To be honest the last couple of days have been a slog. A couple of long boring days on the road, highlighted only by the visit to the Vicksburg National Military Park. Today’s plan is to get to Alton, IL, just on the north side of St. Louis – on the Illinois side of the river of course.

Just a few blocks from the hotel I stayed was a Cracker Barrel, so since I missed it yesterday, that’s where I started my day. Was a good choice to take some time since it was raining quite heavily and would rather avoid driving in that. So had my breakfast and filled up with coffee and the rain had stopped. Topped off with gas and was on my way. Dang it – that’s twice now I’d forgotten to clean my windshield!

Coming into Dyersburg yesterday I had by-passed the actual route about 15 miles south of town as I wanted to get settled in. So the drive started with a bit of backtracking to the south to get back onto the Great River Road. So worth it! I think. It was backroads along the levee and across a bayou, but the views were obstructed for a portion as it started raining again. Heavily! Good news – my windshield is nice and clean!

Was a nice drive through this portion of Tennessee and there was a nice pull over at a ferry crossing and the rain had stopped for a few minutes. I took the opportunity to fly the drone and get a few shots. From there it was onwards toward Kentucky.

The route entered into Kentucky and presented a lot of nice roads and scenery. It’s quite a short section of the route through the western tip of Kentucky but worth it. I stopped at a scenic overlook in Wickliffe, KY that was the site of the Revolutionary War site called Fort Jefferson. I actually had no idea, or at least recollection, that there was any related activity this far west during that war. But it turns out there were several battles\skirmishes with American victories that led to the US acquiring these territories in the treaty that ended the war. Know you know!

Shortly north of Wickliffe, the route crosses the Ohio river into Illinois and the town of Cairo – namesake of the U.S.S. Cairo mentioned yesterday from the Vicksburg National Military Park. From here I would follow Illinois state highway 3 all the way to the southern edge of St. Louis. Highway 3 offered a lot of nice scenery and was a good drive. Highway 3 would continue directly through East St. Louis. however as it was getting late in the day and was pretty much rush hour I had no idea how long it would take to go through. Therefore I opted to take the Interstate around East St. Louis. Made it to the hotel in Alton about 5pm, so it had been a good 8 hours on the road with only a couple of quick breaks along the way.

After settling in at the hotel I did a little sleuthing for someplace to eat in Alton and came across The Old Bakery Beer Company. It’s a casual craft brewery with lots of good selections and an interesting menu. I tried their Golden Oat and Dreamin’ for a Cure beers and both were amazing. For eats I had their Harvest Grain salad which was also delicious! From there back to hotel to write this up and crash!

Today was a much better day on the road and I think the next two should be good as well so long as this side of the river corresponds well to the western side of the first couple of days.