Leg 7: Springfield – Cairo

When I got to Cairo, I decided I would go ahead and drive to the park to see how sketchy it was. I was hoping it would be a sleepable spot but the parking lot was a little too bright and completely empty with hardly any traffic going by. Never a good combination.

Then I noticed a sign that said the park was indefinitely closed. Nope. I would not be sleeping there! Not to mention the 15 passenger unmarked windowless van that I had followed in to the parking lot. They had stopped at the main entrance while I continued to the other side of the small parking lot to scope things out – including them.

Eventually it circled the parking lot and pulled beside me, rolled down the window and were facing the opposite direction so I was talking to the driver. There were two men in the van and the driver asked if I knew the bridge (right next to the park) was closed indefinitely. They were complaining that there were no detour signs. They asked if I knew what I was going to do. I told them I was figuring it out. They wished me luck and drove off. I sat in the parking lot trying to figure out another way across the Mississippi. Apparently you have to go way north or way south. Neither of which I had planned.

So I continued to sit there trying to figure out which was the better route. I didn’t want to give up any of my states so I ended up choosing North. I didn’t want to lose Kentucky. As I was looking on my phone trying to figure out cities on the new route that I could make a memory in, the van pulled back into the parking lot heading towards me. We went through the rolling down the window thing again. They came back to make sure I knew how to get across the river because they had figured it out.

This is what I love most about traveling. 9 times out of 10, people go out of their way to make sure you’re good if you need help (or they think you need help). Once I convinced them I did know how to get across the river, they went on their way. I stayed a bit longer coming up with a new route home and across the Mississippi. (I later found out that the bridge was closed due to high river levels so they were going to have to do some repairs or something from flooding.)

Now all I had left to do was figure out where to sleep. Obviously I couldn’t stay in the indefinitely closed park’s parking lot. I remembered seeing a super well lit gas station when I got off the interstate so I figured at this point, about 4:30am, there would be enough travelers coming and going that I’d be ok.

So I headed back and found a spot with some other people who appeared to be sleeping in their cars too. It was too dark to be able to see anything back at the park and I was hoping I could see the Mississippi and Ohio rivers merge from the parking lot when the sun came up. I wanted to make sure I got up in time to see the sun rise over the two rivers…just in case I could actually see it. I slept for about an hour then headed inside to change clothes before going back to the park.