ILLINOIS and MISSOURI
Dec. 2006
PART 2
Continuing from the previous part into Missouri on MO 51. I guess that would be the eastern end of the Ozarks off in the distance.
Kaskaskia is a remote town in Illinois cut off from the rest of the state by the Mississippi River. The town was an early Illinois capital but has been nearly abandoned because of flooding and now rests on an island. This photo is on the island. The main road on this flat, bleak, mostly deserted island is La Grand Rue (not ru or roo, but Rue), which intersects with an unpaved road on top of a levee and trails off. I'm not exactly sure where on the island this is, but it's probably near the end of La Grand Rue.
Another picture on the island with Kaskaskia.
As Supertramp sang back in 1982: It's raining again...This is northwest on US 61 between Ste. Genevieve and Bloomsdale, MO. I just wasn't fast enough with the camera to get an even better shot with mountains and space creatures in the background. (Just joking. It was actually just mountains.)
I didn't go to St. Louis, because I had just been there the previous year. Some 25 miles outside St. Louis though they've cobbled together kind of an outer bypass along surface roads from Barnhart to Eureka, MO. It runs along SEC M (as we'll call it), MM, and W. Some of these routes though have been upgraded, producing these weird cuts in the hills.
By far the funniest photo in this 3-part set, yet also the only one that might not be considered outdoorsy. This is in an outhouse at Route 66 State Park. Despite the sign, I noticed that somebody had tossed a plastic drinking cup into the toilet bowl.
Route 66 State Park occupies the former site of the town of Times Beach, MO. The entire city had to be abandoned in the 1980s after it became tainted by dioxin. Some newer aerial photos reveal vague lines where the town's grid streets once were. This photo is thought to be right near the center of town. Little remains other than this field and some naked trees.
Another bleak remnant of Times Beach.
This one-way road through the park was established over Times Beach's old city streets. This looks like it could be on the former Blakey Road, but I'm not sure.