Day 3: To St. Louis

I left Memphis, ready to get back on the backroads. As usual, I took the interstate to get out of the metro area and up to Jonesboro, Arkansas. Jonesboro is a town of about 30,000 and I’d call it “rural-urban”. I was definitely out from any large metro area, but this place was one big suburb. Retail places, fast food, car repair, stop lights, etc. seemed to go on for ever! I finally escaped all of that north of Paragould, AR. I got into some of the Ozarks in Missouri and that was nice for a change. I arrived in St. Louis about 7:30p.

As soon as I crossed the Mississippi, I was greeted by this beacon. Fireworks stands in Missouri were generally the tent type, but not usually this grand.

After I left rural-urban Arkansas, I did find some farm country. I followed small local highways from Jonesboro, AR to Poplar Bluff, MO.

This photo stands without explanation (especially since there isn’t any!) Northern Missouri.

I found this gem in Poplar Bluff, MO. It was an interesting town of about 17,000 residents

Holmes store was a great old time general store in the Missouri hills in Williamsville. I overheard a local talking about the 3 trees he had to take down and cut up. He said something about the good thing being that the power company paid for two of them and he only had to pay for one.

First rain storm on the trip, south of St. Louis. This one at least gave me an almost complete car wash and took away all of the bugs.