Gateway Station to Soulard by Folding E-Bike
Our first St. Louis lesson: the bike ride was easy. The keypad had other ideas.
Gateway Station to Soulard by Folding E-Bike: Easier Than the Smart Lock
Jason “Deep Dive” Lord • May 2026
Affiliate Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. If you buy through them, Deep Dive AI / Team Jellie may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. It helps support the trip, the blog, and our ongoing field research into whether hot wings count as urban recovery food.
Some travelers arrive in a new city, open a rideshare app, and glide toward their lodging like adults who own matching luggage.
We arrived in St. Louis with folding e-bikes and decided the trip should start immediately.
After taking Amtrak from Battle Creek through Chicago and into St. Louis, we rolled into Gateway Station with the bikes, the bags, and the quiet confidence of two people who had already committed to the bit. The plan was simple: get off the train, get organized, and ride from the station to our place in Soulard.
This was not a backup plan.
This was the niche.
The quick version
We got off the train in St. Louis, rode our folding e-bikes from Gateway Station to Soulard, made it to the Airbnb, fought the smart lock, then recovered at Ray’s Sports Bar with a Michelob Ultra, a vodka tonic, and hot honey wings.
In travel terms, that is called a successful landing. In Team Jellie terms, that is called “close enough, feed us.”
The ride from Gateway Station to Soulard
Before we did it, the ride sounded like the part that might get tricky.
New city. Downtown station. Traffic. Luggage. Two folding e-bikes. Two adults trying not to become a cautionary tale with helmets.
But the actual ride was easier than expected.
That was the first useful lesson of the St. Louis trip: sometimes the thing that sounds intimidating is manageable when you slow down, keep the route simple, and do not treat city streets like a video game.
The bikes turned arrival into part of the adventure instead of dead space between the train and the Airbnb. That mattered. We were not just moving through the city. We were entering it at human speed, one block at a time.
The Airbnb arrival: first boss fight
We made it to Soulard. We reached the Airbnb. That should have been the clean ending to the arrival story.
It was not.
The electric keypad decided it also wanted a role in the trip.
There are moments when travel makes you feel like an explorer. Then there are moments when you stand outside a door tapping a keypad, rereading instructions, and wondering if the lock has developed a personality disorder.
The ride from the station? Easy.
The keypad? Not so much.
Eventually, we got in. Gear dropped. Bikes settled. Stress level reduced from “what are we doing?” to “where is the nearest food?”
First stop: Ray’s Sports Bar
After the smart-lock wrestling match, we did the only reasonable thing: walked over to Ray’s Sports Bar.
Kellie had a Michelob Ultra. I had a vodka tonic. We ordered hot honey spiced wings.
Nothing about this was polished luxury travel, and that was the point. This was the real first-night reset. We had arrived by train, ridden the bikes into Soulard, survived the keypad, and found a neighborhood bar close enough to feel like the city was being polite.
That first drink was not just a drink. It was a receipt.
Proof that the plan worked.
Proof that the bikes were useful.
Proof that sometimes the smartest travel move is not the fanciest one. Sometimes it is just getting yourself to a local bar, ordering wings, and letting your nervous system clock out for the evening.
First-night scorecard
- Train arrival: successful
- E-bike ride to Soulard: easier than expected
- Smart lock: unnecessarily dramatic
- Ray’s Sports Bar: exactly what we needed
- Hot honey wings: morale restored
Why this mattered
This little arrival window is the spine of the whole trip.
It proves the idea worked.
We did not just talk about traveling by train with folding e-bikes. We actually got off the train and used them.
That matters because a lot of travel advice quietly assumes you have a car, or that you will immediately rent one, or that you will solve every awkward distance with a rideshare. There is nothing wrong with that. But it is not the only way to travel.
For this trip, the folding e-bikes gave us a middle lane. More flexible than walking. Less isolated than being in a car. More interesting than just watching the city slide past a window.
And, apparently, still easier than opening a door.
Would we recommend riding from Gateway Station to Soulard?
For travelers who are already comfortable riding in a city, yes.
But with common sense.
Keep the route simple. Do not rush. Carry less than you think you need. Use lights. Lock the bikes well. Watch for traffic. If a street feels wrong, change course. You are not being graded on bravery.
For everyone else, there is no shame in calling a ride. But for us, riding from Gateway Station to Soulard was the point.
Team Jellie takeaway
The best part of this arrival was not that everything went perfectly. It did not. The best part was that the main idea worked: train, folding e-bikes, Soulard base, local first stop.
The ride was easy. The keypad was not. The wings helped.
Final thought
Our first night in St. Louis was not glamorous in the brochure sense.
It was better than that.
It was practical, funny, slightly clumsy, and very us. We arrived by train. We rode into the neighborhood. We fought the lock. We found Ray’s. We ordered wings.
That is not just a travel day.
That is the start of a story.
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