We are in St. Louis, having completed three days on the road.

At 10 a.m., we pulled into First Watch on W. 86th Street in Indianapolis to have brunch with my favorite third cousin, Susan Lite Lerner and my favorite third cousin by marriage, Charlie Lerner.

The brunch was made better by the addition to our table of Michelle’s old friend Jenna, her husband Ken and 5 year old daughter Shannon.

We could have sat at the table forever, but the line outside First Watch became lengthy, and our guilt got the better of us.

We drove west on I-70, passed Terre Haute, and crossed into Illinois. At the Casey IL exit, I noticed a sign that said that Casey had the biggest something or other, and I decided to pull off the road and see, since I needed gas anyway.

Well, it turns out that Casey has the biggest almost everything.

For example,

The biggest mousetrap.

The biggest mail box,

The biggest golf tee,

The biggest bird cage,

The biggest rocking chair. Can you find Joan in this picture? And one more

The biggest barber pole.

We were told by the man who runs the world’s largest see-saw (electronic), a retired minoster who seems to like his current job more than preaching the gospel that all of the large items in Casey have been built by the Bolin family which was determined to keep the town alive. They succeeded. Joan wants to move there.

Before leaving Casey, we were stopped at a railroad crossing, where the little engine that could pulled a train that was 170 cars long.

All day long, we followed the Hungarian election, the war in Iran, and the fate of Rep. Swalwell. Along with the Caps 3-0 victory over Pittsburgh, and the Nats 3 game sweep over the Brewers.

Two hours later, we were in St. Louis. A visit with cousins Donna and Ed followed by dinner with our host Judy at Oishi Sushi.

We will be here three whole days. Tomorrow is a family day to be spent with the Schnidman/Karfeld cousins.