(how many planes can you identify here?)
One sensory memory from this trip that I won't forget: the smell from Arthur Bryant's BBQ in Kansas City that hits you immediately after getting out of the car - yum!.......The midwest folks are all exceptionally nice, and, as we saw yesterday, exceptionally devoted to the Cardinals......I might have to give the Cardinals fans the nod as the best baseball fans. Air Force Museum in Dayton, OH. It's equivalent to three Smithsonians....Conversely, don't go on a Budweiser Brewery tour with high expectations. It was low-brow (pun-intended), a sloppy presentation, and a tribute to homogenized manufacturing. Plus, after spending the bulk of the hour talking up free beers at the end of the trip, it only amounted to 2 x 8ozs beers....I was surprised at how nice Akron, OH was - very livable....I'm amazed at how the cities of St. Louis and Indianapolis just pop up out of the plains. There's nothing but fields and empty highway, then all of the sudden, pop, there's the city. Sure, there's suburbs, but it is very diferent from approaching, say Philadelphia or Baltimore......Seeing all of these 2nd and 3rd tier cities (in terms of size and economic heft) makes me wonder what the future holdsw for them. St. Louis is a regional capital, but regional capitals are becoming less relevant given the rise of world capitals through globalization. (In other words, 30 years ago St. Louis may have been the 30th most important city in the world. With the rise of cities like Guangzhou, and Dubai, St. Louis might be only the 100th most important city in the world.)
(apropos of the last point, here I am in front of the recently globalized Anheuser-Busch HQ and Brewery)
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