For many a month, my father and I were planning a vacation to the Glacier National Park in Montana and parts of Canada. Being the generous, family loving man he is, my father invited my two siblings. As with all plans involving numerous people, hammering out the details proved quite difficult.

Timing was the hitch. The sister and her husband reside most of the year in Shanghai, China, visiting the states for a few weeks out of the year. This summer they were already planning a multi-state trek to visit friends, family, and tour with Pearl Jam for several weeks. Finding time for me and the Glacier was proving problematic.

In the end they cancelled for fear of total exhaustion. The father figure then cancelled because he chooses not to miss seeing his daughter for the tall trees and the bald eagles. I cancelled because father had planned to pay.

My anniversary plans were ruined because I had planned on using the Glacier trip as the anniversary present. For what wife wouldn’t love to celebrate four years of marriage with a 7 day 2,000 mile road trip with her in-laws? With the trip cancelled, I had to actually come up with a real plan.

A little research found Lyle Lovett would be doing a free concert in St. Louis. Praising myself for finding something quickly that would be on the way to my folks in Oklahoma, thrill the wife, and be cheap, I quickly booked a hotel room and let the wife in on my beautiful plans.

The concert was right on the river underneath the St. Louis Arch. A beautiful setting if there ever was one. After walking around downtown we debated on whether to branch out and see some of the gardens on the other side of the city, or stay close so we might get a good seat. Knowing it was a free concert we expected the area to be pretty much packed.

Deciding to stay close we crept back to the motel for a nap. Afterwards with nothing else to do we headed in the direction of the Arch. They had begun to set up a perimeter around the stage area so we ducked in quick as to not have our bags dug through and our camera discovered.

It was still a good three hours until Lyle was scheduled to perform. We found some shade (which lowered the temperature to a moderate 95 degrees) and tried to enjoy ourselves.

We sped up time by ordering too expensive and too hot pizza, hastily made lemonade with the sugar still undissolved at the bottom, and by making laps past the merchandise booths and kiddie playground. Finally we buckled down and found a seat on the arch steps. The heat was excruciating. The wait was intolerable.