28.6.2012 – 28.6.2012  44 °C

Early start this morning as we continued our journey Nth Westwards towards St Louis. Our route today was a little round-about so that we could get off the Interstate and see some of the Kentucky countryside.

Our first stop for the day was in the Land between the lakes (LBL) National Recreation Area. I had the thought that we would easily be able to find somewhere for morning tea… Well, sort of! We started our drive and after a few miles D suggested we go down to find the lakes…. A good twenty minutes later we returned to the main road and continued our hunt for a picnic area. We discovered that the LBL is actually fairly extensive and finding the lakes was a lot harder than we thought! Once we hit a totally unpaved and rocky road we decided we weren’t that desperate to find the lake and a picnic area.. We found an adequate place for our morning tea before we continued north westward thru Kentucky to the Illinois border.

I always thought of Kentucky as white rail fences, little white houses surrounded by mowed lawns with flowers and maybe a horse over the rail fence! This was my mental picture and gosh it is pretty on the money!!! Lots of white painted houses with mown lawns.. not heaps of white rail fences and only a couple of horses but….  The other thing I really started to notice today driving across Kentucky was the amount of little country towns are in America… Every ten miles or so you drive thru another little town.. Quite different to home!

We passed over the mighty Ohio River at the conjunction with the Mississippi. At this point of the river is a small town called Cairo, Illinois. Cairo is a bit reminiscent of its Egyptian counterpart… No big pyramids but plenty of broken down houses, weeds growing thru concrete, rubbish lying around, rusty iron… Cairo is one of the most down and out towns I’ve seen here in the States. The incredibly sad thing is that it must have once been a very wealthy town. Just off the main street is a rusty sign indicating the historic district of Cairo. WOW! There are some mansions here!! Dilapidated but amazing! And to think that today it is seriously the worst town I’ve seen.. More of the houses are boarded up and needing a demo job than are in working order.. In the heart of the historic district is this beautiful park that was dedicated by Teddy Roosevelt at the turn of the 20^th century. Today it is surrounded by run down dilapidated mansions of yester year. Why is it that this country that is so wealthy, lets beautiful old towns like Cairo, Illinois go to such rack and ruin? There is no visible industry in the town (we could only find one shop) so I would guess that 90% of the available workforce is not working any more…. Gosh it’s sad! Billions of dollars are going to be spent this year electing the President of the USA and if that money was spent on these towns up and down the Mississippi (and probably in plenty of other parts of the US) just imagine what this country could be like……  (NB: I found out later today that most houses in this town are under 30k to buy (and most of the ones you buy need major cash spent on them to make them habitable).. Just gives you an idea of how poor this town really is…)

After our very depressing, but philosophical lunch stop, we continued up the interstate and into St Louis, Missouri. St Louis is on the banks of the mighty Mississippi and all I can say is GOD IT’S HOT HERE!! Firstly, we had to go hunting for somewhere to stay.. After doing some digging at McDs’ (inside out of the incredible heat) and found ourselves somewhere to stay we headed thru town and over the Mississippi to East St Louis in Illinois. As soon as you drive across the Mississippi you enter another down and out area! I have no idea why a town that is so close to downtown St Louis can be so daggy and depressing! More down and out houses, old factories, grass growing thru concrete… Christ!

Fortunately, although the surrounds were a bit depressing the hotel itself was really lovely with a mkt across the street.. How lucky could we get? Our day ended with us cooking up a yummy stir fry and getting our laundry done… Plenty of time tomorrow to explore everything St Louis has to offer.

Song of the Day–  Phil Collins, Another day in paradise