Festus native Brandy Wilson, 27, loves her St. Louis Cardinals.
She must, to still be smiling after enduring a trip to St. Louis for Opening Day that would have tried the patience of Job himself.
Wilson, a graduate of Crystal City High School and Columbia College, lives in Knoxville, Tenn., where she attends Lincoln Memorial University’s Duncan School of Law.
A die-hard Cardinal fan since childhood, she rarely misses the first game of the season.
“Last year, since I couldn’t make it to opening day in St. Louis because of school, I actually went to the season-opening series in Atlanta against the Braves,” she said. “The year before, I drove to Chicago for the opening series there as well.”
Shortly before she was set to head home for this year’s opener, the transmission went out in her faithful Chevy Silverado pickup. She posted a forlorn message on her Facebook page:
“Well, after nine years, the old girl is officially out of commission.”
It was a momentary setback, Wilson said.
“My parents (Rick and Janine Wilson of Herculaneum, formerly of Festus) have an extra vehicle they said I could use,” she said. “So I just had to get to St. Louis somehow.”
Easier said than done.
“I started calling around, and found that a one-way plane ticket from the little airport at Knoxville to St. Louis was over $400,” she said. “I looked at trains, but Amtrak doesn’t run between here and there. So it was the bus.”
She took an Uber ride to the bus station and boarded a Greyhound for the 12-hour trip that would get her close to Busch Stadium shortly before pre-game festivities were scheduled to start.
Almost immediately there was another comical Facebook post:
“When you have to take a 12-hour bus ride to St. Louis, and the person next to you starts a sentence with, ‘That’s what I hate about prison…’
“I swear my life is a country western song.”
The bus made its scheduled stop at Nashville, only to encounter an unscheduled three-hour delay.
“So I said, ‘Oh, forget it,’ and got off the bus,” Wilson said. “I took another Uber to a car rental place and just got a car.”
It was destined not be that simple, of course. There was a glitch with her credit card.
“I spent, like, 30 minutes on the phone with the lady from the credit card company before she got it straightened out,” Wilson said. “That was fun on a Sunday.
“So I start driving, and almost immediately there’s this huge wreck (ahead) and I was held up like 40 minutes. I was like, ‘Seriously, God?’ I was starting to doubt if I was meant to go to this game.”
But good things come with patience. Wilson made it to St. Louis in plenty of time to enjoy the game, celebrating the Cards’ 4-3 win over the Cubs with friends.
She took a breather Monday, then headed back to Knoxville to hit the books again.
“It’s back to law school I go,” she said with a laugh. “But I’ll be back (to St. Louis). I collect bobbleheads, so I will be back for those games for sure.”
Wilson summed up her experience with the attitude of a true fan.
“It was one heck of a trip,” she said with a laugh. “But it was totally worth it.”