I lied to my wife. I promised not to allow my feet to get sunburned when wearing only sandals on the Tour.

It’s not easy living up to promises. Of course, some might argue that I didn’t even try.

I have enough to do trying to keep track of all the equipment needed to bring you fine folks this story. Here’s what the desk looked like in my suite at the hotel last night. . .

That’s an Apple G4 Powerbook (fastest laptop on the planet), Nikon’s CoolPix 5000, Motorola v.60 ultra-chic cell phone, and some of their 2-way radios.

Anyway, we packed up early this morning and headed out to the lot. Parked near us was this monochrome ’54 Ford Courier Sedan Delivery with matching travel-trailer and boat.

Looks pretty cool, huh?

Here’s a picture of the capitol building. . .

and one of good ol’ Thomas. . .

Missouri is a state full of rolling hills, and some gorgeous scenery. This is a great place to take a long look at your speedo.

When we came into St. Louis, we decided it was best to clean up the cars and the hauler. Gary did the honors on the ’59 (notice that trendy sock ensemble),

while Jim did the truck and trailer.

After drying with micro-fiber towels, we were on our way to the stop — Westport Plaza. We set-up our display quickly, then hit the world famous Trainwreck Saloon for a quick lunch.

Jim said it was the best burger he’s ever had.

I had a tough time navigating the crowd,

but while doing so, I ran into some old long-haul buddies from Michigan. They had kept me apprised of the build-up of their ’66 Caprice Classic Sport Coupe, from a trailered piece of junk. . .

to a finely-tuned long-hauler-capable ride.

I understand within their circle of friends, it is perfectly acceptable to have a car lacking an interior or paint,

yet possessing serious cubic inches.

They’re nice guys, but I can’t understand why someone who can afford the large (empty) warehouse for storing one or two cars also can’t afford paint, carpet, and door panels. I guess the priority is the motor — everything else is just icing on the cake. And these boys must not like sweets.

On my way up to the stage for the day’s prize winner, I spotted an interesting piece of work — it looks like about a ’65 Rambler American convertible,

but it’s packing a serious LT-1 drivetrain and suspension.

The crowd, as usual, loved my witty humor and bantering with Doc Riley,

as did the lucky long-hauler who picked up a Mothers bucket-o’-wax chocked-full of product and a T-shirt.

Afterwards, Jim packed up the trailer. . .

while I looked for great human interest stories. Finding none within 20 feet (remember those sunburned feet of mine? Well, let’s just say walking is a pain), I retired to supervise the final load-in, then took off for the hotel to prepare for tomorrow’s drive to Louisville with our side trip to Mid-America Corvette and Mike Yeager’s cool little Corvette Museum.