Wednesday, April 22 — from Memphis to St. Louis.... via Cape Girardeau

Just when you think you're in for a boring day on the road, something unexpected turns up to catch your interest. That's the kind of day it was today.

After getting stuck in a traffic jam BEFORE COFFEE this morning — the Interstate was closed because of... an accident? a drug bust? (There were 10 or 15 plain black cars all parked on the shoulder...) — we finally found ourselves in Arkansas, across the Mississippi River from Memphis.

Believe it or not, we all had breakfast at McDonald's. Here is the documentation of this incredible event:

The landscape in Arkansas was uniform — huge corporate farm fields.

We had our picnic lunch in Missouri. The weather had turned cold suddenly, and we needed our jackets.

We decided to stop in the river town of Cape Girardeau, because it is so full of history.

It's right on the west bank of the Mississippi River:

Looking South along the river. You can see Anne Marie and Marie Therese walking in the distance.

Facing North

Cape Girardeau has built a very high wall to protect the town from flood waters. They have decorated the wall with murals depicting the history of the town.

From about 500 AD to 1200 AD, Mississippian Indians inhabited this place. 

The Spanish conquistador, Hernando de Soto, was the first European to come here. He arrived in 1540 from Cuba. 

Père Jacques Marquette, a Jesuit missionary from France, and Louis Joliet, a fur trader, came down the rivers from Canada in 1673.

Sieur Jean Baptiste Girardot, from France, established a trading post here in 1735.

In 1803, Napoleon renounced his ownership of Louisiana. This land then became territory of the United States.

In 1838 and 1839, U.S. President Andrew Jackson's Indian removal policy forced the people of the Cherokee Nation to give up their lands east of the Mississippi River and to walk to Oklahoma. Thousands of people died in this migration, many here near Cape Girardeau. The Cherokee people call this journey "The Trail of Tears."

There are many many more paintings in this mural, too many to put here!

More recent history can be found on the wall of a building:

Ah hah!  Around the corner, on that same building, a sign caught our attention!

It was absolutely necessary to go inside and inspect the flavors.

Anne Marie chose praline pecan. Marie Therese had strawberry cheesecake, and I had my favorite — mocha almond fudge. 

Mmmmm!

At the end of the day, we arrived in St. Louis.

Nous sommes arrivées en Illinois en hiver, fait le tour des states avec la douce chaleur du printemps et nous voila presque revenues au point de départ, tout est vert, mais il fait froid!