John Vanderaart experiences all kinds of things, not only in our little country or in la douce France, but also outside Europe. And he is happy about it, because John Vanderaart calls his column great anticipation this time, while last time he was very emo.
So my daughter is married. With an American. And because everything is ‘bigger’ in America, the wedding is re-done in St. Louis, Missouri. I had to look it up in Google Maps and then TripAdvisor didn’t really get me excited either. I inquired with the son-in-law: “Corn fields.” And outside St. Louis: “Corn fields.” Maybe try 100 kilometers away: “Corn fields.” Well… In the meantime we had rented a hotel with a swimming pool and fitness room. The swimming pool for women. The gym for me. Yesterday message from the hotel: “The gym is closed until further notice.” That’s delicious! So I dusted off Google Maps again and looked for a ‘gym’. Well, plenty of gyms in St. Louis. One fairly close to the hotel turned out to be called JD’s Gym (www.jdsgym.com). The website didn’t really come out well, but a message was quickly posted. Not much later James Dalton (= JD) himself in the email: “Nice!” For a negligible amount I was allowed to come to the gym, but with the comment that it was an Old School Gym: “No mirrors in my tent!” If I’m already a mirror cousin… I’ll still take a look with Google StreetView. Indeed, quite old school. Huge parking lot, slightly battered low-rise buildings, telecom blaster as a neighbor. Definitely promising. And so I got further lost in Google StreetView and I have also been able to write down a list of – let’s say – sights. Mainly culinary (…) sights, because I have seen very strange things on the various menus. Such as fried ravioli and custard ice cream. But also General Tso’s Chicken. Yes, the great anticipation is underway!
James Dalton warned me. JD’s gym is an old school gym…