Further south

On Friday, October 17, we decided to bypass St. Louis and head for Ste. Genevieve MO. I realized that I was having trouble pronouncing the names of the towns and rivers we passed by because they were all in French! It seems that most of this part of the country was settled by French immigrants. Ste. Genevieve was founded in 1750 and has some of the oldest existing homes and buildings in Missouri and is one of the most historic and architecturally significant sites in America. The original settlement was flooded out by the Mississippi and the present buildings were built on higher ground. We spent a couple hours walking around, looking in shops and admiring the old buildings. The Germans took over the community in the 1800’s, so there were some German style buildings to look at, also. We spent the night in Dexter MO.

The next day, Saturday, we decided to take the scenic route to Little Rock AR so I could collect one of the few capitals that I have not visited! We decided to take the scenic route along the Crawley’s Ridge Parkway, which goes from the Missouri border into eastern Arkansas . It was a slow, leisurely drive on two lane roads with no shoulders again. The ridge was formed when the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers flowed side by side 15,000 years ago and pushed up the land between them to form a wide ridge of land. The scenery was green and beautiful as usual (not much color this far south).

We left the Byway at Jonesboro and ended up on Highway 67 into Little Rock. The Capitol closes at 5 and we got there at 4, so it was just enough time to take some pictures, get my Capitol stamp, and tour the 4 floors of the magnificent building. It has been refurbished just recently and everything was spanking new and clean! This seems to be the place for the local young people to come and have their picture taken dressed in their finery on the steps of the Capitol. 

We spent the night Morrilton AR.