Chapters

I've been in St. Louis for six days now and it has been a wonderful time. I've been trying to figure out when the next chapter of this adventure should be, and fortunately it has presented itself.

A quick recap, however, of what I've been doing the past six days. I arrived at St. Louis on Friday night and met up with two friends from Potomac, MD. One still lives out there and the other recently moved to St. Louis, the latter being my hospitable host for a few days. Nothing like the good company of friends to start off a journey. Saturday we all visited the Budweiser Brewery, which is a St. Louis classic. I learned that I absolutely love the smell of heated wort, which is the mashed barley mix before yeast is added for fermentation. It has a very unique scent, which I can only describe as heated earth.

After the brewery tour, and freshly brewed beer, we went to the St. Louis Oktoberfest where beer was sold in Liters. This city certainly enjoys its beer, and that's just fine because they brew it well.

After the weekend ended my friend had to return to the life of the laboring man and I was left to explore the city on my own. The first thing I did was take a run through Forest Park, which is a block away from his apartment. It is a huge park, larger than central park, and quite beautiful. There's a couple museums inside of it and a free zoo. At this point I was quickly beginning to realize that St. Louis has far more to offer than I originally imagined. I had only planned on staying here a couple days, but almost a week later I still haven't planned my travel out of the city. Though small, the city has a lot of rich culture and history.

Yesterday I took a visit down to the Occupy St. Louis at Kiener Plaza, a nice auditorium public space. I was astounded by what I saw. There is a serious movement building, one of the likes this country hasn't seen for several decades, but is as filled with potential as the many that have driven our nation's history. I'm packing my bags now to go visit this community and learn more for myself what is being built. There's more I can say about this already, but I'll leave that for the next post.

And so I arrive at the next chapter, one filled with ever more potential than the previous.