We left Kentucky on May 2, driving in rain, rain and more rain. We decided to head south into Tennessee even though we wanted to end up going north. By doing this we were going to be able to come out west of St. Louis and it only added a few miles to our route.
I feel so sorry for all these folks in this area that are experiencing the flooding…there was water everywhere and we went by several roads that were closed to traffic. We were getting a bit worried at one point…the rain just would not stop. Our goal was to make it to Sikeston, MO before stopping so I called the Missouri Dept. of Transportation at one point to get a road advisory. The gentleman I spoke to told me that he lived in Sikeston and so far I-55 was open. He advised that he could not make any promises as to what was to come but that once we got to Sikeston we might want to go on to Cape Girardeau which is about 25 miles north of Sikeston…so we plugged ahead to CG. We ended up spending Monday and Tuesday night at Cape Camping RV Park. It was an okay park…folks in the office were very nice. CG is located right on the Mississippi River…duh…what were we thinking! There is a wall that blocks the city from the water…yeah. We bought a few things at Walmart and I was able to get a haircut…not at Walmart…and we had some pretty good Mexican food at El Torero.
Now about the Walmart…been there, done that. There are not many places that we have been that we have not cared much about returning to…Rapid City, SD is the only one that comes to mind, hate, hate, hate that Walmart, and now I am adding Cape Girardeau, MO to that list…their Walmart runs a close second to RC. The old downtown area is really cute but on .
the whole there is just too much traffic in a small area. I am sure there are some really great things about CG that I did not get to experience that might change my mind…but again, maybe not. I asked the woman in the campground office about what we really needed to see in the area and it took her a while to think of anything. The only thing she could come up with were the seawalls or I guess they are riverwalls. There are murals all along the wall and they were nice but it took about 2 minutes to see them.
So how many people have I offended? Sorry if I did not have more positive things to say about CG but I have to tell it like it is…possibly someone could give me some idea of what I should have seen and done while we were there.
We drove across the Mississippi River into Illinois. Water everywhere. These guys were building a levee to try to keep the water out of their business.
A number of smaller roads were totally closed.
Moving on.
I am so sorry that you did not enjoy your stay in Cape Girardeau. If you had given us a call, we would have happily come down and shown you around the area. We live about 45 minutes from Cape.
ReplyDeleteOne of our favorite wineries is out in the boonies south of Cape. We look forward to going down there at least once a year. It's called River Ridge, and they have very good wines, wonderful food, and relaxing ambiance.
Our camping group stays at Cape RV Park every year for Memorial Day Weekend. There are always a dozen or more of us. We have a wonderful time, but we don't do the touristy things. We eat, talk, laugh, eat, talk, laugh, etc.
Speaking of eating, there are some good restaurants in old downtown Cape. We like Broussard's which specializes in Cajun cooking, Port of Cape Girardeau has happy hour specials, and the Brew Pub on the corner has some interesting beers to taste as well as good food.
Your comments about Cape's Wal-Mart were 100% correct! That is one of the worst stores in the Wal-Mart chain in my opinion. It is always crowded, and they never have enough people working. We do a lot of our shopping in Cape, but we avoid their Wal-Mart store if possible.
If you ever stay there again, call us and we'll try to give you a better experience.
Linda Egge