Wow, southern Illinois, what a stunning load of absolutely nothing. An entire state of nothing that has nothing and looks like nothing. The Department of Transportation really needs to look into this. If they want us to travel and spend money, then I need a reason. I mean it. Entertain me. Fix the geology, spruce things up a bit, add more wildlife (the living kind).
We managed to see a giant Superman. Not much about him that was exciting except that he was excessively large and he looked like Christopher Reeve (before the incident, not now). Stopped at the gas station near the massive man of steel and I was confronted by an uncomfortable discovery: While Chicago is very much part of the north, the rest of Illinois is firmly entrenched in the south. There was a ‘Meat Snack Center’ in the store selling me jerky, pemmican, chicken leg meat snack and slim jims. A grizzled man with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth sat blankly in front of a slot machine by the door, hitting the button over and over again and never winning. A post-teen boy who can only be described as slack-jawed stood behind him and in my way, watching him lose. The act of me walking towards him confused him to the extent that he directed his blank stare at me, but found himself incapable of moving out of my way.
We had lunch in Nashville after taking pictures of the place where the original Grand Ole’ Opry performed. Jack’s BBQ was our well-picked lunch destination. Nashville residents charmed me and it was still early enough in the day to not be irritated with how damned slow everyone is.
Chattanooga was pointless and gave me a headache. Yeah, sure you can go up really high, but it takes a long time and frankly, this isn’t a city you really want to spend a lot of time staring at.
The night will be spent in Marietta, dinner at a Texas-style meat joint. The food was good, but once again… You guys need to hurry the hell up!!!
Tomorrow will be spent discovering Atlanta, Macon (mmmmmmmm, Macon), and Savannah.