*NOTE: Five years ago I began a journey across the country with Thiel, a dear friend of mine. I was moving from Chicago to Long Beach, California, and she agreed to make the drive with me. I present my journal of that journey on the corresponding day that it was recorded five years ago. Enjoy reliving this adventure with me!
Day 4: January 6, 2014
All that remains of a drive-in theater.
We woke up early to try to make some headway on our journey. The roads had all been cleared, but not salted, so they were a solid sheet of ice. Still, we were able to make better time even though we still had to watch our speed.
The car was acting funny; it was stuck in low four-wheel-drive. I stopped by a service station and the guys there told me that it was probably packed with snow/ice or frozen, as they’ve had several cars with that problem since the storm. They told me to put it in neutral and see if it would switch over, which I did, and it did. Such a relief!
We pressed onward and finally reached the border of Illinois and Missouri. We had to do some more backtracking due to poor signage, and stumbled upon the Chain of Rocks Bridge, which had no signage whatsoever, but I had wanted to see it. It’s closed, so we couldn’t cross on it, alas.
Chain of Rocks Bridge, Madison, IL.
We crossed the mighty Mississippi into St. Louis. The road there is extremely confusing and we drove and drove with absolutely nothing to see except strip malls and boring suburbia. We realized that it was taking us out of the city without even having gone downtown (the older route we took apparently didn’t enter downtown at all), so we jumped on the highway to go back. We then realized that there was one town we were supposed to go through in Illinois that we hadn’t even reached somehow, so we took the highway back there to see the world’s largest catsup bottle, Cahokia Mounds State Park, and Woodhenge, all in Collinsville, Illinois. Cahokia Mounds was a native settlement and features large burial mounds. It was the largest settlement north of Mexico, covering six square miles. It was bitterly cold as we got out of the car to go to the visitors’ center, which looked deserted, and when we reached it we were greeted with a sign that said it’s closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Today is Monday. Womp womp!
The world’s largest catsup (that’s how they spell it) bottle, Collinsville, IL.
Cahokia Mounds State Park, Collinsville, IL.
We went down the road a bit to Woodhenge, which is a similar site to Stonehenge except made of wooden poles standing upright in the ground in a huge circle. We didn’t get out of the car, just snapped photos from the road.
Woodhenge, Collinsville, IL.
We crossed back over into St. Louis and followed signs to the Gateway Arch. At the parking garage all the entrance gates said “Out of tickets,” so we found another parking lot nearby. There was nobody around; it was like a ghost town. Even the parking lots had their gates raised so they were all unmanned and free. We walked to the arch, freezing, and found that it was closed due to the weather.
Gateway Arch, St. Louis, MO.
We had to turn around and walk all the way back to the car without anywhere to warm up first and it was really uncomfortable. We drove to another parking lot a couple of blocks away because I spied a restaurant that looked open and we were hungry and desperate to pee. We went in and were two of four customers in the very large space. It was really cold in there; the heat couldn’t keep up. We ate and went back to the car to warm up, then headed back out to where we’d left off the old road.
Trying not to freeze to death in a restaurant in St. Louis, MO.
It was once again confusing, and we somehow got dumped onto the interstate. As before, I got off as soon as we figured out we weren’t really in the right place and I turned around and went back so we could find the old road again. Finally we got reoriented and continued through seemingly endless suburbia. The entire way the road is a sheet of ice. The next thing we want to see is Meramac Caverns, so we stopped at the town before it to spend the night. We’re currently in St. Clair, Missouri, in a lovely motel and hope to get an early start in the morning. It seems that there is less snow on the ground here so I think we’re finally inching out of the storm zone. Perhaps we can make better time from here on out.