Two weeks ago, our New Mexico friends, Cheryl and Dave, made a second stop at our house.  In August, they stopped here on the way from their home in New Mexico to their daughter’s home in North Carolina.  (Their other daughter lives in Hawai’i.  How’s that for being spread out?)  This time they were on their way to Cheryl’s college class reunion in Chicago.  We started having fun by having lunch, soon after their arrival.

It was a rainy day, but we capitalized on a break in the showers to visit the Historic Main Street district of St. Charles.  Dave likes to geocache and had identified four caches in the heart of the area, so we looked for them as we walked along the street.  Clues for the first geocache indicated that the first map of St. Charles was a part of it.  I remembered seeing something about the first map when we were visiting Main Street with Julian last summer.  We were right in front of the First State Capitol/Missouri Historical Society building, so I went in to ask one of the workers about the map, only to discover all of the employees gathered around a table in the back room celebrating a birthday.  (They offered me a piece of cake.)

When I inquired about the map, one of the men asked, “Are you geocaching?”  I said no, I was helping a friend.  The man pointed to the map behind the party table and said, “There it is.  And the next one is the Peck Brothers sign next door.”  Wow!  Am I good or what?!  I’ve never geocached before and I found two before Dave did!  I shared the information with Dave and he duly recorded the finds.  We continued our walking tour of the district and then meandered down to the riverfront path where Dave identified another geocache location.  He found it without too much trouble and we continued walking.  We arrived at the final geocache location a little later but, even with all four of us looking, we couldn’t find it.

Our dry weather window was closing and it was starting to sprinkle a little, so we decided to reverse our direction and circle back toward the car.  On the way, Cheryl and I went into the Little Hills Winery shop where we each bought a bottle of wine, making it a good day of shopping.

In the evening, Ted and I planned to take Dave and Cheryl to The Hill in St. Louis for an Italian dinner.  It’s well known that there is no bad food on The Hill, but when we left, there was a strong thunderstorm passing over.  We decided to eat closer to home and headed for one of our favorite local Italian restaurants, Fratelli’s.  The food and wine were delicious and the conversation was even better.  The scotcheroos at home were pretty good too.  Cheryl asked for the recipe.

We started the following cool morning with a warm beverage from Starbuck’s, then headed for the Arch.  Ted and I have lived in this area for 43 years and have never gone to the Arch in October.  It’s unlike any previous experience we’ve had.  Our skip-the-line tickets were for 11:00 a.m. and we arrived at 10:40, ready to ride but prepared to spend the usual recommended hour getting up, looking around, and coming down.  We were down by 11:05.  With no lines, we presented our tickets, walked directly to the tram cars, waited for the tram to arrive, got on, and took the six-minute ride up.  Unbelievable!  We spent some time in the tram car taking pictures.  Cheryl and I took turns so we’d all get into a picture.

Of course, there was the obligatory photo at the top to be taken, so we asked a nearby person to take our picture.  He said he’d be glad to and asked where we’re from.  Ted and I said “St. Louis” and Cheryl and Dave said “New Mexico.”  “Where in New Mexico?” asked the man.  “Las Cruces,” replied Cheryl and Dave.  What are the odds that this man’s son, daughter-in-law, and two granddaughters had just moved to St. Louis from Las Cruces and were standing right there?  It is definitely a very small world.

After we were back at ground level, it was time for Cheryl and Dave to head for Chicago.  We slowly worked our way back to the parking garage, took a few pictures of the Arch from the ground, exchanged hugs and good wishes, and went in different directions.

Today’s mail brought me a postcard from Dave, sent from North Dakota on their way home.  He knows Ted and I are looking for a reason to go to North Dakota because it’s one of only three states we haven’t visited.  He noted on the postcard that he wishes I were there and he thinks I probably wish the same.  New Mexico is another of the three states we haven’t visited.  Ted and I are looking forward to our Southwest U.S. vacation in October 2017 when we plan to attend the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta and to visit Cheryl and Dave in Las Cruces.