Here is the Pics from our road trip up to Wis. Mom and John was so excited to take The Great River Road up threw IL to Wis. We only got lost twice lol. As you can see there are many intresting stops and sites to see and we had the luxary of taking our time to see what we could.
Josh advised us on starting out in Alton so John could see the Clarks Bridge. John said it was one of the best things he has ever seen in his life. I know this is a famous bridge and ppl from all over the Country come just to see it, but living close to it I guess I take it for granted. It is Impressive! After we got off the bridge Mom was looking quick for signs to direct her to The Great River Road and we got side tracked and found our way some how on small side street with this monument to Elijah Lovejoy. Aparently he is a hero in freeing the salves. He was a printer/publisher who was out spoken agents it and eventaly was killed because of his views. Notice the Angel has a quill pen in one hand and a horn in the other. Poetic I think. Then we got back to the main drag and ofcourse we drove by Fast Eddies. I had to take pics of it cuz it is one of the famous land marks of Alton. Cheap food but good. It was an hour before opening or else we would of stopped for a bite. Then mom started going SOUTH when she should of gone NORTH and John and I kept telling her she was going in the wrong direction and she got frazzeled lol. But eventaly we got on the right path. After awhile of going good and a few potty stops we some how got off the Great River Road and got on Illoins River Road (there is a differnace). We bagan wondering why we saw all this tall corn and mom was commenting how tall it was growing and then I got the idea that the river was kinda far off, for being the Great River Road you would think we would follow close to it. And sure engh we was way off. So we turned around and followed the map and got very surprised when the road ended and all that was there was a ferry to take us to the other side of the Illinois River. It was free! Part of Department Of ILL Trapsertation. It runs 24/7. And after that we found our way back to The Great River Road. Our bellies began to rumble some so we started looking out for a place to eat. We even crossed over into Iowa but the little river town had nothing but KFC. Bla. So we kept looking and stoped on one of the over looks they have to look at a map. Then we gazed up and saw this very strange building. It had what looked like the Muslim cresnt moon and a star of David too. Very Strange Indeed. So ofcourse we had to investigate what it was. After paying $10 for a tour (unguided one) and reading some flyer we got our answer. A rich exentric fellow by the name of Mr. Metz had built it way back the late 1800 for the hefty price of $9,000! He liked to travel to the mid east and in Pakistan so he had this min. castle built in its style. There is a bit of a contrvesy of why he named it Villa Kathrine. Some say after his mother, some say after a lover that never came to live there. It is an intresting building and I am glad we stopped and took a look. A MUST SEE if you are ever in or around Quincy ILL. But still we didnt see anything open as ways of a resturant. So we swore that no matter what was in the next town we would stop and eat there!
Nauvoo was the next town up the river. It was just our luck that the only place we could find to stop was MORMAN MECCA. Ok not Mecca but it might as well of been. It is a very important site in Morman history and there are monuments all over the place and crowdes of longsleeved/ tie wearing Mormans as far as the eye could see. (NO JOKE) And guess who was wearing her Grace Family T~Shirt that day?! Needless to say we looked out of place and got many polite stares. Wonder if there would of been a riot if I had started passing out tracks? LOL JK So we found a motel that had a resurant in it and had a good clean caffien free lunch and back on our way. The storm clouds started to roll in and it started getting late anyways. So Mom decied she had engh of The Great River Road and took us off to the main highway right up the middle of ILL. Wouldn't you know it, we drove right into a storm bearing Tornatic Weather. Sigerns blearing and all! YOU KNOW how freaked I am about tornados! I begged mom to pull over somewhere, anywhere so we could take cover but really there was no where to go. We flipped on the radio and intently listioned as we heard the warnings for each town we had just been threw broadcast. We seemed to be just infront of it all. Then the rain started coming down in sheets and we had no choice but to pull over till it let up. We eventaly got home to Milwaukee Wis or actualy Cudday Wis where Mom and John Live. It was almost 2:00 a.m. And that was our great adventure! Here are some links from the web of some of the stops we made.
www.riverroads.com - Your online source for Great River Road and Mississippi R
Road Trip USA :: The Great River Road
AltonWeb // The River Bend - Clark Bridge, Alton, Illinois
monument ***Fast Eddie's Bon-Air***
Enjoyed the pics. Ya know the sun should be behind you when you take a pic..not behind the subjects or it makes them dark. I always forget that too. LOL And ...I'm not sure about your state. But I went to take a pic of the bridges in NYC. My hub starts screaming at me its against the law. 'Terrorism" I thought he was just being paranoid and then he pointed out all the signs to me. Severe fine for photographing bridges. So I hope you don't get arrested Mary. That would be horrible. LOL
ReplyDeleteThese was good. I enjoyed the web sites. It is old stomping grounds for me. Thanks for sharing. schwarzjd
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