“Not only are you going to see sights, but you’re going to become a sight,” Joe Sapienza Co-Owner of Glide St. Louis Tours said.

Glide St. Louis Tours offers people a unique way in which to see St. Louis- by Segway. By hoping on the two-wheeled robotic vehicle, tourists can get an up close and personal encounter with most St. Louis sites.  Plus, the Segway offers an added bonus of being a high-tech outdoor toy for big kids that keeps people engaged in their activity.  Also, Sapienza calls the Segway an “equalizer” because people of all ages and even certain physical challenges can be “the same” while on a Segway tour. [gallery5][morelink]

“We really get a positive reaction from the people and cars we pass along our routes.  People wave, honk, say, ‘I wish I was doing that’ or ‘that looks so fun,’ and often take pictures of us as we ‘Glide St. Louis'," Sapienza said. “It makes our gliders feel very special and that’s what they are to us as customers, very special.”

And customers don’t just have to be out-of-towners. Glide St. Louis Tours has no special segment of people it caters too. Patrons include local St. Louisans as well as out of town visitors, sometimes some from places as far as China (Ni hao), Germany (Guten tag) and Australia (G’day mate). Tours are also offered for special events and small team builders for businesses.

"I'm doing a tour for my Birthday," Ricky Brown said. "I'm 18 today. This is really fun and easy to learn."

Like Brown, doing a tour for a birthday was why St. Louisan Joyce Spurgin first tried a Glide St. Louis tour. 

"I went kicking and screaming the first time," Spurgin said. "Now I'm over my fear and back for another tour to see more of St. Louis."

The Glide St. Louis Tours “experience” is divided into three parts. First you start with safety training and then you move on to practical training. The Segway training only lasts “as long as it takes” to get everyone comfortable with operating the Segway.

“Sharing the love of riding this unique machine with others is a blast,” Sapienza said.  “We love watching what we call ‘the  Segway smile’ blossom on people’s faces when they start to feel comfortable on the machine.”

The third part of the “experience” is the actual “glided” tour. Glide Tours St. Louis offers three different tour options. The Historic Downtown St. Louis Tour as well as the Forest Park Tour are approximately three-hour trips.  The Historic Soulard Neighborhood tour, the newest tour offering, is about a two-hour experience that ends with a dessert and beverage at the at the popular Soulard’s Restaurant.

“Obviously, just riding on a Segway is fun so there’s little to complain about there,” Sapienza said.

And obviously if you are looking to see the sites in St. Louis, a glided tour is a fun and engaging way to go.

On July 18 Councilwoman Barbara Fraser introduced an ordinance which would put the ban on the November general election ballot.

Toastedrav decided to see what St. Louisans think about banning the cancer sticks from restaurants, so we headed down to The Loop to get a few opinions on this issue.

Of four scenarios tested, unimpaired driver, drunk driver, driver reading e-mail and driver sending a text message, the texting driver had the slowest reaction time. Currently, 14 states have laws making texting illegal while driving and more states are currently debating the hot-button issue. Over 66% of drivers between 18 and 24 claim to text while driving and this percentage is on the rise within that age group and among others as well. Toastedrav headed to University City's Loop to hit the streets and ask St. Louis how it feels about texting while driving.

City Museum is housed in a 600,000 square-foot building that was formerly the International Shoe Company. [morelink]

On Friday and Saturday nights City Museum turns off the lights for visitors to explore with only flashlights to guide their way.

If Missourians' tendency to mispronounce important regional words stopped at that one word, I might not have such a pronunciation problem. But oh no, it doesn't stop with the name of our state. If you are visiting The Lou, it has to be hard to navigate since we can't figure out how to pronounce our own street names. Should you exit at Lee-may Ferry Road or La-may Ferry Road? I've heard it both ways, even on radio commercials and on the local news channels. And once and for all, the "s" on the end of Gravois is silent (just like Illinois and Arkansas).

And so it continues:

• If you order a tasty pasta in meat sauce at a restaurant on the Hill, it's possible that you could have ordered mostacholi. NOT musk-a-choli. Musky pasta? Come on now St. Louis.
• Louis and Clark are all over this Gateway to the West, so their Native American friend is often referenced. When talking about her, keep in mind her name is Sacajawea, NOT Sack-a-WAH-gee-uh. I hate hearing that one wrong.
• And if you actually say you're going to "warsh" your hands, please know ahead of time that I will laugh at you, not with you.

I'm not saying I pronounce every word in the English language correctly, because I certainly don't, but I think the least I can do is pronounce the name of my state right.

What mispronounced Missouri words are painful to your ears?

Someone in St. Louis (or its surrounding areas) is about to be a whole lot richer. They've won a million bucks thanks to a lotto ticket bought at a QuickTrip in St. Charles, but they're not exactly aware that their number is the winning number yet. Which is why I'm confident that they're either a good friend of mine, or a long-lost relative who is just dying to fork over a portion of the fortune after taxes have made their mark. (Even if it's not to me, I guarantee they're a lot more popular with their new-found fortune.)

Anyway, that winning number is 0700058613, so if you recently bought a lotto ticket in St. Chuck, I would double check those numbers. Don't spend it all in one place.

When Jim McKelvey and Doug Auer started Third Degree Glass back in 2002, their goal was to create a fun place where the people of St. Louis could come to learn more about what glass blowing is, and if they wanted to, learn how to actually make it. Local artists sell their work there, and glass artists and students can rent out space to work and learn - and it all happens in a renovated 1930s car dealership.

Glass blowing itself has been around for thousands of years. It's a difficult art form, but for those who take the time to learn it, it's very worthwhile. If you're interested, click here to learn more about classes at Third Degree, and click on [tab:trav_video] to see what Doug taught ToastedRav.

If you really want to submerse yourself into glass blowing culture here in STL, Third Fridays (the third Friday of every month at Third Degree Glass...get it?) are a great way to do that. Join a few hundred people each month for live music, local art collections, glass blowing demonstrations and tasty snacks.

Merryl's urban farm is both fun and practical for her. She enjoys being able to have lots of animals since she wasn't allowed to have pets as a child, but she also teaches cheesemaking classes and sells homemade Dutch Lever Cheese presses. If you want to partake in her knowledge of all things goaty and cheesy (I just made up the word "goaty" after tasting straight goat's milk), the classes are $35. To find out more, go here.

While we were hanging out with Merryl's goats, I brushed up on my milking technique and learned how to make Ricotta cheese. Yum!

Click on [tab:trav_video] for a look into the life of an urban goat farmer.

Everybody loves snow days. Some of my favorite memories as a kid are of when a group of us would get together for a serious game of capture the flag. And I'm pretty sure my brothers' favorite snow day activity as kids was to use their big sister and my cat as Nerf gun target practice. My poor cat hasn't been the same since. (This snow day memory doesn't qualify as a favorite...)

Click on the [tab:trav_video] to see what a few people we found at Webster University would do with their free day. Snow women and all-day parties anyone?

What is your favorite snow day activity? (FYI - Sleeping is a lame answer and doesn't count.)

DeDee started riding bulls while the rest of us were learning the alphabet. Since her start in the saddle, she's gone on to become a six-time women's bull riding world champion in the Women's Professional Rodeo Association. Needless to say, DeDee's pretty serious about her bull riding. Which is why she has decided she's tough enough to hang with the boys.

Whether or not DeDee will have an anatomical advantage over the guys is still up in the air, but we'll soon find out how DeDee will measure up to the men. She has, in fact, decided to join the International Professional Rodeo Association.

Luckily for all of us, this reigning women's full riding champion will make that debut against a few cowboys at the Longhorn Rodeo in St. Louis this weekend. Starting tonight at The St. Charles Family Arena, you'll have your chance to cheer on DeDee and 175 other cowboys and cowgirls at the rodeo that has been honored 18 times as the best rodeo of the year. For more information about the Longhorn rodeo, and to find out more about the numerous events for rodeo-loving kiddos, go here. Tickets start at just $14, so click here to buy yours now.

For my chat with DeDee and how she feels about riding a bull with the boys, click on [tab:trav_video]. Good luck DeDee!

When introducing a new something-or-other to the public, whether it be a sports stadium or a road, the name that you give it is of utmost importance. Trust me, I know this because I lived in Columbia during the "Paige Arena" phase...

Which is why I have to give props to Amtrack and MoDOT; they are giving us the opportunity to "Name the Train" for ourselves. (This may be the only positive thing that I ever say about MoDOT, so take note.) In honor of their 30th year of transporting Missourians on this state-supported passenger rail, they're renaming the train that travels between Kansas City and St. Louis.

You have until January 23 to go here and cast your vote in the contest. They're down to the top five choices, which were submitted by your fellow Missourians:

• Missouri Rail Blazer
• ShowMeMo
• Missouri River Runner
• River Cities Corridor
• Truman Service

Personally, I think that the Missouri Rail Blazer is the best of the lot. Either way, you have a couple of weeks left to help with the final renaming. What would you want to name that train?

The thing about hunting is that you have to be aware of what you're shooting at. That's pretty much the rule when you're wielding a big gun. But unfortunately for a now-deceased endangered swan, that is not always the case.

Over in Illinois, three duck hunters thought that they were shooting at a snow goose in the conservation area that they were hunting in. Instead, they killed a rare and protected trumpeter swan.

The hunters said that they felt remorse, but that doesn't help the swan or its endangered population now, does it?

In total, 44-year-old Donald Keith Giammanco of Florissant committed 12 robberies in the St. Louis and St. Charles areas in the past several months. He's made off with more than $100,000, and claims that he is an out-of-work construction worker who has fallen on hard times.

I'm glad he's behind bars now (he has admitted to the string of bank robberies), especially since he seemed to favorite robbing Commerce Banks, which are where I keep my spare change.

It's not often talked about, yet everybody does it on a daily basis. It can be silent and deadly, or loud and room-clearing. Yes, I'm talking about farting. Again.

As soon as I started asking people in the Loop "At what point in a relationship is it OK to let one rip in front of your partner," I was (pleasantly) surprised by the number of people who were eager to answer (and call their partners out).

According to these St. Louisans, sometimes it's at after a certain milestone happens in the relationship, and sometimes it's an actual length of time. And sometimes...it depends on how bad it smells.

Click on [tab:trav_video] to see why I was laughing so hard that I was crying. Smell on T-Rav readers!

James Dale Kitchell Jr., the 37-year-old bar owner of Jumpin' Jimmy's, has gone missing. He was last seen on Tuesday night outside his bar, but all that remained this morning was a ransom note next to his abandoned car.

Check out the description so that you can alert the police in case you spot him around town: Kitchell Jr. is described as a white man, 5-foot-11, 230 pounds with blonde hair, brown eyes and a fair complexion. He has a tattoo of a red dog on his right arm. He was last seen wearing a blue pullover wind breaker, blue jeans and black tennis shoes with green soles.

At least the police had some comforting words for his friends and family to hold on to. According to a spokesperson, "We just don't know." Thanks for that, and please call the police if you spot this apparent kidnapping victim.