George Blowfish's Trip to St. Louis

[gblowfish]

George Blowfish's Trip To St. Louis

Since the game itself has already been hashed over pretty well (now that its Tuesday) I thought I'd tell you ten things about my road trip to St. Louis. I have slides! You wanna see some slides??? Needless to say, it was epic:

10. I haven't done a Chiefs Road Trip in a long time. Last one I can remember was to Dallas when Marty was coach, and that was a long time ago. I went on a bunch of Chiefs Trips before I got married, but the timing on this one was just right. On the trip was the mighty KC five: GString, Phoneman Darth, Woodsie Owl, Hoffa's Lawyer and yours truly. We decided to ride Amtrak, Hoffa got on in KC, Darth in Independence, the rest in Lee's Summit. Tickets were $52 round trip, leaving Saturday around 9am, and we came back Monday night, leaving STL around 4pm. Can't beat that with a stick. Hotel was the old Adam's Mark (now called Crowne Plaza) a block from the arch, and about six blocks or so from the Eddie Dome. We had two dee-luxe suites, one on the 21st floor and another on the 26th floor. I had a balcony, and when you went out, you had a great view of the arch, and the old Dred Scott Federal Courthouse, and new Busch Stadium. Only problem was, it was about 30 degrees with a brisk wind, so you didn't want to spend more than about 30 seconds on the balcony. Good place for the smokers to sneak a quick one. Suites were $300 per night x 2, so $600/night split 5 ways. Not too bad. We waited too long to buy our game tickets -we bought them in October- and ended up in row VV way upstairs. And I mean WAY UPSTAIRS. The rows only went to XX, so if there was no roof, I'm sure I could have seen Wisconsin from up there. We were in the very top off the back rear pylon of the end zone. On the Charles 80 yard run, he ran right to me.

9. On the train trip out of KC, GString, Darth and Woodsie drank a fifth of "Fox" Screwdrivers before reaching Jeff City. On the train, they wouldn't sell you Tomato Juice to make bloody marys, but they would sell you OJ. " Fox " is a vodka made in Atchison, KS and is supposed to be mighty good. I don't drink vodka, but my pals swear by it, and were pretty lit by the time they got to STL. I sat next to a guy who got on the train at Sedalia. He was retired USAF, and was now a civilian employee at Whiteman AFB. Nice guy, said he tried to do one Chiefs road trip a year, and this was it. If you haven't made this ride, once you get to Jeff City it's pretty cool. Follows the river and goes to Hermann and Washington, MO -both quaint little river towns- then follows I-44 just to the south of Six Flags, then into Kirkwood. Kirkwood's station is a lot like Lee' s Summit. Goes right in the heart of town, lots of shops and stores and such. Then into the main part of the city, following Manchester and ultimately I-64 downtown. Train made it into STL around 2pm. We got a ride in a filthy St. Louis mini van taxi -looked like the guy lived in his cab full time-, checked in the hotel, then went over to a place called Caleco's for lunch, across the street from the Dred Scott Courthouse, and across a little park from Busch Stadium. The waiter gave us tons of shit, which we gave right back. We decided early on not to take any guff from any Rams fans.

8. For whatever reason, $300 per night at the hotel did not include working wireless internet, which sucked a bunch. I couldn't get on the net at all from the hotel, they said their wireless service failed on Friday night, and the guy who works on it wouldn't be in till Monday. So I basically threw my laptop in the closet the whole weekend and just said screw it. Friday night I met one of my St. Louis buddies -Mr. Cheezwhizz- at the Broadway Oyster Bar a few block south of Busch Stadium. It was packed, because a Grateful Dead cover band called "Jake's Leg" was the house band that night. So the place was crawling with field hippies, wearing hemp clothing and sandals with black socks. I've also noticed that both the 20-something men and women wear a lot of stocking caps in St. Louis. Looked to me like they all wanted to rob a liquor store later. We tried some fried alligator bites (tastes like chicken), and had gumbo, red beans and rice and cold shrimp on a plate. Food was excellent, service was terrible. But hey, it's a hippie hole in the wall dive. I like Schlafly Beer (St. Louis version of Boulevard) and since Bud was bought out by the Belgians, A-B products are passe' with a lot of St. Louis folks. They're pretty pissed off at AB for selling out to foreigners. I saw a lot of folks drinking Boulevard Wheat, and PBR in a tall boy at the bar. I guess PBR is quite the rage among Generation Y. Here's a tip: grow up, it's lawn beer. Life's too short to drink crappy beer.

7. We wanted to watch the Mizzou game on Saturday night, but there was a hockey game in STL that night, so Fox Sports Midwest carries Blues Hockey instead of Mizzou Basketball, which sucked a lot. I could give a crap about hockey. After the Broadway Oyster Bar we played poker till around 1am, then decided to turn in so we could be ready for the big throw down on Sunday. We felt pretty good, no bad vibes at all, and everyone thought Cassel would play.

6. I think being a hotel concierge would be a great job. People ask you all kinds of crazy stuff, and stuff $5 and $10 bills in your pocket all day. We tipped everybody. If you stay downtown, be prepared to tip literally everybody. On Sunday Morning we donned our Red Chiefs stuff, went to the lobby and asked the concierge where we should have breakfast before the game. He recommended a place called "The Rooster" at 11th and Locust St. It was about four blocks from the Eddie Dome, but a bit of a hike from our hotel at 4th and Pine. We decided to walk it anyway, as it wasn't too terrible cold. The old downtown buildings in St. Louis are pretty awesome if you're into architecture. Lots of chiseled stone figures, really old school brick buildings, and some god awful modern pieces of shit that make you wonder who was in charge of the design committee. The Rooster was FULL of Chiefs fans. We had bloody marys, home made waffles with fruit, expresso. Very good stuff. Around 10:30 we were fully fueled and headed out for the Eddie Dome.

5. You would have been proud. Chiefs fans EVERYWHERE. The tailgating was lame lame lame. Little small patches here and there, except for one large lot on the north side of the dome. No BBQ or charcoal smoke in the air. We were asked if we wanted to sell any tickets probably 50 times before we got to the dome, and was accosted by tract waving little old black ladies on three different occasions wanting to save our souls. We went in about 45 minutes to game time and literally breezed right in. No lines like Arrowhead. They search you the same as Arrowhead, but we literally walked right in. Actual lines to go in didn't form until about 15 minutes to game time, and lots of the Rams fans got in their seats about five minutes after kickoff. Pre-game means nothing to Rams fans. They're very blase about it.

4. The dome itself is quite sterile. When you enter, you start taking escalators. and we went up-up-up since we were all the way up. We walked all the way around the upper floor, and it was pretty much the same all the way around. White painted concrete block, windows in the corners to look out on St. Louis, but it reminded of me of a really big Kemper Arena. It's kind of a blah building, really. It was nice to be warm, but it really sucks the life out of a football game. It was more like being at a basketball game in a very big basketball arena. They did have more beer men than you can shake a Bud Light at. And you can have Bud, or Bud Light or Bud Select, so they really have a big beer selection.

3. On the National Anthem, you could really hear "Home of the Chiefs!" It was kind of hard to tell exactly how many Chiefs fans were there, because all the seats inside are red, except for the rich bastard seats on the lower level between the 40 yard lines, which are blue. My guess: Announced attendance was around 55,000, and I'd say 20,000 of those were red-wearing Chiefs fans. Near the end of the game at the two minute warning, the Chiefs fans were doing the chop and singing the Indian Chant. The Rams turned their PA up REAL loud and began playing music for their cheerleaders to dance, to drown out the Chiefs fans. But by that time most of the Rams fans were gone. After Jones' TD, the place cleared out just....like....that. What a beautiful sight.

2. I don't think Rams fans have the passion that Chiefs fans do. The vibe I got was, sure, they wanted the Rams to win, but they don't live for it like we do. They're baseball fans first and foremost. The sports wanks on the late night game wrap shows talked about the game a bit, then talked at length about how KC sent Greinke to Milwaukee, which was bad for the Cards, because it's a division rival. Huh??? It's football season, dudes. One of the St. Louis sportscasters called Bowe "Bow" like "Bow Wow." What a moron.

1. Sunday night after the game I met my sister and her husband for dinner at a fancy steakhouse called Carmine's. It was a very nice meal, and again, place packed with Chiefs fans. I'm sure we all looked like the Blues Brothers at Chez Paul...using the wrong glass and such. Sunday night we hung out in the suite and watched the Pats/Packers, then watched game highlights on the local sports, then watched Robot Chicken Star Wars special, then slept pretty well. Monday was back to The Rooster for Breakfast, tour of the Arch -complete with creepy animatronic pioneer characters- then off to the train station, then the long ride home. Got back to Stately Wayne Minor in Independence around 11pm, then popped up for work this AM at 6:15 as usual. I'm still pretty tired, but happy tired. Chiefs won a critical road game, you all have covered the details of it pretty well.

My only real football comment is: DON"T OVERLOOK TENNESSEE or this big win is wasted. Let's start to concentrate on the Titans. They've had our number the last few times we've played them. So until next Sunday -and a more normalized Ten Things-, Merry Christmas to all and to all, a Good Night!

[Rams Fan]

Originally Posted by Ralphy Boy

Think about how bad it sucks to be a Ram's fan and a St Louis football fan in general. They lost their Cardinals football team, went without and when the Rams came to town they sucked ass before winning a Superbowl. Which was great but they have had a ton of issues since losing in the SB to the Pats. Basically they were given a glimmer of greatness only to see it all fall apart.

They could have easily been a dynasty just like NE was, given all of the talent they had. There wasn't a more talented team than their 1999 one anywhere in the league (Warner, Faulk, Holt, Bruce). Martz's ego got in the way and its been a shithole of a team ever since. Ownership changes, possibly moving out of state issues, HC carousel. Steven Jackson has wasted his time there. Torry Holt should be a HOF WR.

Their "arrow" is pointing up now but the fact is because of baseball, the town expects a winner and to be in contention every year and when the football team cannot come near equalling the success, its hard to stay excited about them.

I was there in 99, during the regular season, and I've never been at a more excited stadium, even at Arrowhead. That place was electric that year and they scored at will. It was completely insane. Our fans are way better than theirs, but there is an added element that fuels any fan base when you have the best offense in the league.

There's plenty of people to blame for the Rams demise. Martz is one of them, but he isn't the main culprit. John Shaw and Jay Zygmunt were the ones that put the Rams into the mess they were in from 2007-2009. Linehan was also a part of that. Years of bad drafting screwed the franchise up. Now, the Rams finally have a GM in place who I think knows what he's doing and a HC that won't blame it all on the players(like Linehan). And the team really didn't go through ownership changes. Georgia Frontierre died and the 60% part of the Rams that she owned went to her children. Kroenke has the team now, but he owned 40% of the Rams before the Rosenblooms sold their stakes in the Rams to him.

[stlchiefs]

Good read. Sounds like you ate at all good places. You had some good recommendations. I was in UU around the 40 so not a lot better then where you ended up. Great game though!

[gblowfish]

Originally Posted by Ralphy Boy

Think about how bad it sucks to be a Ram's fan and a St Louis football fan in general. They lost their Cardinals football team, went without and when the Rams came to town they sucked ass before winning a Superbowl. Which was great but they have had a ton of issues since losing in the SB to the Pats. Basically they were given a glimmer of greatness only to see it all fall apart.

Hey' I'll take a "glimmer of greatness" any day. We've been waiting 41 years for it to return.

[Raiderhater58]

Originally Posted by gblowfish

Rooster: Next time you go to St. Louis, you'll have to eat at The Rooster!
http://roosterstl.com/

We tried but it was packed, as you said. Ended up eating an $8 footlong inside the dome

[boogblaster]

glad you had a good time and a needed win ... but like you said lets not overlook the Tinytons .......

[GloryDayz]

One more thing to note about the intellect of those running the show in st. Louis. Look where they put the 10-yard-line marker!!!
Yeah, I just downloaded the pics from the camera!! If I can convert the video of the ladies taunting the one goofball (it's a friggin huge AVI right now), I will. Good times!

[GloryDayz]

Let's see if the converted video works... Sorry if it sucks. But this was awesome, there Chiefs lady fans were all over the Jared looking doode. and the other Rams fans immediately around them were family, so Jared didn't have a chance... :-)