See the blue mini van in the mirror?  That's our van taken somewhere in the USA on our way to Texas, only I just can't remember where :0

That van has driven us to Illinois and back on Friday, a 3 1/2 hour round trip, and then drove us to town this morning at the crack of dawn to be at the farmers market to sell the maple syrup we made. 

Time to put the feet up and relax.

I spied this barred owl on the way home from town.  I was only able to get a couple of shots of him while I was in the van.  It's not that clear, as I quickly took it before he flew away.  I wanted to get a better shot of him, so I slowly got out of the car but he took off.

This Church is in Cairo Illinois and I would have posted it in my last post on Cairo Illinois, but it would have been photo overload.

Since posting my last post on Cairo Illinois.  I have learned that Cairo is not a good place and that it has been taken over by gangs, arson and crimes.  I'm glad I visited Cairo Illinois, but after learning all this I don't think I'll be back to visit.  At least until things get cleaned up some.

On Easter we took a walk through the woods with the girls.  Now it has been raining, but not as bad as some have been getting.  Tricia over at Bluff Area Daily has been dealing with flooding.  We had just passed through that area right before the rains started...Whew!

I also have to share with you the house or rather the front porch on the house.  I totally fell in love with this porch.

It's funny, this barn and house are in Tricia's home area.  We had driven through Poplar Bluff where Tricia is from....It's a small small world.

I would love to know the name of this red plant.  I've never seen this before.  Anyone have an idea of what it is?

It's so fun to see the woods coming back to life after a long winter.

I'm linking with Jan over at Murrieta 365 for SOOC Sunday.

This cross can be found where the Ohio river and the Mississippi river meet at the southern most tip of Illinois.  It's the Fort Jefferson Memorial Cross at the Confluence.  The only thing I did to this photo was crop it.  Since it's Easter today, I thought this photo was fitting.  I will be posting more on this later.

Wishing you all a very Blessed Easter.

Driving through Missouri on our trip back from Texas, we encountered road work.  I was amazed at the color of the soil, it was so red.

I've linked with tnchick for PhotoHunt.

I don't mean Cairo that's in Egypt...I mean Cairo Illinois, and I think it's pronounced Kair-oh, tho I'm not really sure about that.

I like to look at maps and on occasion I will google places that would be interesting to visit.  I'm not sure why this small Southern Illinois town has fascinated me so much over the years.  I had never been there until now.  So, since we were heading down that way we decided to stop and pay Cairo Illinois a visit.

I was so amazed at what we found.  I knew that from reading about Cairo that the population was very small and not very prosperous anymore.  But, I had no idea just how bad it was.  I could have almost cried seeing what kind of shape the town was in.

It looked like they were trying to fix it up, and if they are, I definitely want to go back for another visit.

Stopping at an intersection I noticed that the road had tracks that I'm sure we're from a street car that went through the town.  It looks like they've been working on restoring how the streets used to look like.

But, looking right then left, we could see just how bad the buildings were.

It even looked like the fire department no longer exists...Unless they just moved somewhere else.

There once were street lights on one intersection on the main highway going through town, and those have been taken down, I'm sure because there just isn't the need for it like there used to be.

I have a few more photos to come on Cairo Illinois.  I just didn't want to overload too many photos for one post.  I just hope there's not too many on this one already.

Driving down Hwy 57 we stopped at a wayside.  We have stopped here before, but I was so excited to see green grass and the trees leafing out.  Since we got going about 8:00 p.m. after dropping Sadie off at our old home which is now our son and dil's home.  We stayed in Effingham Illinois.

 In the morning we headed on down to the southern most tip of Illinois.  That will be a post itself.