Beating the heat?

August 3, 2010
Missouri/Illinois - Great River Road

It's hot. Darn hot. And, as "they" say, "it's not the heat; it's the humidity". Gotta stay with the air conditioning, but we can still take a ride. A quick check of the maps led us to a loop along the "Great River Road, up via Missouri and back in Illinois.

We headed out mid-morning, bring the pups along since they like to get out, too. A quick stop near Alton to take a picture of the "Piasa" rock carving (originally reported in 1673 by explorers Marquette and Joliet and "lost" for years, it "magically" reappeared in 1836), and over the Brussels and Winfield Ferries, and we were in Missouri. After a quick fuel stop (30 cents per gallon cheaper in Missouri), we were headed north on MO-79. Now, you might expect that the "Great River Road" would actually be near the river, eh? Well, not so much, other than in a couple of small towns. Basically, we were back in the corn and soybeans we'd seen ever since Ohio. We decided to start back once we hit Hannibal; it's a nice little town with lots of Mark Twain-oriented stuff, but at 99°F it was too hot to get out of the car!

Crossing the Illinois River at Brussels Ferry

View south along the Mississippi from just below Hannibal, MO

We crossed the Mississippi on I-72 and were soon heading south on IL-96. I was glad to be able to check out this route, since our plan calls for us to head out this way on Friday. Once again, we didn't see much of the rivers until we joined up with IL-100 and crossed the Illinois River in Hardin. We were soon back at Pere Marquette State Park.

View west of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers from Pere Marquette State Park

Before heading to the coach, we decided to take the "scenic drive" here in the park, which heads up on the bluffs with several overlooks facing west and south. Like a lot of public facilities, the park system is suffering from a lack of funding, which yields a lack of maintenance, so the road and overlooks are a bit run down and over-grown.

I climbed to "Flagpole Lookout" and was confused by the name...

...until I realized that the flagpole had been removed...