It was just very confusing because “St Louis style ribs” was very much a thing back then. Though, according to Alton Brown, it refers to a specific cut of ribs, not a recipe, and nobody knows why it’s called that 
I did have some Italian food while I was there…
Oh yeah I had a few episodes of unfortunate timing (we planned the basic route but paid no mind to the dates since we were more or less ad libbing the amount of time). Word to the wise, never ever ever ever ever find yourself in Calaveras County during the Jumping Frog festival shudder
Anyway I’ve got us way off topic so if you want to make fun of my poor road trip choices we should go do that over here maybe