Geography Lesson (aka: Creative Avoidance)

As I reviewed the last few pages of Book 1 of the Road Trip scrapbook, just to get my bearings on where I needed to pick up and continue, I got confused. You see, I am meticulous in my record-keeping, maybe even anal. I map out a route, then I have a book with the pages of printed maps and what I planned to do. Then I write all over these pages as I drive so I know where I deviated from my plan, and what roads I actually took so when I get to document it later, I can remember where I was when I took certain pictures. See: anal.

Then, when I get home, I write a Trip Report with the blow-by-blow of the whole trip. THEN, when I sit down to scrapbook, I just follow the Trip Report, and it is easy to fill in the blanks with photos, because I knew where I was at all times. (Is anal-retentive hyphenated?)

So imagine my chagrin when I discovered what I thought was a boo-boo on the last page of my effort from last year. I showed myself entering from Missouri into Iowa, then crossing a bridge to take a photo at the state line of ... Illinois? Wha?!?! So yes, I have been losing sleep over this. I mean - where had I gone wrong?!?! I finally looked it up and figured it out, and so, my dear readers, we have a geography lesson today.

Here is where the mystery began, somewhere during Day 4, when I crossed from Illinois into Missouri at Hannibal, boyhood home of Mark Twain.


After leaving Hannibal later in the day, I followed The Great River Road, to the best of my ability, all the way through Missouri until I crossed over into Iowa.

Once in Iowa, I was in a little town called Keokuk, and I drove along the river to a large bridge, walked half-way across it and took a photo of the state line sign: Illinois.

WAIT a minute! I just came from Missouri into Iowa, and now I am in Illinois!??!?!?

Yep, and here's why:

Check out this map (and please appreciate the state line labels. It took me forever to get that Missouri/Illinois one to stick.) Here we have a three-state meeting point (see that handsome red dot.) Who knew that these three states met?

So it turns out what I'd done was drive from Missouri into Iowa, then I drove along the river into town and crossed a bridge that went from Iowa to Illinois. I think it was that yellow line/road in the upper right of the map. Yep, that's what I did alright. Mystery solved!

Okay, now I really need to get to work on those holiday cards. I did have to make some Chanukkah ones last night, and I'll post those later, after I write them. I should be back up for air sometime on Tuesday.