The journey to St. Louis was our first experience of Megabus and apart from them running half an hour late it was great. Smooth and comfy and there was wifi! Awesome!

Pulling into St. Louis Central Station I wondered quite how we would find my aunt Shirley (not actually my aunt but it's just easier this way) but as I looked out of the window towards the crowd of other passengers my eye was drawn to the huge cardboard sign reading 'Welcome John and Liann' being held up my Shirley and her son Joe and grandson Dillon. That answered that question!

That night they threw us in at the deep end of American dining, we went to a locally renowned fry chicken place called Hodaks and then for huge amounts of ice cream at a place called Ted Drewes.

On our first day we went for a drive around with my uncle Buzz (again not actually an uncle) who showed us some of the Missouri country side and we took a short ferry back across the Missouri river into Illinois and then back and to the airport to pick up my uncle Colin (my actual uncle this time) who had flown over from the UK ready for the big family reunion on the Sunday!

Every year on the first weekend of June Shirley organises a family re-union. A few years ago my mum came over with her brother (Colin) and now it was my turn! There were a few family members that I had met before but there was even more that I had only heard about, so remembering names was not easy!

Shirley runs a tight ship, with well planned events such as the prestigious Men's Cooking Competition. Every year all the men have to cook a dish following a theme and then be judged, this year's theme was Italian. Luckily I didn't have enough time to enter so Liann and I we selected as judges. With the help of a seasoned judge (Shirley's Neighbour) we narrowed it down to two dishes and had to do a tie breaker. The winning dish was Chicken Parmesan cooked by Dillon, the youngest winner to date.

Other party games included the water balloon toss, play-doh modelling and the musical instruments contest. It was a fun day and a great way for me to meet all the family.

Two things St. Louis is well known for is the 'Arch' and Budweiser beer! So for our first day in the city we did both. The Gateway to the West is a huge stainless steel arch next to the Mississippi river built in 1965 as a memorial to the westward expansion of the United States. The ride to the top of the 192m structure was pretty strange, the 'trams' were more like tiny escape capsules that click and creek their way up to the viewing windows.

The Anheuser-Bush Budweiser Brewery (try saying that quickly after a few pints) offered a free tour of its historic factory. Surviving prohibition by selling yeast as a cooking ingredient the brewery is the oldest in the USA. The tour talks you through all the processes of creating bud and other beers. Did you know that beer is 96% water and of the 4% of other ingredients used 90% is wasted and sold as cattle feed? It should be cheap then, right? The tour wraps up with two free glasses of any of the Bud products. So a free tour with free beer!

Over the next few days we went to the St. Louis Zoo, had our first White Castle burgers, visited the St. Louis Basilica, went wine tasting in the country, took the scooters for a ride in St. Charles, went to look at beautiful American muscle cars and then to wrap up the week before we had to say goodbye we went to our first Baseball game!

The St. Louis Cardinals were back in town just in time for us to see them. To mark the start of summer they even had a fireworks display. Not being the biggest sports fan back in the UK I was pleasantly surprised and really enjoyed the ball game. It had a nice atmosphere with whole families attending. We went wearing borrowed Cardinal shirts in support and I bought a Cardinals baseball as a souvenir.

Sadly the Card lost against the Cleveland Indians but that didn't stop us enjoying the game and the fireworks at the end were a great finish either way.

We had a busy week in St. Louis, it was great to see family and they really made us feel at welcome. As we boarded the bus headed for Memphis Liann and I agreed that it felt like we were leaving home again, well fed and clean clothed!