See America 2008

Today we began our trip back to the east after reaching the apogee of the journey west. We first visited the Carthage Jail in Carthage, IL, and took the full tour.

From there, we headed for St. Louis. We had lunch in the boyhood home of Mark Twain, Hanibal, MO. Nothing special, just a Chinese buffet with an opportune location given restroom needs at the time.

We made good time getting to St. Louis around 3pm. We came here with the goal of going to the top of the Gateway Arch, but quickly realized that we should have made advanced reservations. The combination of a summer Friday and a Cardinals home game night made the wait time over and hour and a half to go up the Arch. Knowing we still had 180 miles of road to cover, we passed on the wait, but toured the Museum of Westward Expansion instead. After, taking lots of photos from the grounds of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, we made a short side trip to Ted Drewes Frozen Custard, featured on the first "Feasting on Asphalt" miniseries on the Food Network. From there, we crossed southern Illinois and southern Indiana to Evansville. We had a late dinner at Mangiamo's Italian Grill, next to the hotel. The food was very good. We are staying at the Fairfield Inn Evansville East.

Plan for tomorrow: Right now we are leaning toward making a variance tot he original plan. I had planned for us to go to Mammoth Cave National Park, but again failed to make advance reservations for the possible cave tours. Therefore, we would be aced out of seeing the Cave, making a trip to the Park a long side trip with not much pay-off. So, we are looking to make an uneventful 360 mile drive to Charleston, WV. In the morning we will look at some options for side trips along this route.