Day 3: St. Louis adventures

Miles so far: still 1077.4
Song of the day: "Bicycle" by Queen
"Don't stop me now play count: 7
States covered: just MO

Tuesday afternoon brought Gen and me to St. Louis where we snuck up on the Nezombie family as they were lounging around their Clover Lane home. For anyone who doesn't know: Mallory Nezam is a small brown girl I brought back in my suitcase from in India. Actually, she is just half Indian and was studying abroad on the same program as me and lives in St. Louis with her mama and brothers and sister. Who I adore.

We spent the evening with Mallory and Co. blitzing to different coffee shops and bars, trying to meet up with Nelly in the Loop--but he wasn't around town I guess. Nelly being the rapper. We did, however, see Cedric the Entertainer while hanging out at Mallory's middle school reunion. Which in itself was worth the 1,000 mile drive.

Wednesday found us Scholar Shop shopping--a STL favorite. See the good times below:

it should be noted that, while Mal and Gen bought no part of their photographed outfits, I purchased all of mine.

Dinner was a Nezombie classic: picnic with Papa M. Nezam and all siblings at the Botanical Gardens weekly jazz night.

A brief visit from Megan and Jo followed, making it a true Columbia reunion. Then began the insanity of the Fucking Bike Club, or as it's called FBC. It was an issue of bike acquisition at first (we needed 7 bikes for the night's adventures), solved only because Mallory worked her little booty off to find us rides. Then we biked to The Meeting Point. Of course we were wearing silly outfits.
Last FBC the theme was underpants--this time it was open-ended and we just raided the Nezam costume closet (also known was Mallory's wardrobe).

So, here's the deal on FBC: Every full moon in St. Louis a group of crazy people get together for a 30 mile moonlight bike tour of the city. Our road trip timing couldn't have been better because the one night Gen and I stayed in STL it was the full moon and FBC was rocking it's socks off.

Each ride takes a different route, and only the leader knows where everyone's going. We take breaks along the way, stopping at different bars and parks. Last night was the 53rd FBC ride in St. Louis and we rode from 11pm til about 3am all over the city with about 400 other crazies. It was absolutely stunning. The full moon and the empty city, hundreds of people yelling and laughing, biking together. Such a great way to meet new people and explore the city.

We ended the ride at a water tower on top of a hill which overlooked a night view of the city skyline.
Of course I climbed up the wall with Jeff's assistance (Hi Jeff, see I remembered you. Thanks again for helping me down from there...)

St. Louis was amazing and fun, as always. Mal loves her city and that love infects the whole place with a sense of possibility and endless fun. I loved seeing the whole Nezam family and finally having my lovers meet.