The Heartland of the Heartland

Is this not the quintessential country scene? I took this picture today somewhere out in the middle of the corn and soybean fields (not exactly sure where I was--somewhere between St. Joseph and Paris). And yes, today I visited Paris and Kansas--I certainly made the rounds, didn't I? (Illinois has random town names.) I just realized that it's already Friday morning here in Charleston, so when I say "today," I mean yesterday, Thursday, which still feels like today because I haven't gone to bed yet. The other kids and I were out kind of late celebrating Angie's birthday. Every time I say Angie's name, it makes me miss my good friend Angie in Mississippi! Angie here in Illinois is very nice too, but she was sad not to be with her family on her birthday, so we took her out to dinner and to a movie. We tried out the Alamo Steakhouse over in Mattoon, which was surprisingly tasty. I had some awesome BBQ ribs. I just barely got home though, so it was a full evening.

Today I had some fun adventures in the heartland of America's heartland. I took Alyson up to Champaign today to catch the shuttle to Chicago. She's flying home for the weekend to attend her boyfriend's brother's wedding. After taking her to the bus station, I headed east to the town of St. Joseph to check out some antique stores. I didn't really know where I was going, and I didn't put in a very clear address into my GPS, so the car, the GPS, and I kind of got a little lost out in the cornfields. Finally I realized I wasn't heading east any more, so I stopped, oriented myself, and we got back on the right track. I think I made kind of a big circle around a bunch of farms. Everyone is harvesting their corn these days, so there was a lot of stopping and waiting for those gigantic machines that eat up all of the corn! When I reached St. Joseph, they had a whole slew of antique stores, including the BIGGEST antique store I have ever seen. I have seen a lot of big antique stores in my days, but nothing compares to this place. They had room after room, building after building, piled to the ceilings with stuff. I rummaged in there for a while, then headed south towards Paris. My friend Tim told me about a really cool bookstore in Paris, so I thought I'd try to hit that before swinging back over to Charleston. I jumped on Highway 49 which took me south through more and more cornfields. Then, I came upon a big semi-truck that had blown over--yikes! The Highway Patrol was out there to control traffic, and then there was this huge truck on its side. It looked like everyone involved was okay, but the traffic got pretty backed up because out on the roads through the cornfields, there aren't exactly many alternate routes to take. I drove down to Paris, but unfortunately what used to be the cool bookstore has been turned into a computer store--no books there. I did find a fun little cafe for lunch though on the town square. All of the little towns out here have town squares built around the courthouse. From Paris, I headed southwest to Charleston, driving through Kansas (not the state) on the way. It was a fun little mini road trip today. Yay--Mom arrives here in town a week from today!!!! Well, I'm off to bed!