Leg two, and arrival...

After the restorative meal at Jonathan’s, we got a pretty good start the next morning for our final leg to Jackson, and the graduations..

Our normal route to Missouri from Lexington is to continue on I64 across Indiana, Illinois, and into St. Louis.  But, since we were heading for Jackson, (some 120 miles south of St. Louis) we took the alternate routing of diving southwest through Kentucky to Paducah and then into to a bit of Illinois before crossing the big muddy into Cape Girardeau (“Cape”).  After some rather interesting places leaving Lexington (all horsey related)

you get on the Western Kentucky Parkway and off you go.  There may be more boring roads to travel, but this ranks right up there (IMHO).  All the "parkways" are named for some obscure politician, and Googleing them on the fly provides a little diversion but not much.  And it’s not that it isn’t pretty, it’s just the same mile after mile after mile after mile after mile.  Road in the middle, trees on the side, mile after…. Well you know.  One of the things that breaks the monotony is that the road is kind of on the “Bourbon Trail”, and a few signs beckon you to come and visit.

But early(ish) in the morning, tucking into a bourbon isn’t really advisable so we’ll save that for another time.  There should be a Bottom Feeder wing at the Jim Beam place, the primiary ingredient in my DMOTRWAT,   Time sort of fades as the trees slide by.

We did pause for a gas/potty stop someplace along the way (now forgotten) and I did get a look at a real “buy local” opportunity (even though the purveyor seems to be taking a rest at the moment).  it doesn't get any more basic than this...

So more parkways, trees, and asphalt endured eventually gets you to Paducah, and you head toward the river.  Going through the final miles on the back roads of Kentucky, there are some interesting local food places..

And it's not everywhere you can get frog legs (and shrimp?)

No chains here.....Soon you cross the Ohio

Landing you in Illinois and one of the most depressing towns in at least the Midwest, Cairo, Illinois.  As I mentioned before it’s pronounced Kay Ro.. it remains a city of abandoned buildings

But people still live there, and where people live, they have to eat.  So, there are still some places hanging on.

After you leave there sort of depressed it’s a pretty short drive up to Il 146 where you turn left and cross the Mississippi into Cape Girardeau.  The Cape is the home of SEMO, and it’s kind of a college based town.  Some old bars, some new places, dumps that college students frequent.  Due to the marathon the previous day, we were early enough that there was time to meet the graduates for lunch.  Kind of spur of the moment, so we took FOJTY’s recommendation of the St. Louis Bread Company, aka Panera.  We were guided by his verbal directions and trusty GPS, and met them just outside the (yes) Honey Baked Ham store (which has a drive through), in what must be the mecca of chain stores - most are there, all the favorites.

I must admit the lunch of half ham and swiss and a bowl of Caesar salad was not bad, but it was the fun of seeing our “kids” that was so enjoyable.  After that, we retired to our Motel, Graduation Central, and plopped in for the night.  Eventually we got peckish and a text message to FOJTY said the best pizza was from a place called Pagliai’s down by the college.  A short drive down and back brought us a very nice Pizza.  I could go on about Pagiai’s but I’m tired.  Local and good.

Next day would see the Graduation ceremonies concluded by an interesting dinner.. next edition..

The next morning we had to

DFG(raduation)