Today was a short day, which was exactly as I had planned, because I had a special stop intended for lunch. There’s a great barbecue restaurant in St. Louis called Pappy’s Smokehouse. I’ve wrote about it before, and it’s still as good as ever. The line to get in was also as long as ever, but trust me, the wait is worth it. It took me about 45 minutes to get up to the counter to put my order in, a pulled pork sandwich and sweet potato fries. It was delicious, and filled me up nicely for the last bit of the ride in to the party.

I crossed into Mordor On The Mississippi north of St. Louis and headed in to the farm where the super secret party is happening. There were lots of familiar faces, and a few I haven’t seen in years. I got my tent pitched and spent some time catching up with everyone before heading in to town for dinner. After that we spent the evening hanging out around the fire, drinking good booze and telling better stories.