And so we bid a fond farewell ...

Louisville is where I part company with the Kiwi Express tour. Sue and I shared a room for the last time on Friday night, and this morning we finished packing up our surplus clothing in FedEx boxes and staggered several blocks to the local FedEx office. It turned out to be open for business, but not open for sending international parcels; for that, we had to go to the other FedEx office a taxi ride away. Our part of downtown St Louis was remarkably deserted, with no taxis to be seen, so we staggered another couple of blocks to the UPS office (once I'd found it hidden in the depths of a hotel) where a nice girl called Chelsea took half an hour to work out how to do international freight - something she'd never done before. My box weighed 21 lb 10 oz and cost over $200 to send home, but there was no way I was carrying it back to the hotel to repack into my two overflowing suitcases so it's now on it's way home without me.

Back at the hotel, the Kiwi Express buses were departing at 12 noon so I stayed to say goodbye and wave them off. I had a great time on the tour, it was very well organised, and we did a lot ... but it was lovely to be on my own again.

I had three hours before my taxi arrived at the hotel to take me to the airport, so I called in to the Visitor Centre. They recommended a walking tour down Main Street, taking in some museums and the Museum Hotel, and a film at the Kentucky Centre. The walking tour was interesting, with lots of historic buildings and different styles of architecture.

According to the guy in the Visitor Centre, the Museum Hotel is supposed to be rated the best hotel in America (I must look it up on Google). He says the urinals are amazing: the mirrors have the eyes of blind dart throwers that watch you (no, I'm not making this up). The hotel also has large red penguins above the entrance. On the outside wall there was an artwork that was a thousand paper emperor butterflies attached to the wall, with white plaster hands holding yellow carnations. Inside, above the reception desk, were four wooden figures, naked; and in the foyer and surrounding rooms there was an amazing exhibition of portraits. One of them was chipboard with black paint, and the paint had been partially etched away by a pattern of bullet holes leaving the outline of a face. Another portrait was composed of tiny writing, with different shades of grey achieved by different densities of writing - the guy next to me said it looked like Prince, and I had to admit I didn't know what Prince looked like.

I couldn't find the restrooms so can't report on the mirrors, damn it.

Further down the street I went to the Museum of Arts and Crafts. it was more shop than museum, with lots of works by local artists and craftworkers for sale; but they did have some very beautiful quilts on display from someone's collection, all with a water theme. I have never seen quilts like them - definitely art, not just craft. At the other end of the scale they also had an exhibition of folk art: very crudely carved and painted figures which didn't appeal to me at all. And there was an exhibition about the Day of the Dead, which I think is a Mexican festival where people create elaborate altars to commemorate the dead, with photos and decorations.

I walked up the Belvedere to view the Ohio River: wide, picturesque. Louisville started because there were rapids on the river and people had to get out of their boats and carry their goods around the rapids, according to the sign.

And then I found out where all the people were: there's a pedestrian mall on Fourth Street, with shops and restaurants. I bought more books at Borders (in anticipation of long waits at airports) and toothpaste at a pharmacy, then headed back to the hotel to catch my taxi to the Louisville airport. My taxi driver said: "Oh, you must be from New Zealand" - he knew there was a group on tour from New Zealand in town, and picked up the different accent. Small town!

South Western don't do seat allocations, you just get a number that determines what order you get on the plane and then pick your own seat. I paid a bit extra to go on early (and get a free glass of wine) and that worked fine. The plane had empty seats and it was a quick flight, just 45 minutes, so we got in to St Louis early.

Now I'm at the SpringHill Suites in Earth City, St Louis, 10 minutes from the airport, and looking forward to a quiet evening on my own. The rest of the tour should be arriving in Nashville about now, and settling into the Opryland Hotel.