Day 2 - Makanda, IL

Even though last night got down to 49°F, today was another beautiful day for travel ... sunny, broken clouds, 70°F with a light breeze.  We met both of our goals for today, and then some.

The beautiful day shows off on I-57S

First, we had breakfast at the KOA Kross Roads Cafe'.  It was tasty and fun.  Then we headed off in search of Pomona, IL and ended up camped in the Shawnee National Forest.

The 208 mile route was: I-70W to Effingham, IL, I-57S from Effingham to Marion, IL-13W from Marion to Carbondale, CR-12S from Carbondale to Giant City State Park near Makanda.

Observations
We were happy to enter Illinois (leave Indiana highways).  We traveled the full extent of I-70 in Indiana, saw lots of orange barrels, hit lots of potholes and crumbling road surfaces, passed lots of road construction sites ... and didn't see a single highway worker.

We're happy to be here

It seemed like we passed through a "we have the world's largest" area.  There were the world's largest wind-chime and the world's largest golf tee sights advertised in an area near Casey, IL.  We didn't stop.  This  huge cross appeared at Effingham.

Late in the day we passed through a small town in the hills called Alto Pass.  One of its main attractions seems to be a root beer saloon.  The saloon was closed as were the other businesses.

Log cabin in Alto Pass park

Alto Pass business district

Storm damaged Alto Pass home

Campground
We're camped in site #43 at Giant City Campground.  

About Pomona
We visited Amana Colonies on August 5, 2012 during our Midwest trip.  Carol bought a Michele Maring Miller print of the Pomona General Store.  We joked that we were thankful it wasn't Pomona, CA and decided to try to find it someday.  We did today!

The artist's view

Our view

Downtown Pomona consists of one intersection with 3 stop signs.  The general store is on the corner.  It's closed.  

Carol takes a peek inside

We saw a soda fountain, an old ice box and a Coke cooler inside.  We noticed gasoline sold for $0.669 per gallon the last time the pump was used.

We saw a sign for the Pomona Natural Bridge as we approached town.  It was a few miles away.  We were there.  So, we decided to take a look even though it didn't appear to attract many tourists.  Here's what we saw after traveling 3 miles into the forest on a single lane, gravel road.

Tomorrow
We're heading toward St. Louis.