No Days Off: A Weekend Road Trip to St. Louis

By Tomeka Allgood

I have made the mistake of burning vacation days early in the year and having to live with it. Nowadays, I make every attempt to hoard my vacation days. The best way to do this is strategically placing some weekend road trips on my calendar. The key is to make sure they do not require me to take any additional time off from work.

My first road trip this year was to St. Louis. It is a max 5 hour drive from Nashville and an easygoing flat drive. So, why St. Louis? For me it was for two main reasons, the first being that I had never been there before and the second was to check out the Saint Louis Zoo.

Friday 6:00PM

Friday after work I headed home, packed the rental car and was on the road by 6:00PM. I packed the night before and all I had to do was load the car up. I only had to stop for gas one time on the way to St. Louis and arrived a little after 11:00PM. Friday was uneventful, main thing was to stick to spending minimal money and eating out a drive through in order to keep it moving and not waste time. Saturday would be the only full day in the city so I wanted to make sure to get in and get a decent night of sleep before a jam packed day.

Saturday 10:00AM

This is the day that I will get out and explore so eating breakfast at the hotel was a must. Once I walk out of the hotel, I need to be on my way to the zoo. After breakfast, I headed out around 10am to get to the zoo. If I had to do it all over again, I probably would have left in order to get there when the zoo opened at 9am. The zoo is a top attraction for all ages, primarily because it is free. Yes, you read that right, the admission is free to one of the most popular zoos in the United States. There was a line of cars to get to the zoo and it took longer than expected to park. So if you decide to go, add 30 minutes or more for parking.

The zoo itself did not disappoint and even spending majority of the day there, I still don’t think I saw everything. Honestly, as long as I was able to see the gorillas and big cats, I was fine. The zoo has plenty of food options and beverage stations, including both alcoholic and non-alcoholic. So you literally could spend the entire day at the zoo if you had longer than a day in the city, which I didn’t.

Saturday 4:30PM

Who can go to St. Louis and not at least visit the infamous arch? Even with the cloudy skies the arch was a site to see. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get the full experience because I was starving for one and it was a little chilly for two. I didn’t pack the necessary clothing to be outside for any length of time. One thing that I wasn’t aware of was that the arch is right next to the Mississippi river so the breeze didn’t help. I will definitely be prepared next time I go.

Saturday 6:00PM

As previously mentioned, I had worked up an appetite by dinner time. Therefore, when looking for a place to eat within walking distance to my hotel, I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to check out Shake Shack. There is one in Nashville and it is not in a part of town that I visit on a regular so I forget about it. So it took a five hour road trip for me to have my first taste of Shake Shack and oh my goodness, it will not be my last. The burgers there are some of the best I have had in my life. I promise there is something about a good ‘ol cheeseburger and Shake Shack has mastered it. It is worth going on the other side of town or five hours for. So if you get a chance to try out a Shake Shack, take it!

Sunday 12:00PM

Knowing that there is a long drive ahead, I make a point to skip the hotel breakfast and sleep in until I have to check out. Of course on the way out, I must go and have my last meal in St. Louis at Sweetie Pies. The place that became famous by being a long running reality show on Oprah Winfrey’s OWN network called “Welcome To Sweetie Pies”. The reality show ended its run on the network in 2018. However, that wasn’t going to stop me from seeing what all the hype over the restaurant was about.

Sunday brunch at Sweetie Pies had a line out of the door and walking in I noticed most of the cars in the parking lot were local. In my opinion, that was a good sign. One thing I always want to do is make sure I eat where the locals do whenever I visit a place, if I can. That is a sure fire way to know if a place is worthy of my money.

The food at Sweetie Pies lived up to its billing. It was a little pricey for soul food in my opinion but that is because I was raised on it but overall that was my only complaint. The food itself was delicious and neither myself of any of my counterparts had anything that they didn’t enjoy. Therefore, to say I would recommend a stop there is an understatement. Just be prepared for a long line, especially on Sunday’s. It is a go to place for when church service is out.

Sunday 7:00PM

After sleeping in and having brunch in St. Louis, I was still able to get on the road by 2pm. Therefore, at 7:00PM I was pulling in my driveway with plenty of time to get in my house and have a good night of rest for the next work day.

Please do not put off taking a short weekend trip from time to time. It doesn’t take a lot of time or money nor any additional days off from work. All it takes is some good planning and Google! Google is your friend when looking for short road trips. If you don’t believe me, just go to Google maps and put in your city and one you are thinking about driving to and make sure you click on the car. The number of options are endless.