To St Louis We Go!

A few weeks ago Valerie Smith, the 2008/2009 Missouri Czech Slovak Queen, told me about an event in St Louis. After a few short weeks of trying to coordinate I found out I was going to be able to go and Valerie's plans had fell through several times so she decided to hop in the car along with us. I was really excited to visit St Louis and see how they celebrate their Czech and Slovak heritage down there! St Louis is actually where my Great Great Great Great Great Grandfather worked and lived until he could make enough money to move the rest of the family here. Unfortunately I had to work until 5pm on Friday night so we started our trek after I got off work. We drove to Marshall so we could meet up with Valerie and continue on our trek right away in the morning. We got up early and off we went. :) Valerie and I had a great time girl talking while Brad tried his hardest to turn the music up a little more and a little more and a little more...HEHE! What a trooper! When we got there we met up with Dana who I had been talking with about our trip a bit. She showed us around and we went and got changed into our kroj for the day. About the time we got changed and out of the dressing room, Brianna, Eva, and Morgan had arrived. (Brianna is the current Miss Czech Slovak US, Eva is one of the Robitcek Scholars from the Czech Republic at UNL this year, and Morgan is the 2010 Missouri Czech Slovak Queen.) After they got dressed and ready we went and had a wonderful lunch. We got to choose between pork, duck, and goulash. I picked goulash because I only get it at the Bohemian Cafe and thought I would try it somewhere else. I was great. Brad and I then went up and performed a little for everyone while the next band was setting up. It was lots of fun and people were excited to see some younger people up there playing accordion. After a bit more looking around we took a quick Czech language course and then it was time for official introductions. We each did an introduction of ourselves. A bit later they had a "queen talent show." Brad and I played accordion and I sang for everyone, then Valerie sang with the band, and last but not least Brianna sang. They then did a modeling of kroje, we went first and explained a bit about our kroje, and then they had beautiful old kroje from all over the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It was really neat to see all the different regions represented there. I wanted to stay longer and really wanted to try to make it to the St Louis Botanical Gardens before we left but it was already getting dark and we had to make it back to Kansas City to drop Morgan off before we could crash for the night. We stopped and ate at Steak and Shake before we got too far down the road. (Morgan had already crashed and we had to wake her up when we got there.) I had a yummy burger, cheese fries, and a shake! MHHHH.....plus Czech food...all in one day...LUCKY ME! :) Thank goodness for Brad (as Dana called him the boyfriend of all queens that day) or we wouldn't have made it. All 3 of us girls were passed out and he just kept driving driving driving. We finally stopped for the night around 4am if I remember right. We got up around 9 to finish the trip back to Wilber for the Doane College Czech Heritage Celebration. Not an early morning compared to my normal mornings but it sure felt early...I can't imagine how Brad was feeling!

Spanem Bohem!
Stefanie Vocasek
2009-10 Nebraska Czech-Slovak Queen