Trip to tennessee,

Day 1
The first day was uneventful, and that was about what I wanted.
Left the house around 11 and headed for Missouri. At Joplin I got on I-44 and headed for Springfield.
Got gas in Springfield, it was down to $3.55. Amazing that I think that is cheap gas. Wasn’t that cheap anywhere else.
At Springield I got on U.S. Highway 60 and headed east.
It was a great highway. Four lane nearly all the way, and at times it was like an Interstate. It did not go through all the little towns. As I continued east the terrain got a little more of a rolling nature to it and more green. There were more houses and farms along the road.
Small town of Mountain View to just outside Poplar Bluff, was a 3-lane as it went through the Ozarks. Very scenic with lots of trees, big fields and so forth. The three lanes made it easy to get around slower traffic and keep moving at a good rate.
Lots of old barns and bypassing lots of little towns. I wanted to stop but kept in mind my goal of getting through Missouri by dark. They had the passing lanes through the mountains, and traffic moved very smoothly. I was a little surprised that there was a good bit of traffic. High gas prices don’t seem to be slowing too many people down.
Got to Popular Bluff by 5 p.m. At one point I thought this would be a place to stop for the night, but I didn’t know how long it would take to get there. It was only 5 p.m. and I wasn’t tired. I stopped at Sonic and got a large milkshake and kept going. I did take the business route through the town, it looked like a nice town.
From Poplar Bluff east its Interstate all the way, and the speed limit was 70.
Took Interstate 55 north at Sikeston. I had decided to go to Cape Girardeau. I guess because it was across the river from Illinois. Never been to Illinois, so I thought I might as well add that state to my list of visited states. (I don’t count going through the airport in Chicago as a visit to Illinois.). I had also read some about the downtown area.
I got into Girardeau about 8, or a little before. Took me a long time to find a hotel room. I just didn’t see many hotels, and what I did see were of the more expensive variety. In downtown Girardeau I found a place that wanted 60, but it didn’t look very nice, they didn’t have internet or breakfast either.
So I went back out to the Interstate and stated at a place that was 70-something., but it had internet and free breakfast.
Tired. I watched some TV and went to sleep.

Day 2
I slept as long as I wanted too as I was tired. I did study up some on Cape Girardeau via the internet and some literature. The hotel had a nice map of downtown.
By 9 a.m. I was ready to go. Went to downtown Cape Girardeau. The city itself is very old, It has some fairly narrow streets. The downtown is really nice, as nice as advertised.
I had read about a “scenic overlook” that was about a mile out of town on Main Street. I went there first. It was nice but the view wasn’t that great.
A barge pushing a lot of containers went by.
I read where this was the place of the original trading post that became cape Girardeau, settled by a Mr. Giradot before 1800.
One really cool thing about Cape Girardeau was that there are signs telling about things all over the place.
One not so cool thing was reading that most of the rock and dirt where Giradot had settled was removed by the corp or engineers in the early 1900’s for the railroad.
Back to downtown and the river walk.
There is a wall along the river, with sizeable openings ever few hundred feet. I guess the wall is to stop flooding.
On the river side is a nice cement walkway with steps, and boat ramps for people to use.
On the other side are muruls showing the history of Girardeau. This goes on for several hundred feet. Really nice murals with a sign explaining the significance of each, who did it and when.
Learned a lot of the city’s history.
In the 40s the river froze over. There were pics of people and cars on the river ice.
At one end there was about 100 feet of paintings of people. These were famous people from Missouri, and of course, a sign on each one telling about them.
There is a fairly steep hill rising from the river. It was a Sunday morning so there were not many people.
I did find it odd that there were a lot of churches that seemed empty.
A huge catholic church, some other really nice looki twng older ones.
Lots of historical buildings as well, and grand old houses.
It was hard to keep moving.
I was downtown for at least an hour.
Headed to Illinois from there.
Crossed the Mississippi into Illinois and East Cape Girardeau. Eest Girardeau is just a small community.
The bridge was one of those older bridges.
Just two lanes wide, one lane each way with nothing between the two lanes. On the sides was just a metal guardrail that ddidn’tlook all that sturdy to me. This bridge was at least a mile long. There was barely enough room for two cars ot pass.There were not a lot of cars, but the few there were made me nervous.
Across the bridge, I found my way to highway 3, which is a river road.
Headed south from there and went through a few small towns. I don’t know if I should read too much into it, but it seemed striking to me, the difference between Illinois, Missouri and Kentucky in this area where the three states meet/
The Missouri area looked old but well kept. The Kentucky areas looked newer but nice. The Illinois areas looked run down and old.
The river road was cool. At times you could see the mississippi river to the right. At other times you could only see trees. Went through a few small towns. There was Thebes, which was just a really small community with a few boats. Had a nice water front area that had been nice at one time. There was a cool looking older building falling into disrepair.
A few other towns were about the same. One called “Future City” was not much but a few houses. Still I wondered about the name.
That leads down to a small peninsula and the city of Cairo.
This city was looked really run down. There were quiet a few old buildings, but they were run down. There was a very small park the river but nothing special.
There was the main street leading to the river where there is a boat ramp. Some old buildings along that street looked nice. By now it was about noon. There were some really old grand looking churches but they seemed empty.
One block over to the north was another old street. It seemed abandoned. Old buildings falling down, boarded up windows, and even grass growing up in the street through the pavement. There were street lamps that looked fairly new but the street itself looked abandoned.
The downtown area was probably nice 50 years ago, or even 100 years ago when the buildings were built. I was just amazed at how decrepit it looked.
It was about lunch time, but I didn’t see any restaurants, except for the fast food joints on the edge of town.
Cairo is where the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers meet. Looked like there was lots of barge traffic. And there were a lot of people putting boats and such into the river.
Crossing the Ohio River bridge was just as harrowing as the Mississippi had been earlier. A bit more traffic this time.
From there I intended to get on Highway 60 and go to Paducah, I misread the sign at an intersection and got on Highway 62 instead. 62 is a bit further but goes through forest, so I decided to stay with it.
I went along the river some before turning east.
There were no towns along the road, but it took a long time it seemed.
Got into Paducah around 1. Got a bite to eat and walked around the city.
It was really neat, Much like Cape Girardeau. The same wall along the river, the park on the river side and more murals on the other side.
Paducah is a bit smaller, but remarkably similar to Giradearu. Not as large of a historical area, but was really well kept.
From there headed east. Crossed the Tennessee River. It was another one of those narrow bridges, but by now I was used to it.
Here are huge lakes in the area. Great views of the countryside.
Headed east on 62 which parallels the Interstate for a long way.
Soon I got on Highway 68. It was getting up into the afternoon by the time I reached Hopkinsville. Looked like a nice town with a nice historical area.
From there it was 4 lane all the way, but the speed limits were around 55.
Highway 68 goes through the “Land between the Lakes” a great national park, lots of camping and fishing. That was two lane some, but still moved along nicely.
I looked around the downtown of Hopkinsville some. Lots of one way streets here, and at times they were not well marked. Almost went the wrong way a few times.
As you get east the traffic and population picks up. I started noticing that expecially in Hopkinsville.
About 10 miles beyond Hopkinsville is the small town of Fairview. Here is a monument to Jefferson Davis. This was his birthplace and there is a very tall monument there. Probalbly 200 feet high.
I soon realized that this was also an Amish area. Saw people in buggies. One had a big load of corn.
While stopped at the Jefferson Davis monument several buggies went by. There were about 5 of them together. The horses pulling them were moving along rapidly, in a trot.
I got some pictures.
From there I bypassed most of the towns. Lots of rolling hills and corn growing.
I got to Bowling Green around 5. Didn’t pay much attention to it. But I did get on Interstate 65 for a bit, and took that to a parkway that goes east to west across most of Kentucky. Again the speed limit was 55.
About 8:30 p.m., I realized I was still 50 miles from Somerset, where I had hoped to stop for the night. I could not tell the size of the city from the map, and beyond there was nothing.
I checkd te GPS and found a fairly cheap hotel 20 miles to te north.
I drove on a small two lane road to get there, an was not even sure what town I was in.
Got there around 9. Realized that the time zone had changed, so local time was 10 p.m.
Not sure how that worked, but as I headed east, I went back into central time before entering eastern time again.
I was in Campbellsville. Stayed a a small hotel that was locally owned. IT was called “Vista.”
Just a strip of rooms. But the room itself was very nice. Actually it was a lot nicer than the place I had paid much more for the previous night.
Nice cheap compfortable room. Slept well, Got up about 8 central time. And Was on the road soon after since there was no coffee or anything there.

Day 3
Found myself in Campbellsville, KY.,
Guess I wasn’t thinking too clearly the night beore. Sometimes the GPS is also misleading.
Late the night before I was on that parkway, and was about 50 miles from Somerset. On the map it looked like a really small town, and the GPS wasn’t giving any information about it, so I didn’t know if they would have a room or not, and I was pretty tired.
So I ended up going north as per the GPS, and found that nice room.
I wanted to eat breakfast at a nice sit down place, with glass coffee cups.
The GPS led me astray twice, one place simply wasn’t there, and its hard to tell what kind of place it is just from the name.
So I messed around Campbellsville for nearly an hour trying to find what I wanted for breakfast.
Finally grabbed a sausage biscuit at some small place and hit the road.
I had come into town on Highway 55, and decided to keep going that way.
The map didn’t show a good east-west route, but I got on highway 70 and started that way.
I got a cup of coffee in a styrofoam cup at a convenience store. It was awful but I still drank it.
Highway 70 is a small two lane road that winds through a real hilly area. Lots of sharp curves so you cant go very fast. Passed a lot of old wooden barns and took pictures at a few of them. Went through a pretty big forest that was neat. Also started getting into tobacco country. Saw lots of tobacco fields and corn fields.
Quiet a few horses too.
After at least an hour, I found myself in the small town of Liberty.
Beautiful courthouse and square so I stopped to take a picture. On the south side was the county jail, but other than that it was really nice.
The little town was packed with cars and people. Guess it was because of the courthouse. The courthouse was nice inside too, with old wooden floors that creaked when you walked on them. Great big windows and dooors.
There was a small café across the street called Emmas.
This was what I wanted.
I went in and it was a long narrow place. At the far end there were a bunch of ladies sitting. No one looked up and I wondered if it was open. It seemed like they were having a meeting or something.
Finally one of them came over told me, yes, they were open.
I got some coffee – which was really good and in a glass cup – and sausage and eggs.
Listened to the ladies chatter.
A few others came in.
The waitress knew everyone and knew what they wanted.
They were friendly, but also a bit standoffish, as people are as you get towards the mountains. They are friendly once you break that wall of ice.
I asked the waitress if there was anything special going on, since the town seemed crowded ad bustling. She said no this was a normal day.
There were lots of old pictures in the café, and some old newspaper clippings. I learned about the history of the town as I ate. It was settled in the early 1800s, but the railroad bypassed it, as did the major highways, so it never really grew much.
Nice little town though.
They had a welcome center as I left town. I found out not too many tourists enter the way I had come since it is a real back road..
They have a festival where they make the worlds largest apple pie. That’s in september.
I went to the sign the guest book, I was the third consecutive “james” to sign it, all from different states.
By now it was nearly noon and I realized I had made virtually no progress. I looked on the map and realized I was directly north of Somerset, and needed to go through that town.
I felt really silly when I got to the town and found out it was a big town with many hotels.
Even with maps and a GPS you still make mistakes at times. I had not wanted to drive the extra 50 miles the night before, but I ended up driving 150 miles and in Somerset anyway.
There was a sign to an old mill. I looked for it briefly, but gave up after only a short time.
This was a big and crowded city. Hard to get around really.
In Kentucky the roads are not well marked. They tell you what road you are turning on to, but very few signs that tell you what you are on at the present time.
At Somerset, I got on highway 80. That’s a nice four lane, but still the speed limit was rather slow.
Made my way to Interstate 75, got on that and drove fast. At Knoxville, Tenn., took 40 from there to I-81 and then highway 11 to Jonesoro, Tenn.
Arrived at my moms placce about 4 p.m.
What usually takes two days took me three, that’s about par for the course.
I like being on the road.