We are here because we had to be somewhere for Halloween and the idea of being in an rv park/campground just didn't fly with Sam. Micheal called us in Chicago and said, what you need to do is drive to Nashville for Halloween. So we did.
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| Our little pie pumpkin Jack. |
We left Chicago on Friday afternoon - taking a rather circuitous route out of the city, not so much by design however. Drove right through downtown Chicago - some of the time on Lake Shore Drive, some of the time on Michigan Ave. Right across the intersection that Sam was blown over in. Right through the traffic that I had looked at from the safety of the sidewalk and thought, boy am I glad I don't have to drive through that! But we survived. And got headed south, southwest. Through more desolate land on the edges of the city. Loops of roadway that somehow work together and get people where they are going. We passed huge areas filled with piles of dug up concrete with large front end loaders dumping huge buckets full into crushers that were spitting out smaller pieces that then looked like they moved to the next phase where the pieces are broken into smaller bits. Piles and piles of broken up concrete which is good because it will be reused but sure looks awful. Large rail yards and long trains too.
Anyway we made it out and headed for Joliet and parts more rural. We found a lovely place to have a break and play a round of miniature golf. We are now far enough away from home that we get surprised comments about being from Vermont. Sounds pretty far away to people. Not too far out of the urban area we hit farm land. BIG farmland. Flat, flat, flat. Straight roads, no traffic, corn fields as far as could be seen. The sun was setting - the land was big and open and it was beautiful. There were huge numbers of windmills all turning in the breeze. Long spaces between farm houses - which again look like the ones in Ontario - tall and narrow - but not made out of brick or stone. I asked Sam if he thought they looked lonely - and his reply was - all I can say is they better have at least two kids. But it was just beautiful and I felt like I couldn't get enough of it. I didn't take pictures - they just don't convey the wide open feel whatsoever. Thousands of acres of corn fields. And then on the horizon we'd see what looked like a pile of buildings that would be a bunch of corn silos. Usually near a set of railroad tracks. The land is so flat that the sun hangs and seems to take a long time setting. No hills or trees to cast shadows or obstruct the view. And all this so close to Chicago.
We had lined up a campground at Starved Rock State Park. It is on the Illinois River. (Illinois - Michigan canal goes along there too.) When we got near the river we suddenly had trees and some hilly areas. The biggest hill since Vermont. Sam navigated us in the almost dark to our campground where there was a line to get in. (The man we gave our money to said 'rowt' for route and 'terlet' for toilet.) We found a lovely site and spaghetti it was for supper. Our chilliest night yet - near freezing I think. But we were fine and comfortable. A large Osage Orange (Maclura Pomifera) was nearby with all it's really big, headbruising-if-they-fall-on-you fruits on the ground.
In the morning we headed out to the river because we'd heard that White Pelicans stop there at this time of year. And sure enough - they were there - about 20 of them. A small group was flying around and some were standing on rocks poking up out of the river. There was a couple (human) fishing in the river and we visited with them a bit about fish and birds and where to eat breakfast. Asian carp are a huge problem in the Illinois River and the Chicago River. People are trying hard to keep them from getting into the great lakes. We saw a video about them at the aquarium. When they are disturbed they jump out of the river, quite high, without caution to what they might encounter during their flight through the air. They hit boats, boaters, and cameramen, as we saw in the video. And they aren't small fish. So in the Illinois River at Starved Rock we saw fish jumping and assume they were the carp. We saw some Canada Geese fly in and saw a kingfisher go into it's burrow in the sandy bank. We were told that Bald Eagles congregate there in the next couple of weeks.
From there it was on to Utica, IL for a lovely breakfast at the Nodding Onion. Excellent food and very bad water according to the hostess. She kept saying to the patrons as they arrived, I'll get you water but you won't want it.' It got rather funny.
We then turned south on Rt. 51 and went for hours, pretty much due south past corn fields, all harvested, for the entire time. This time there were no windmills. And there were no solar collectors and certainly no water power. So all that vast land, millions of acres?, is all farmed with oil. It was a little discouraging. All that corn going into so many of our food products and maybe ethanol and it's all supported by the oil industry. We saw farmers on their fields harrowing and behind every harrow was a small tank that had anhydrous ammonia that led to the harrow and was applying nitrogen to the fields. I'm not sure how it was being applied but I wondered if it was right at soil level. Sometimes we thought we could smell something as we went by a tractor that was close to the road. Evidently the tractors are huge - we see them at farm supply businesses - but when we see them out across a field about a half a mile away they don't look so big.
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| Finally a picture of an oil 'rig'. On the fly, out the car window. We saw several. |
It was windy again so I was white knuckling it most of the way - I showed Sam what would happen if I let up the smallest bit and in less than a second we were half way across the on coming lane - pushed by the wind. There is nothing to stop the wind but the occasional farmhouse and corn silos. Then again, as in Ontario I'd find myself swerving to the right because of my compensation for the wind.
Finally we got to Ramsey, IL and could see a line of trees on the horizon. With those trees came relief from the wind and the land started to roll a bit - not so flat. And from then on wind wasn't a problem. And the fields had had more soybeans than corn. Saw a couple of fields of what I think was amaranth, still waiting to be harvested.
We spent the night in Anna, IL, our first, and hopefully last, motel. A Super 8. Stale, dry, smelly air, hotel room anywhere USA, noisy street, noisy neighbors. No way to prepare our own food. I did a thorough check for bedbugs. I looked up the bedbug registry to see if it was listed. I checked the sheets, the pillows inside the pillow cases, the mattress under the sheets. If you look up the website that shows the sites where bedbugs have been voluntarily reported you can see that I'm not overly cautious. All seemed clear of bedbugs. I got a shower and we got to watch some of the 3rd game of the world series. We had two campgrounds we had found on the map as overnight possibilities and neither worked out. We followed a long dark road into a State Park honoring the Trail of Tears and found nothing. The road felt a lot shorter and less dark on the way out. So we were grateful for the Super 8 but reassured that the choice to use the van, age and breakdown possibilities taken into account, was the right choice for this trip.
Sunday we were up and out the door and heading south again. We had about 40 more miles in IL. We drove into Cairo (pronounced like the syrup kay-ro) which is the last town before you leave IL. Cairo immediately follows Future City which lives up to its name and is nothing. Cairo is practically a ghost town it seems. So down and out. Vacant buildings, closed up businesses. But right at the end of Cairo was just what we were looking for - a diner. The Nu Diner. Did a u-turn in the vacant, wide main street and in we went. It was suddenly clear that we had crossed some invisible line between Anna and Cairo. We were in the south. Southern accent. Grits on menu. I ordered tea and the waitress, probably full knowing, asked 'sweetened or unsweetened?' Hot tea I said and then I knew. And sure enough, at 10 in the AM the patrons, including a kid, were drinking iced tea with their breakfasts. The table had packets of lemon juice along with the sugar packets. We had a big breakfast while eyed by all the locals. Friendly but they sure knew we had never been there before. Waitress on a first name basis with everyone. Some people arriving after church. As we left we had the opportunity to select a pamphlet from a display that said 'Take and Read - Religious Tracts'.
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| A typical building in Cairo. |
We've seen lots of churches; more and more as we get further south. I suspect we've mostly left the Lutheran churches we saw behind. Lots of Baptist now and Assembly of God. We even saw two Baptist churches, not very big, directly across the road from each other in a rural area and I amused myself imagining how that happened. They were both in business. In fact of all the churches we saw the Baptists are doing the best if the cars in the parking lot account for anything.
Right at the south end of Cairo is the convergence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. The road divides and a sign says right to Missouri or left to Kentucky. So first we went right over a large bridge and drove into Missouri. Then back we went and went to a park that takes you right to the edge of the sand and mud where the waters join. Lots of busy barge and boat traffic. And the rivers are grand and thrilling. I won't say too much more as I think the pictures will tell the story.
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| Mississippi on the right. Ohio on the left. |
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| Bridge to Missouri |
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| One of the boats pushing a line of long flat barges up the Ohio river. |
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| Chugging up the Mississippi. It was pushing 4 barges in a line. |
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| Bridge to Missouri. |
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| The bridge to Kentucky. |
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| This plaque tells about how Lewis and Clark trained here for their expeditions. |
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| There was a lookout to climb and underneath was covered with, I assume Bryan, cliff swallow nests. |
There was a young guy that had been camping in the bushes on the edge of the river (for those of you that know Giffy, he reminded me very much of him). He was just folding up his tent and had also just caught a good sized fish. He walked up to a picnic table with the fish and vegetables to cook them. I got out one of the small cans of syrup we brought with us and Sam handed it out the window to him. The real stuff he told him. The guy said, 'Vermont! I was just there - nice place - no billboards!' We probably should have asked him where he'd been but we didn't, we just had a nice encounter, left him looking at the syrup and getting ready to cook his fish and off we went. He didn't seem to have a vehicle. It was a great moment, not really explainable why, at the exact half way point of our trip.
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| The bridge to Kentucky. |
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| This is the view from the Kentucky bridge to the point of land we'd just been on. These are what the boats were pushing. |
So over the bridge to Kentucky we went. The beginning of BBQ country. We weren't in Kentucky for very long and all we saw were some rolling pastures with beef cows, everyone seems to have a farm pond, and a lot of very dry grass, some soy bean fields, and large paper plant and lest you've been wondering - wishing wells. So far we've seen wishing wells in every state. We'll try to get some pictures. But I think nothing will ever rival what we saw in New York.
Crossed into Tennessee and began to head east to Nashville. We were pushing pretty hard to get here in time for Halloween preparations so only had time to stop in Paris and see the Eiffel Tower.
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| Told you so. |
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