Saturday, July 9, 2016

Vacay 8.0

Driving Blind

Of all stupid things we could have forgotten to do, we didn't update Gabby the Garmin before we left home. If we had, we might have noticed that she is only programmed for the Eastern US! Apparently it's a memory capacity thing. Anyway, we were not able to plug in our St. Louis destination, either by street address, zip code, township, NADA.

We had a vague idea of how to get to our hotel because we stopped at a McDonald's for lunch and looked it up on Google Maps. Things got complicated, though, when I missed a turnoff to I-44 in downtown St. Louis -- stoopedest highway sign I've ever seen! We knew we could continue on I-64 to the perimeter then down to I-44, but finding an exit to get to the hotel was another challenge. All this in rush hour traffic on the most complicated spaghetti junctions I've ever seen ...

The important thing is we made it and we were ready for a new day this morning. Jan (The Colorful Fabriholic) met me at St. Louis Bread Company (a/k/a Panera) and we made our way to the fabulous community center where the St. Louis MQG meets. Without going into details of the meeting, just be assured a great time was had by all! They even laughed at my jokes during show-n-tell!

After lunch with some of Jan's bee friends, we managed to hit THREE quilt shops.

The Haul
Jackman's is big -- too big to whip through in a short period of time but I did manage to pick up four FQs in addition to the requisite RBR license plates while joking around with the staff.

Jackman's Fabrics
The Quilted Fox was on the second floor of a distinguished looking French Provincial office building. They had a very nice selection of many styles, including Australian and African. I focused my attention on some low-volume prints.

The Quilted Fox
Last stop was Janie Lou. A relatively new shop (not in my travel guide) and definitely leaning toward the modern side. I picked up a cute arrow background, a chevron dot, and a flesh Architextures to go with a recent purchase.

Janie Lou
Dinner tonight with Jan and her husband at a casual restaurant with Southwest cuisine.
 
Libby and Jan
PS: Alex completed his FLW pilgrimage alone today at the Kraus House. I would be sorry I missed it had I not had such a great day!


5 comments:

  1. This vacay is for both of you. Sometimes time apart makes more memories to be shared. Now you can tell him about the great shops and he can tell you about the Kraus house.

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  2. Well that sounds like the best sort of day ever!!! So glad you could meet up with Jan - it's always fun to meet our blog friends from far away. And glad it was you driving in that mess instead of me - they'd probably still be scraping me off that highway!

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  3. So sorry you had so much trouble with our highways. Yes, they are like spaghetti, and our rush hour traffic is indeed terrible. But I'm so glad you made it to STL and we could get together. Dinner with our husbands was so much fun. I had such a good time with you yesterday! Safe travels home -
    Jan

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  4. SEW glad to hear that you had fun with Jan today!! Sorry about your "car talker" thing not working in the Gateway to the West. Especially in rush hour traffic!!

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  5. Oh, gee, FLW or quilt shops? I think I'd have to compromise. My GPS is old, too, and told us to take an exit that now has a different number. Glad you didn't get too terribly lost. And the fabric made up for it.

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