Thursday, 26 September 2019
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| today's route along the Ohio River Road |
I'd already made reservations at Ft. Massac State Park beginning tomorrow night, so I just decided to go there a day early.
As you can see from the map the road, which has official signs saying it's designated the Ohio River Scenic Byway, doesn't often go very close to the river. But I found as I drove that even where it appears to follow the river, I still couldn't see it. I spent almost the whole drive searching unsuccessfully for some sign of it.
What I did see quite a few of were operating oil wells. A lot of them. Usually smack in the middle of cornfields. I have no idea how the farmers and the oil folks make that work, but they obviously do. I saw quite a few petroleum-related companies in various small towns as I drove. I've never connected Illinois with oil but it's clearly making a contribution to the economy.
I also passed several churches labeled as General Baptist Churches, which is a label I've never seen before. I guess it's a branch of Baptists, like the Southern Baptists back in Texas.
I saw dead cornstalks being cut down to about a foot from the ground - one time by a machine that looked like it had an alien spaceship sitting on top of it. And I passed other fields where it looked like they were actually mulching and spreading the 1' high remaining stalks. Then I remembered having seen huge trucks of what looked like the chopped-down corn stalks and wondered where they were being trucked to. Do they get ground up and used for something? So maybe the spaceship machine cuts down the stalks, and after the debris's been gathered up, the second machine comes along and prepares the field for planting again.
At widely separated distances, I passed 2 A-frame houses with roofs that went all the way down to the ground. I haven't seen such an extreme pitch outside of a ski slope and wondered what kind of weather they were built for.
I passed a road marked for Little Texas. All I could find online is that it's either an isolated place to camp or it's a band. Take your pick, because I didn't go down that road.
I passed the turnoff to go to the Wabash Cannonball Toll Road. As far as I can tell, the road leads to a bridge that crosses the Ohio from Illinois to Indiana, and the toll's charged on the bridge. Not only is this bridge considered haunted but, as a narrow one-lane bridge, it's also considered one of the world's most dangerous. Here's a link if you're interested. https://historicbridges.org
As a change from pork dinners, the Allendale Firemen (per their sign) are having a steak dinner. And a church in Mt. Carmel is having its annual chowder dinner. I connect neither of those meals with Illinois, but apparently they do.
I passed a gas station with a Sinclair dinosaur on its sign but the station had no other insignia and I didn't think Sinclair was still a functioning gas company.
I passed a sign for Dinger Bats that said "Illinois's first wood ___" and I couldn't remember the rest. But it's a company on the edge of the Shawnee National Forest that makes baseball bats of such quality that they're sold worldwide. I just couldn't figure out what makes it Illinois's first something.
The land got more hilly as I went farther south, just as it did when I was in Ohio and Indiana at a comparable latitude.
I was very surprised to pass a field of what looked like maize. I think of that as a southern crop, though I'm seeing a lot of indications that I'm a lot farther south than I was a month or two ago. Not the least of which is people's accents when I talk to them in local stores.
I have a new theory about why Illinois drivers don't want to pass me, even when I signal and pull over. Maybe they don't know what I'm doing. Maybe nobody up here does that. On Texas back roads it's completely common to let people go by; in some states (e.g. Washington) it's the law. But maybe drivers in this part of the country never pull over for following vehicles but leave them to pass or not pass on their own. Today there was a driver following me and clearly about to pass me when I signaled and pulled over for him, and he immediately stopped trying to pass and even came to a complete stop when I did. Huh??
Cave-In-Rock State Park was designated partly for the huge cave formed by natural forces, but also partly for the mostly nefarious historic uses the cave's been put to. Check out this link if you want to know the story. www.interestingamerica.com/Cave-in-Rock
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