To end the suspense: we arrived in St. Louis at about 5. The skies were sunny.

We started off at the Hampton Inn in Richmond Indiana. The night was better than I feared. About 10 o’clock from our room, I heard the siren of a railway train which seemed very close, and again at 10:30 and I feared being up all night. My PTSD returned, thinking of our disastrous times at the St. Regis in Houston and at Badlands National Park in South Dakota, where trains keep me up all night, and in Albuferia Portugal where the villain was a church bell. But the later trains turned down the volume and I slept pretty well.

We explored Richmond in the morning. An extraordinarily interesting 19th century business area, where most buildings and storefronts are empty and the chance of restoring the area seems dim.The same is true of the historic residential neighborhood, the Starr neighborhood, Interesting homes, falling apart. (The day before we went through the historic residential area of Springfield Ohio which is in much better shape.)

But outside of the center of town, Richmond seems to be doing all right. What make some of these towns fail and some thrive? Even just west of Richmond, there are small towns which are in great shape – shops, homes, all in pristine condition

We drove through Indiana, stopping for a lunch in a town that hardly exists, Cloverdale Indiana. Lou’s Diner, like the restaurants the last two nights, was filled to capacity. I think we were the only tourists. Where did they all come from?

We had stayed on the freeway through Indianapolis as time seemed to be growing short. We were moving quickly and then a problem arose. There was apparently a crash that closed I-70 and we were stuck for about 30 minutes. By the time we got to the detour exit, though, they had just opened the road and off we went.

We then made 5 stops in Illinois. First to see a 200 foot long covered bridge over the Embarras River. The bridge was just built in 2000. But it was an exact copy of the original bridge built in 1832 and washed away about 30 years later. The original bridge was built by future president Abraham Lincoln and his father Thomas.

Then we stopped Effingham, a midsize small city, which I expected would be in sad condition like the three other cities we had explored. But no, it looked to be thriving. No vacancies, people walking on the streets. It looked like a thriving 1950s city.

And then we went to Greenville. An old friend grew up there and I had never been there. Turned out Greenville was atypical, busy and attractive. The layout was unusual, there is a university, a large number of well kept houses.

And, oh, I should also mention Casey IL, a town that hardly exists but has a DQ where I got a chocolate sundae. And Mulberry Grove, which used to exist but is now has a few empty stores, a closed school and a church.  I closed my eyes for 15 minutes, which was very refreshing.

We got to St. Louis about 5:30, went to our friend Judy’s house, and then to dinner at a restaurant in Clayton, called Oceano. Fish all around. My salmon, Edie’s trout and Judy’s sea bass. All excellent.