Captains Log - StarDate 080411

Thursday, Aug 4 was supposed to be a day on the road from Chateau on the Lake, Branson, MO to Paducah, KY.   We knew we could not plan many side trips and still make it to Kentucky in time to see what Paducah had to offer.

As we headed North to Springfield we saw the sign to Wilson's Creek Battlefield.   One of Dave's hobbies is collecting park stamps for his National Park Passport book.  With our ever evolving plan we had not realized we would pass this close.    We were hungry and thought we would stop at Lambert's (home of the throwed rolls....yep they literally throw them to you) before heading to the battlefield.   We pulled into the parking lot and it was jammed full with people spilling out the front.   Dave could not see the point in standing in line to have someone toss you a bisquit.   I had to agree.   We found a wonderful place across the street..Grant's.  We were glad Lamberts was busy because Grant's was awesome.   Dave claims to have had the best chicken sandwich of his life.   We must have gushed appropriately, because the owner gave us a 2 foot long baguette for the road.  Excellent road munching snack!

We followed the GPS to Wilson's Creek and promptly arrived at their locked back gate.   A little winding around and we finally found the main entrance.  I would love it if someone could twitch their nose and fill my brain with all of the Civil War information.   It is so fascinating, but hard to remember who was fighting who when and why.   The National Parks are a wonderful asset to our nation.   We should visit more often.

Mid afternoon and we are 260 miles from Paducah.  Hwy 60 is a beautiful drive across Missouri...until we start seeing signs about the bridge being closed.   First sign said that I57 to Illinois would be closed the next week for repairs.   It was a little confusing when the next sign said the bridge to Kentucky was closed.   A few more miles and another signs confirms the bridge to Cairo, IL is closed ahead.   Nothing to do but head back to I57 and go north to another bridge crossing the Mississippi and the Ohio.   Dave finds a nice shortcut back to the Interstate.   Hwy K.  Well, Hwy K is a little better than a gravel roadl.....more like a pot hole strewn crumbled blacktop....right thru the corn fields....for miles and miles....I wasn't too concerned until we stopped seeing farm houses...only fields for as far as you could see.   AND it's getting dark.  I'm driving and Dave reminds me to slow down.  He said all we have is this car and if you damage it on this road, we will never be able to describe to anyone where we are.    I'm thinking drive fast before it gets really dark and those children start coming out of the corn field to get us.....did you see "Children of the Corn"?  
After zigzagging thru the fields we can see the interstate ahead only to find out Hwy K does not intersect but runs parallel the wrong direction.   I can tell you for sure I had no interest in going back thru the crops, so we backtracked several miles to where we could finally get on the highway.  

Paducah came into sight about 9:00.....I didn't kiss the night clerk at the Marriott Courtyard, but I thought about it.