August 5, 2021 Springfield, IL to Paducah, KY

Today was a stop-and-go day. We had 273 miles to go with an overnight stop near Paducah, KY. We have a pull-thru site so we can stay hooked up to the Jeep. Today our route takes us on 6 different highways. This is our second day traveling through the length of Ilinois. This is ONE LONG state when you have to travel north to south. BORING! We both got up early and made our preparations to leave. We hooked up the Jeep and were on the road shortly after 9:00. Throughout our stay in Springfield, we drove on parts of the famous Route 66 which goes right through town.

We passed by the famous Shea’s Gas Station on Route 66 on our way out of town. It is the oldest gas station on Route 66 built in 1917.

We know someone who actually took a driving vacation to drive Route 66. That was quite a drive. Driving south on I-55, we passed Lake Springfield.

I-55 is so straight in this area, Bob said we’ve gone 15 miles without a turn.

Corn, corn, and more corn and no signs advertising anything! This highway brings us within 20 miles of St. Louis which we wanted to avoid. You can see some weird things on the road like this guy who nailed about 10 Trump signs on the trees on his property. We took Highway 4 and 64 for a ways.
Rend Lake is a 13-mile long lake that lies along I-57 near Mt Vernon, IL.
This section of highway was loaded with trucks going in both directions. There were way too many trucks on the road. This was a heavy truck corridor!
About 40 north of the KY border, we picked up Highway 24. About a mile before the Ohio River, we came upon a traffic stoppage due to more construction. We lost 25 minutes with the stoppage. It was down to one lane.

The stoppage took place near the town of Metropolis–Home of Superman.

We crossed the Ohio River and the border into Kentucky at 1:40. Barges were at work on the Ohio River.

Once we crossed the river, we took Highway 62 to the campground. On our trip today, we encountered 12 construction zones where they were always working on bridges. Bridges must be the thing this summer. We arrived at the Paducah / I-24 Kentucky Lake KOA at 2:05.
We were escorted to site #A-4 for the night.

We stayed connected, so setup went quickly. Auggie and I took a walk down to the dog park to stretch our legs after the 5- hour drive. He was alone in the dog park, but he enjoyed sniffing around.

This little guy was sitting on the electrical box when we plugged in. When’s the last time you’ve seen one of these?

We relaxed after the long drive and had dinner. Tomorrow would be a shorter drive with another overnight stop. I am not looking forward to going home because of the heat AND the COVID! We will need to be masking again when we go into closed spaces. Florida is not doing so well with getting COVID under control. You can thank our governor for that! We are enjoying the cooler temps in our travels, even as we head south. Weather-wise, today was a beautiful day of traveling with 84-degee temperatures and sunshine!

1 thought on “August 5, 2021 Springfield, IL to Paducah, KY”

  1. I agree with you—our governor is NOT helping to bring this catastrophe under control. I’m not a democrat, but I strongly feel masks are required!
    Enough said!£

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