Oh, The Places I Go!

This year is the 250th anniversary of the founding of St. Louis. Part of the year-long celebration is the public invitation to find 250 birthday cakes that are sprinkled all over town. I believe I've photographed 58 cakes so far.

Regional Arts Center, St. Louis, MO

I try to incorporate some of the cake odyssey in with the usual errands that may take me near their locations. Sometimes, it takes a special road trip. For instance, my daughter drove me out to Eureka/Pacific area to capture the cakes at Lone Elk Park and World Bird Sanctuary. None of my errands take me out there.

Most of the time, I'm in a rush to capture these pictures. Illegal parking is becoming the norm and occasionally I will deliberately drive the wrong way down a one-way street if it means getting me back to where I want to be. (shshshshsh - don't tell the cops!) Taking pictures of the cake at the Soldier's Memorial on Market Street meant being under the watchful stare of not one, but two, security guards. They weren't worried about me doing anything in the Memorial. They were guarding the set up for the upcoming filming of American Ninja Warrior and didn't want me to mess with anything. No prob guys. Once I started to leave the Memorial, one of the guards chatted with me a bit about the show. I told her that we could honestly say we were on the set and that we are sooo ninja that we were there and the audience couldn't see us. Works for me.

Better than a dozen of the cakes are located in Illinois. Since I have family in Illinois, this really isn't a big deal. Just make a run to visit a relative and then go cake hunting. My elderly aunt was recently relocated to a nursing home in the same town she's lived in most of her life. Since she's almost my only living relative on my side of the family, I try to make a point of going to see her. She has no children, so I'm the closest thing to a daughter she has. Last month, I met with a friend who grew up next door to my aunt and we visited Aunt Dolores. The day was fun and Susan took me to see the Giant Catsup Bottle in Collinsville. No one in my family ever mentioned the Catsup Bottle and Susan couldn't believe I never saw it before. Well, knock this one off my bucket list - the cake was located underneath the Catsup Bottle and I have both on record.

Today I went back to visit Aunt Dolores to deliver some plaques I made for her. While driving into Collinsville, I began to cry. Fond old memories rushed over me. As a child, I always saw Collinsville as a haven of peace and the place where my beloved grandparents and aunt and uncle lived. I made it to the nursing home, and had a wonderful visit with my aunt. She loved the plaques I made for her and I arranged for the maintenance people to hang them up. After the visit, I headed south towards Belleville for the beginning of my cake adventure. I mapped out everything before leaving home, so I was pretty sure I would be just fine. The big plan was to get one in Belleville and the two in Cahokia. I had never been to Cahokia. Aunt Dolores thinks I'm pretty gutsy. If she only knew.

The National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows was lovely and so different from the last time I saw it (some 25 years ago). I spent some time in the Lourdes Grotto where I let loose the tears of grief. I would have stayed a little longer, but my nose was getting sloppy and the tissues were in the car. Once I regained myself, I headed towards new territory - Cahokia, Illinois.

Cahokia is one of the oldest towns in the area - predating St. Louis by about 50 years. It was a trading post and a military outpost for the colonists living nearby. Looking at the map, I knew Cahokia's proximity to East St. Louis was a little closer than I cared for, but I forged ahead anyway. If the neighborhood didn't look safe to me, I would just turn around and go home. HA! I'm not giving up that easily! Gas prices are $3.42/gallon. I'm getting those pictures!

Holy Family Catholic Church - Cahokia, IL

There isn't much to Cahokia because the town keeps getting flooded. A lot. Stretches of run-down buildings next to new shopping centers with a respectable amount of customers in the parking lots kind of told me that Cahokia is trying to survive and thrive. The map I printed turned out to be useless and I found myself on the street I was looking for. Fortunately, the brown road signs pointing to historic landmarks were my salvation. I found the Old Cahokia Courthouse and the Holy Family Catholic Church. Both buildings were built before Mr. Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence. I felt like I was walking on hallowed ground.

The caretaker for the Old Courthouse talked to me for awhile and even gave me a personal tour of the courthouse. The courthouse wasn't completely original because it had fallen to ruin, been put back together, moved to the 1904 World's Fair and then to Chicago. In the 1940's, it was finally returned to Cahokia and rebuilt to resemble what it may have looked like when Lewis and Clark were gearing up for their trip west. It was all so incredible and overwhelming. I think I could have spent hours there, but I wasn't comfortable taking up too much of the man's time. While he was friendly enough and very informative, I didn't like being alone with a man in a building where I wasn't sure I could get help if I needed it. I'm sure this gentleman had no intention of any harm at all. Just a security issue for me.

Once I completed my quest, I headed back out on the road to go home. My plan was to pick up the highway that would take me back to Collinsville and safely to St. Louis. It would have been a rather round-about route, but I would be skirting East St. Louis and the extra travel and gas would have been worth it to me. Nope. I passed the exit for 157 and headed straight down Route 3 into East St. Louis and Sauget because I saw the signs indicating the highway I needed to get to St. Louis was straight ahead. Idiot!

For those who don't know, East St. Louis and Sauget are home to a wonderful collection of gangs, strippers, hookers, drug dealers, mob people and strip clubs. In fairness to the residents of these communities, not everyone there is bad. I'm just not interested in finding out who's a good guy and who isn't. Sadly, there are about four birthday cakes in East St. Louis as well and I've been trying to decide if I should risk it by finding them. Not alone, of course.

The drive through East St. Louis and Sauget was shorter than expected and blessedly uneventful. I reached the highway I needed and trudged my way through rush hour traffic to home. I think the rush hour traffic was probably more dangerous than the jaunt through Sauget!