tomorrow, she won’t remember we were gone.

It was wonderful trip with a lot of great experiences.  I can’t wait to plan another trip to Clarksdale and spend some time around time.