June 10, 2019
DRIVE TO FORT MASSAC STATE PARK
The bartender the previous night recommended a diner up the road that was famous for their breakfasts but after checking google the next morning we found that it was closed on Mondays. Drats! So we decided that we were stuck getting coffee at a gas station.
The gas station that I directed us to was NOT RV friendly and Lisa had to drive around the back of the building and wait for the only lane that we could get into. After a truck pulling a trailer moved, Lisa was able to get the truck up by the pump and run in and get some coffee. The situation was a little stressful but in hindsight, we actually had plenty of room.
The drive to Fort Massac was a little windy so Lisa kept a tight grip on the steering wheel and didn’t drink much of her coffee. Southern Illinois is very flat and overall it was a pretty boring ride.
Distance 206 miles, 18.9 gallons used, 9.8 mpg
FORT MASSAC STATE PARK
When we arrived at the State Park, we stopped into the visitor center for a bathroom break and talked with the staff there that told us that we could go straight to our site. We did take a couple minutes to look at the small museum that they had there.
It was a fairly level site on the outside of a loop that was near some dense woods. The sites are very well spaced apart. I did not realize when I booked it that it only had electricity and no water hookups. Luckily for us though, our site was within 60 feet of a spicket where I was able to hook up a hose and fill our freshwater tank. I also found out that our black water tank was about 2/3 full. That had definitely added some weight and probably caused some handling issues during our drive for Lisa. We both decided that since we would be traveling a lot and that we could use the public restroom while in camp, we would just wait to dump when we left.
METROPOLIS, IL
After showers and a lunch of tuna fish, crackers, and an apple, we headed toward Metropolis. This is a small town that has capitalized on its name as Superman’s hometown by placing a giant 15-foot statue of Superman in front of its city hall to bring in tourists. They had their annual Superman festival the previous day, so they were taking down some of the festival tents and decorations when we arrived. I wish we could have attended.
A museum and store with a lot of Superman collectibles were also located in the center of town. There was some picture taking opportunities on the outside of the store/museum with several face-cut-outs and a replica Daily Tribune car. After a brief walk-thru of their store, we decided to pay the $5 to visit the museum in the back. It was small and cramped. It was dusty due to some upstairs construction, but it was a pretty overwhelming collection of photos, costumes, collectibles, and other items that really showed the impact Superman had over the last several decades. After we exited the museum, we talked briefly with the daughter of the collector, who stated that the museum only had about a sixth of the collection, and most of the valuable pieces with six-figure values were kept elsewhere in a safe.
When we left the store, we took some more pictures near the 15-foot Superman statue and then went to see the Lois Lane statue a couple of blocks away.
KINCAID MOUNDS STATE HISTORIC SITE
Our next stop was the Kincaid Mounds which was the site of a 1000 year old Indian village from the Mississippian era. On this site was the remnants of large man-made dirt mounds as tall as 30 feet where religious or other important structures could be placed.
The road to the site was gravel and dirt which surprised us. When we first caught site of them, we saw across a field about 300 yards away with a sign and a turn off. I was rather shocked that there did not appear to be anything other that this sign. I was expecting some hiking trails and informational signs at the least. We saw some tire tracks in the field but no road or trail, and it looked muddy. There was no fence around the mounds, and we did not see any signs that we could not walk over to them, so we decided to walk across the field for a closer look. This turned out to be a mistake because all we had on was tennis shoes and shorts, and there was lots of scratchy grass and sharp burrs that stuck to our shoes and socks. We made it about halfway across the field before we gave up and turned back.
When we got back to our truck, I decided to drive a little farther down the road and discovered a road that took us up the east side of the mounds where we found a viewing platform overlooking the mounds and only about 50 yards from them. We also saw signs that stated that it was illegal to walk in the field around the mounds where we had just walked.
LOCK AND DAM 52, BROOKPORT, IL
We then headed back to Brookport to look at Lock and Dam 52 on the Ohio River. As we drove down the dirt road toward the Lock and Dam, it was rather unnerving seein how high the river levels were. When we got near the site, we unfortunately found a sign blocking the way saying that the Corps of Engineers was in the process of demolishing the lock there. We later learned that this old lock and dam had just been closed because it had been falling apart and was replaced by another Lock and Dam farther downstream. I was really hoping we would be able to see a ship go through the lock.
THE FIRST LAMBERTS, SIKESTON, MO
We had visited the Lamberts near Springfield, so we though it would be fun to check out the original one in Sikeston, MO. It was only a little over an hour from Fort Massac and the route promised to be a beautiful one along the Ohio River. Unfortunately, the flooding had closed a lot of the roads along our route and added almost an hour to our trip. It was still a beautiful ride.
The Lamberts looked just like the one in Springfield, both inside and out. But because it was a weekday, we did not have to wait in a long line to get in. The giant rolls, the huge portions, and the pass-around sides caused us both to eat until our belly’s hurt.
CAIRO, IL
We then decided we should try out a brewery back in Paducah before heading home for the evening. The route home took us across the Cairo Ohio River bridge at Cairo where we crossed an old, 5863.7 foot two-lane bridge which I learned later was built in 1937. It was the narrowest and longest bridge that I had ever been on. After we crossed the bridge, we could see the Ohio River up close to the road for several miles on both sides of the road before we started heading east away from the river toward Paducah.
PADUCAH, KY
We stopped at the Dry Ground Brewery which was located in an old 1939 building that had been previously a Coca-Cola Bottling Plant. The story was that the building site was chosen because it was the location of the first “dry ground” after a 1937 flood. Now the building had several other occupants to include a Mellow Mushroom pizzeria. The brewery had a nice outdoor area and for $12 we enjoyed a flight of six beers while we sat on some Adirondack chairs and enjoyed the cool but comfortable evening.
FORT MASSAC STATE PARK, IL
Around 9 PM we headed home, watched an episode of Designated Survivor on the TV, and settled in for the night.
June 11, 2019
FORT MASSAC STATE PARK
After breakfast, we wandered over to the Fort Massac visitor center and talked with the receptionist about the sights and trails in the park. She told us that most of the trails were impassable because of the recent flooding. Instead, she suggested that if we were interested in hiking that we should travel up to the Garden of the Gods about an hour away in the Shawnee forest.
Before heading out, we spent some time at the museum and the fort first though. The museum was small but provided some info about the fort and it had a short film that we watched. The history of the fort was unimpressive as it was built and dismantled numerous times in the 1700s and 1800s. It is located at the confluence of the Tennessee and the Ohio rivers, halfway between St. Louis, Missouri, to the northwest and Nashville, Tennessee, to the southeast. Some important people in history such as Andrew Jackson and Lewis & Clark did visit the fort when it was operational but it did not contribute much to our history. The location also has the distinction of being the site of the first Illinois state park. A small replica of the fort as it would has stood in 1802 was outside. There was also a statue of George Rogers Clark, an distinguished military hero during the Revolutionary War that had won several battles in the area. It didn’t take long for us to be ready to go up to the Garden of the Gods.
GOLCONDA CHOCOLATE FACTORY
After going back to the trailer so Lisa could take a shower and we could pack some stuff to take with us, we climbed into the truck and headed to the Garden of the Gods. Along the way, we stumbled upon the Golconda Chocolate factory and stopped in to check it out. We had seen a sign advertising this place on the highway down and was excited to check it out. It did surprise us though to see how small it was.
The owner gave us tour of the place and showed us the kitchen where the chocolate was molded and painted with colored chocolate. She really spent a lot of time with us showing us each station, and the thought processes that were involved in creating and shipping her hand-made chocolate creations. She bought the molds she used, but she told us that a lot of the molds she used were no longer available to buy.
We would have loved to buy several of her cute treats, but since we were heading up to the park, they would have only melted. We instead bought a small bag of caramel popcorn with chocolate drizzle for $3.85.
GOLCONDA, IL
A little farther down the road was the town of Golconda. I wanted to check out the river so we decided to take a small detour and check out the town. We later learned that this was a ferry on the Ohio River where 13,000 Cherokee Indians crossed while on the Trail of Tears. Today it is a just a small decaying town of around 700 people.
The river view was actually on top of an earthen levee that separated and protected the town from the Ohio River. It had a steep gravel road that took you to its top and enabled you to drive along the river toward the now closed Lock and Dam 51, the sister to the Lock and Dam 52 that we had tried to go to the day before. We drove on top of the dike past a trailer park that looked like it could hold about a half dozen trailers. It looks like it might have been a fun place to camp but it would not be an easy trip to get there. When we finally got to the old Lock and Dam 51, we discovered that you could no longer see the dam in the river. It might have been destroyed or covered by the high water. It did have a cute overlook where we took some pictures, and we drove around the old Lock and Dam houses which seemed to have been converted to rentals. Our final stop was an old house that had been converted to a restaurant called the Riverview Mansion Hotel, but unfortunately, it was closed for renovations.
Garden of the Gods
We finally got to the Garden of the Gods and decided to eat a small lunch of tuna and crackers before hitting the trail. The trail was short and took us through rock formations and gave us beautiful views of the surrounding area.
It was fun climbing around on the rocks but my fear of heights did not get me very close to the edges. Even Lisa was able to crawl out on several of the rock formations despite her phobia of falling. There was several other families there that had teens crawling all over the rocks, and a lot of time too close to the edges for my comfort. This was the first time we wore our new hydration hiking packs and used our new hiking sticks which proved to be very helpful.
PURPLE TOAD WINERY
We then headed back to Paducah. Our first stop was the Purple Toad Winery where we sampled various award-winning wines. The lobby area of the store was full of trophies and medals that their wine had won at various competitions. They let us sample as many of the wines as we wanted for free, so we each tried at least half a dozen apiece. Most were very very sweet.
PADUCAH DOWNTOWN AND FLOODWALLS
We then went to the river walk area and walked along with the 50 beautiful painted murals on the floodwalls that depicted the local history. Each of the murals had a historical plaque that described what the mural represented, and they were often sponsored by a local civic organization. Their size and beauty were really amazing.
We then walked around the downtown area a little more reading the various historical markers and enjoying the architecture of the old buildings.
WACINTON STATUE
We then headed over to see the Wacinton (way-cheen-too) statue before getting gas and heading back to camp. The statue was located at a corner of a park near some worn tennis courts and did not appear to be very prominently displayed.
The carving is one of the “Whispering Giants” that Peter “Wolf” Toth, a Hungarian native who fled his home country to escape Communist oppression, donated to each of the fifty states and other locations to honor the stories of the Native Americans. Weighing thousands of pounds and standing at least 20-40 feet, Toth carved these statues using the facial features of the local Indians he was honoring using no power tools, and usually only a five-pound hammer and a chisel. Toth received no payment for his sculptures, only some lodging, meals, and the donation of the tree from which his sculptures were made. He still travels to repair Whispering Giants he carved in the past that has not been kept up, as well as to carve new ones. In fact, he had to restore this one in 2016 when the headdress was damaged in a storm.
FORT MASSAC STATE PARK
When we got back to the trailer, we enjoyed Lisa’s leftovers from Lamberts (I did not have anyleftovers, LOL) while sitting down to watch some TV. We also enjoyed the popcorn we picked up from the chocolate factory earlier that day for desert.