Well.

Post by: Beth

Well, tonight we got lost. In the ghettos of St. Louis. Looking for frozen custard. Many of you will recall Raja's love of the frozen dessert. I tried to be helpful and find a frozen custard shop on my handy GPS system, which has not failed me up until this point. Jill ("American - female") proudly announced that there was a Ted Drewe's Frozen Custard on South Grand Avenue. I'm feeling like such a good wife because this is Raja's favorite and I'm about to lead him straight to it. He's going to love me so much!!
What Jill didn't tell us is that the area surrounding and leading up to South Grand Avenue is absolutely the roughest neighborhood I've ever been in. There are LOTS of policeman patrolling the area. (Raja and I had nervous banter over whether that was a good or bad sign.) We bravely steer on though, with Jill as our guide. After all, she's got a great track record so far. We find Ted Drewe's, except it must have not survived in the ghetto for too long, as it was closed down and barricaded. I guess there's not much use for frozen custard out there.
Not one to be deterred, Jill & I swiftly find another ice cream store located only 2.4 miles away! No, it's not frozen custard, but I figure it will do as a substitute. Off we go to find this ice cream shoppe.. It's called "Ice Cream Palace - Mini M".. I'm not sure what "Mini M" means but it sounds like some fabulous kind of candy, so I tell Raja I found a great place called "Ice Cream Palace." He gamely agrees to try to find this one instead, so off we go. We're riding along and everything is just lovely, except there's a LOT of construction going on in St. Louis, so many roads are closed and detours are posted. Jill's not always completely aware of how to steer us through the detours, so we use our instincts and the tiny map on the GPS to help us out for the most part. So, of course, the road we need to take is closed. No big deal.. there are detour signs so we just follow those and Jill "recalculates." Now we're FOUR miles away from "Ice Cream Palace" instead of 2.4, but that's okay.. we are fine with that.
Well.. it's not too long until we are VERY much off the beaten path. I'm not kidding when I say this: This neighborhood puts the area around South Grand Avenue to absolute shame. Jill SAYS we are about .5 miles from "Ice Cream Palace," but I can't possibly imagine a nice, twinkly, kid-friendly ice-cream shop in these parts. I can tell Raja is getting a bit nervous.. He starts rambling on about how we really need to call these places before we just set off into unknown territories. I'm half listening, because I'm really concentrating on trying to make sure I can see all of the people (aka hoodlums) loitering about at all times while we are forced to stop at red lights. Now we are .2 miles away, but there is no way we even need to have a discussion about whether or not to stop.. We will definitely not be getting ice cream from the "Palace" tonight. It's about that time that I realized my GPS has a scroll function.. I scroll down and realize that Mini M means "Mini Mart." So yes... in my confidence, I have managed to lead Raja deep into the drug lords' realm of STL to search for an ice cream counter that is attached to a gas station SOMEWHERE.
We never saw Ice Cream Palace as we sped right on through.. Raja didn't know he was supposed to be looking for a gas station, I'm sure. He still doesn't know I figured out what "Mini M" meant.. I guess he'll find out when he reads this post in the blog. =/ I am posting in "Carolina Blue" text color in hopes it will help soften the blow when he learns that I led us to a shot-up gas station tonight.
It is safe to assume I will not be directing us anywhere else in search of ice cream, even if it IS supposed to be a search for frozen custard..