Getaways within 3-6 hours of Chicago (driving, fruit, sound)

[ChicagoMeO]

Originally Posted by KRAMERCAT

Head south on the Dan Ryan sometime, just keep going. Don't worry about missing it... you will smell it coming.

theres a factory or something around 119th St, you can smell it on the expressway.. what is that???

[ChicagoMeO]

Originally Posted by ChiNaan

Haha. Have you ever been there? (I'm not sure if that was sarcasm or not.) I stopped there once on my way out west once because I was bored with always crossing the Mississippi at St. Louis and thought it would be cool to take a different route and see Mark Twain's hometown. Never again. Holy crap that place was awful. Totally run down with nothing going on. It's St. Louis every time for me now.

Hey hey hey! i was in hannibal last year, on Halloween - that is the best time to go on the ghost tour in the spooky cemetary. i got cold and sat in the car and while the full moon was out, the moon shined on the foliage and it looked straight out of a black and white Frankenstein movie!!!

the town is kinda poor,but it had a great KFC buffet, and a great little grocery store, and the Mississippi River was cool to see. the people are nice there and appreciated the visitors,

so what didn't you like about it? unless you are talking about those beautiful 150 year old homes that got flooded, they are not fixed up (no money? not enough professionals to fix it?) but you can see the original architecture of the home even though some homes look beat up from flooding.

[KRAMERCAT]

Originally Posted by Drover

You can't do any better than a schoolyard "I know you are but what am I" retort?

If you grew up there then there's that much less excuse for your spectacular lack of knowledge or curiosity if the only thing you can think to do is buy fudge.

Can't you do any better than drivel, Drover?

[ChiNaan]

Originally Posted by ChicagoMeO

it had a great KFC buffet,

Really? Leaving aside the issue of whether a KFC buffet can be great (which is difficult for me to do), can't you get that in just about any town with a population greater than 5,000 anywhere in the U.S.?

Originally Posted by ChicagoMeO

so what didn't you like about it?

I suppose the poverty you mention was at the root of much of it. It was also just very very....dead, for lack of a better word. Run-down and dead. I've lived in small towns, so I'm not an urban snob who expects everything to be like Chicago, but this was bad. I assumed because of the Mark Twain thing and the location on the river, they'd have found a way to harness a little bit of tourism money there. I expected some interesting things to see or do, or at the very least some kitschy tourist trap-type of things. The only places I could even find to get a drink in the evening were a couple of really disgusting dive bars (and I'm a guy who generally likes dive bars, mind you) that each had 3-5 customers in the whole place. Locals playing pool, basically. You could park right in front of them on the empty streets in the middle of downtown. I halfway expected to see tumbleweeds blowing through.

Basically, it just looked like any other dried up small town you drive through in mid-America. Also, the motel room I booked through either hotwire or priceline (I forget which) was by far the worst of the many dozens of rooms I've booked through sites like that. I'm also not snobby about hotels, especially in small towns, but it was a total sh*thole. So I couldn't even retreat into the comfort of my room for the evening as I normally do with towns that bore me. I couldn't wait to get out of there.

I agree that the Mississippi is great to see, but I liked this the least of the six places I can think of where I've crossed it.

[ChicagoMeO]

Originally Posted by ChiNaan

Really? Leaving aside the issue of whether a KFC buffet can be great (which is difficult for me to do), can't you get that in just about any town with a population greater than 5,000 anywhere in the U.S.?



I suppose the poverty you mention was at the root of much of it. It was also just very very....dead, for lack of a better word. Run-down and dead. I've lived in small towns, so I'm not an urban snob who expects everything to be like Chicago, but this was bad. I assumed because of the Mark Twain thing and the location on the river, they'd have found a way to harness a little bit of tourism money there. I expected some interesting things to see or do, or at the very least some kitschy tourist trap-type of things. The only places I could even find to get a drink in the evening were a couple of really disgusting dive bars (and I'm a guy who generally likes dive bars, mind you) that each had 3-5 customers in the whole place. Locals playing pool, basically. You could park right in front of them on the empty streets in the middle of downtown. I halfway expected to see tumbleweeds blowing through.

Basically, it just looked like any other dried up small town you drive through in mid-America. Also, the motel room I booked through either hotwire or priceline (I forget which) was by far the worst of the many dozens of rooms I've booked through sites like that. I'm also not snobby about hotels, especially in small towns, but it was a total sh*thole. So I couldn't even retreat into the comfort of my room for the evening as I normally do with towns that bore me. I couldn't wait to get out of there.

I agree that the Mississippi is great to see, but I liked this the least of the six places I can think of where I've crossed it.

Yeah i can see your point. its sad because there are some good shop owners who have a great business, but unfortunately hannibal has a lot of things that could use upgrading (like their cable tv company)... i wonder if you stayed in the same hotel as me - i had a room behind the steps, and i went off season (halloween).. i wish i could have had a better room,, i had to laugh. they had a pool, my room was missing a chair to sit on, i wish they could have taken a chair out of another room not being used and put it in mine.

but still, they have a cool tour of the city and that was going up the bluffs, that was cool.,, i could not drive up the steep bluffs ,,, but it was a good tour. btw, they are selling that old catholic church for a few thousand dollars, you could really buy up real estate for not much money.

I did not want to complain to the owners much because I didn't want to appear like some annoying city person who is acting bougousie and maybe thats the best they could do.

Ok the KFC buffet is not everywhere, so when i see one downstate i kinda like it. not expensive and its good for KFC lovers!
I sound like im dissing Hannibal, but i kinda like the old tymey thing about it. +

[Vlajos]

A KFC buffet?

That does not sound too good.

[ChiNaan]

Originally Posted by ChicagoMeO

btw, they are selling that old catholic church for a few thousand dollars, you could really buy up real estate for not much money.

As long as I don't have to go there to do it.

Originally Posted by ChicagoMeO

Ok the KFC buffet is not everywhere, so when i see one downstate i kinda like it.

I just assumed all KFCs had all the same things, but I don't think I've been to one since childhood. I was tempted briefly in a morbid way to go try a Famous Bowl after Patton Oswalt's bit about it, but I just couldn't go through with it.

Originally Posted by ChicagoMeO

i kinda like the old tymey thing about it. +

I guess I can see that. I was just expecting a little more of a kept-up old-timeyness than a run-down one. Perhaps if I had approached it as if I was visiting a ghost town I'd have liked it more.

[Irishtom29]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

A KFC buffet?

That does not sound too good.

Well it'll do if you can't find a Waffle House. We stopped at one in Indiana and it wasn't bad, better than fried brains sandwiches.

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by Irishtom29

Well it'll do if you can't find a Waffle House. We stopped at one in Indiana and it wasn't bad, better than fried brains sandwiches.

Breakfast at a Waffle House can be good, especially when on a road trip and the options are few. Do these KFC buffets serve breakfast?

[Irishtom29]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

Breakfast at a Waffle House can be good, especially when on a road trip and the options are few. Do these KFC buffets serve breakfast?

I like lunch and dinner at Waffle House too; great road food, never gave me a gastric surprise 30 miles down the road. We've eaten in dozens of them and only once had a badly cooked meal, in Lexington Virginia. Cracker Barrel is good that way too, clean and consistent, but IMO the food isn't as good as Waffle House. And costs more.

I don't know if Kentucky Chicken has breakfast.