Seventh Day on the Trail

Hi All, Well we are at the end of our first week on the trail. Yesterday we got up and back tracked into Illinois to visit the Cahokia Mounds Historic Area. We went to the interpretive center first to get the first hand scoop on the area. The displays were museum quality and very well done. We misssed some of the displays because we wanted to see the movie presentation that was to be followed by a guided tour on site. The movie was very well done and we enjoyed it. It set the stage for the guided tour. We had to drive across the road to the parking lot for Monk's Mound (See Photo) to meet our guide. He walked us over to and up the stairs to the top of the "mound". This mound is the largest earthenwork structure in the Western Hemisphere. All the other pyramids in meso-america are stonework structures. We then walked out to the area where there was an ongoing dig to locate the placing of the wooden palisade that had enclosed the central area of Cahokia. We then drove into Colliersville for lunch at a Bob Evans Restaurant. We drove back to St. Louis for a nap and a major swim session before dinner at the motel. I spent most of the rest of the evening working on my journal before bedtime.
This morning we got a slow start waiting for the rain to end. We then drove to Springfield, IL for a visit to the Lincoln Library and Museum. We spent several hours there and ate lunch before heading to Oglesby, IL for the night. We ate dinner at a nice local place called DeLaney's before going back to the motel and doing laundry. Tomorrow we are off to Minneapolis.