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I yearned for another week in the Twins but time passes at a harrying pace and there are plenty of places to see. I wearily boarded another bus and settled in for the longest ride yet... including stops ~23hrs. Destination: St Louis. I met with renowned tunnel explorer, digging maniac and relentless searcher Slim Jim O' The Chattier. He's spent a bit of time in STL so gave me the whirlwind drive by tour. STL is ghetto, there are whole streets that look like they've been bombed. I've seen plenty of Australia and some of her seedier regions but nothing prepared me for the desolate landscape before me. Entire suburbs of half occupied houses. Houses so derelict and crumbling so badly you wouldn't even bother squatting there.

The class divide was insane, a couple of miles away the well off live in comfortable homes on quaint little streets. Actually we stood atop an abandonded building on the street which divided the black and white regions of town. In one direction delapidated neighbourhoods stretch into the distance, turn 180 degrees and it's tidy homes and well tended lawns. Of course the line is no longer enforced in a legal sense, but the economic and social division still exists. It was good to hear some make the jump from one side to the other, but it appears to be driven by self motivation and determination rather than any kind of mass social change.



Staring distractedly out the car window I lost count of the abandonments we passed, they seem to occupy every street corner. Rows of shopfronts sit empty in the poor neighbourhoods. We poked into a few buildings, it's hard to choose when you're in a hurry. If the outside showed a uniqueness, or something of particular interest we gave it a shot. The insides of most buildings are crumbling, trashed, junky and best of all - scrapped. The scrappers are ruthless, tearing into the plaster walls for every sliver of copper. It's like a manic chirurgeon hacking apart a corpse for salvageable organs, dropping the cut away flesh at his feet and leaving the torn bloody corpse ripped open for all to see. As I said, most building aren't worth exploring they're in such poor shape. Slim Jim knew of a small theater he failed to access on his last visit which sounded special for a hoody so devoid of the arts in general. Secured at the bottom level we sought to enter via the adjacent building and drop through the roof. We clambered to the bottom of a dangling external firestairs, then through the building to the rooftop. We crossed the roof and found a ninja entrance above a 4m drop into the theater. It has been gutted by all manner of evils - fire, scrappers and looters. The chairs and curtains are all gone, the stage is little more than a fire charred pit. We snappered some flix and moved on.



I was directed to a 'must-do' site in STL, an old meat packing plant. Slim Jim had visited previously but assured me of the value of a second visit. Who am I to object :) Dodging the stinging nettles and thory bastard bushes we entered the main machinery hall. Slim Jim wandered off to see sections he glazed over previously, I wondered who I'd encounter alone and whether I'd experience some meat packing first hand... great. The plant is a sprawling mass of interconnected buildings, all distinct in their appearance. Machine rooms, chamber of catwalks and overgrown courtyard like spaces. I'll let the photos describe the plant, else I'll be here all day. Three cheers for slackerdom :) Next stop the home of country music Naaaashville Tennesse.

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