The Road from Indiana to Missouri

Happy Canada Day from the USA
Ed and I enjoyed our Canada Day breakfast at the campsite, packed the car and hit the road. Our destination today, Columbia, Missouri.
We skirted past Indianapolis, just managing to get a glimpse of the skyline. We are sticking to the Interstate, driving past cities that have familiar names Terre Haute, St Louis and seeing the turnoffs for others - Memphis, Chicago, Louisana - if only there was more time to veer off the path.
We did stop at in Greenup,Illinois looking for a historical reference to Abraham Lincoln, which we didn't find, but I did manage to buy several pieces of milkglass at an antique shop.
Between Terra Haute and St Louis is Effington. This is the site of the world's largest cross, 198 feet tall. It is said to be at the Crossroads of America. We came upon that quite unexpectedly.
Just outside of St Louis, we stopped in Collinsonville to see the Cahokia Mounds
(www.cahokiamounds.com). These have been classified as a Unesco World Heritage Site. Cahokia contains the remnants of North America's largest prehistoric city (20,000 people)dating from AD1200. They have an excellent interpretive centre with replicas on the actual site of the village. Well worth the visit and the admission was by donation.
Coming into St Louis we were greeted with the sight of its famous arch. Then over the Martin Luther King bridge into the city. We were surprised at the size of St Louis and how long it took us to drive from one end to the the other (It is the 18th largest metropolitan area in the US)
We arrived in Columbia just after 6pm. We checked into our accommodation for the evening, the Courtyard Marriot. Our plan is to experience different types of accommodation. Tonight, the hotel. An excellent choice.
Columbia is a very interesting city. It is a university town and it has that vibe. Youthful and happening. The industry here is education and insurance.
Also, this is the first town we have come to that seems to have a Democratic feel to it. Up until know, we have definitely had the feeling that we were in the Bible Belt in a very Republican part of the country. On the local radio stations we have been listening to there are talk shows discussing the rally to Washington on August 28 protesting the Bill for heath care reform. When I was in Greenup, I was speaking to the proprietor of a small shop. He told me that he that his treatment for cancer at the Mayo Clinic cost $300,000. Yet he still didn't support the changes to US health insurance.
Happy Canada Day