Illinois Day Trip

I took Wednesday off because the wife and I had planned on taking a trip to Springfield, IL for some sort of Abraham Lincoln anniversary celebration.  We later found it that it was a tour for seasoned-citizens so we bailed on that.  But, rather than canceling my day off, we decided instead to take a drive down to Southern Illinois.

Of course, the first thing we did was to dress the dog up in a ridiculous shirt.

Once he was ready to go, we piled into the car and took a scenic trip down Lucas & Hunt Blvd in St. Louis.  Emerging at I-70, we continued into the city and picked up I-55 South.

Our first stop (thanks to GPS confusion) was at Kaskaskia, IL and the Kaskaskia Bell State Historic Site.  It was eerily quiet and I tried to convince Gina that everyone had fled the impending zombie apocalypse.  Although she didn't buy it, she was still a bit creeped out by the solitude.  Kaskaskia is interesting because although it is Illinois, it's on an island on the WESTERN side of the Mississippi river.

From Kaskaskia, we headed to Ste Genevieve, Missouri and then across the Mississippi into Chester, IL.  We stopped in Chester briefly to take some pictures with the Popeye statue.  They're currently in the process of building a nice welcome/visitor center with a patio overlooking the river.  From here, we picked up the Great River Road (IL-3) and motored south.

After a brief stop for lunch, we arrived in Metropolis, Illinois... the home of Superman.  We walked around the quaint little town for a bit and, of course, took a bunch of pictures with the giant Superman statue.

Check out all the pics in the Photo Gallery.