Cahokia

October 3, 2018

We started our day visiting Cahokia, the largest prehistoric Indian community in America north of Mexico.  The estimated population between AD 1050-1150 was 10-20,000 but declined began in the 1200’s and by AD 1400 Cahokia had been abandoned. Indians of the Mississippian culture built this community and others throughout the Mississippi floodplain area. Their culture lived on mounds with the height of the mound depicting the higher station in the culture. In the 92 degree heat we climbed almost 200 stairs to the top of the highest mound which belonged to the leader of the Cahokia and from which he could watch his people. This was quite interesting because we had no idea this area was so close to Collinsville, IL.

Our next visit was the largest Ketchup bottle in the USA! The brand is Brooks and they have an amazing ketchup bottle next to the plant. This was nice because we stayed in the air conditioned Jeep and just took pictures!

Our next adventure took us to Old Route 66 and the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge across the Mississippi River. This one mile long bridge is now open for walking or biking but not cars. In the middle of this bridge is a 20 degree turn so in its day traffic could not go very fast and make this turn. We walked the entire bridge on this hot day and it was up hill half of the way! We were very lucky it was a windy day to make the heat bearable. The water under this bridge was to unsettle for barge traffic so a canal off to the side handled this traffic. All this walking gave us well over 10,000 steps for the day!!

Off the bridge are these cute castles out in the Mississippi that were once used for water intake.

Our next stop was finally lunch at 2:30! We headed to The Hill and Favazza’s on the corner of Southwest and Marconi. This is a restaurant that Frank Sanitra frequented in his hay day. We dined on delicious Italian food and ordered tiramisu to go! The Hill is a 50 square block area that is an Italian neighborhood known for its food, specialty groceries, bakeries, fire hydrants painted the colors of the Italian flag, and darling ‘tiny’ shotgun houses. 

After a filling late lunch, early dinner we headed down Route 66 to Ted Drewes for Frozen Custard. Drewes has been on Route 66 since 1941 and is famous for their “Concretes”. I had an M & M concrete, Jerry had an Oreo concrete, Carole had a hot fudge sundae topped with homemake whipped cream and Duffey had a cherry malt. All were delicious and made this 90+ heat more bearable!