I'm staying with my friend Geoff this evening, who graciously offered to put me up when we met yesterday. Last night at the hotel was good, but I'd probably rather save the $45 difference after I subtract the breakfast I'm buying him to thank him for hosting.

In any case, the day started out early again, I think I've just become used to waking up early thanks to the hostel. I was up at 7, after having lazed around in bed and "slept in" and I went down, had some breakfast, and heard, on the TV about a rash of smashed windows in a "south St. Louis hotel" Panicking, because this hotel looked a lot like mine, I rushed out to check, but fortunately, it was at a hotel I had dismissed for being too expensive, lucky me.

Anyway, I started the day, again, with the quest to get my A/C fixed, unfruitfully. The shop I was directed to said they could do it, but not in the one day I gave them, as they already had a full slate that day. I'm going to possibly drop it off at a Toyota dealer tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes.

From the shop, , I had no real plans for the day, except to get to the open practice the rams were holding, and to end the day at Geoff's place in Columbia. I saw a sign for Lone Elk Park, and for the World Bird Sanctuary, and I decided to give those places a shot.

Starting with the bird sanctuary, however, was probably a mistake, since it was so cool, and the Lone Elk Park was so disappointing. I saw a total of three Bison, and zero of any other animal there. The Bird Sanctuary, however, was pretty cool. It's a rehabilitation and education centre in addition to being a not-for-profit, and I found out that Golden Eagles are freaking enormous. Like, almost teenager-sized enormous. I managed to snap a few shots while there, and have a nice conversation with an employee about the birds there. Amazing number of birds, too, from the Palm turkey to the raven to the barn own to bald eagles and Harris' hawks.

From there, I had also heard that the zoo was free, and pretty cool, so I decided to check out the exhibits there. The zoo was quite large, if I'm renembering my trips to the Toronto and other zoos correctly, but was a little disappointing, since so many of the animals were sleeping, actively avoiding human lines of sight, or just not turning around.

After the zoo, I headed down to the St. Louis Rams' training camp, which was open to the public. There were probably another 1000 fans out there this afternoon, and the number of pictures I took was limited by the signs posted saying " NO RECORDING" I did get a couple shots of the crowd, and one of the players, though. After practice, I went to Dave & Busters, a restaurant/arcade, where I got 10$ credit with my purchase of Chicken fingers. I played a couple of games of Mario Kart, and a couple of games of Guitar Hero.

To end the evening, I drove out to Columbia, MO, where I met Geoff, and joined him for an evening of board games with his friends. We played Avalon, and I lost badly both times. I thought I was getting the strategy pretty well, but the logic in that game makes risk diplomacy look boring.

Anyway, off to KC tomorrow. Maybe the trip will be as uneventful tomorrow as it should.

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Naaaaah...