We left St. Louis at 9 this morning. We wound up in Franklin TN a little after 5. In between:

1. After two days of driving through rain, we had four dry days in St. Louis. The minute we got on the road this morning, the rains started again and stayed with us most of the day.

2. I had decided on our route and, I thought, set the GPS. But the GPS had its own ideas and by the time I realized we were driving the route I had decided against, it was too late to get back on our route. So the day went different than planned.

3. In fact, the GPS never conceded that I was the boss. Driving east on Interstate 64, when Edie was napping, it led me off the Interstate onto a country road in Southern Illinois. I followed the changing directions and found myself stymied, realizing that nothing I was doing made sense. I was in a town that was too small to be called a town. Belle Rive, IL. Belle Rive, according to the most recent census, has approximately 300 residents, of whom two are African American. I needed to put gas in the car and GPS told us that there was a gas station in Belle Rive. Not. There was one in the next town on Illinois Route 147, Dahlgren. The key word is “was”. The pumps no longer work.

4. We wound up in McLeansboro, a town of a few thousand. No problem. I got the gas at a Roc One station. It has a mini-store and went in to get a cup of coffee. I asked the cashier how much I owed her. “Just take it”, she said. Wow. The Roc One may be the best thing in town, other than the architecture of a small bank.

Almost all the other downtown buildings were empty, something we saw over and over today.

5. We then went through El Dorado, which I think is pronounced el-do-ray-do. Named after two original settlers, Elder and Reed.., with the name being distorted over the years. Lunch in Eldorado at a Mexican restaurant, where Edie won the lottery with a mushroom quesadilla. Here are pictures from El Dorado.

6. From El Dorado to Equality. A very small southern Illinois settlement with an absolutely fascinating history. Google it and learn about Native American salt works, taken by the US by “treaty”, worked by slaves in free state Illinois(!!). Then learn about John Crenshaw, who ran part of the salt works, but made his money capturing run away slaves and bringing them back south.

7. From there to Shawneetown, another empty down and Old Shawneetown, on the Ohio River. There is virtually nothing in Old Shawneetown except for two old bank buildings. Here is one of them.

8. Crossing into Kentucky, where the flat land turned into beautiful rolling country. Learned the grass is green not blue and that cows greatly outnumber thoroughbreds.

9. We drove into Sturgis (and yes they have a bike festival), where again everything seemed vacant, but they have a very fine 100 booth antique mall, where we bought some gifts for the grandchildren.

10. By now, we were tired and anxious to get settled. We went through more places without stopping and wound up back on an Interstate and drove by Nashville to Franklin where we now are. Again a Hampton Inn, and a sub-sub-sub-sub standard meal at Jonathan’s Grille next door where everything was fine but the food.

Yes, this was too long. But so interesting.