Mississippi River Day 6: Springfield, Illinois to Hannibal, Missouri

This article is part of a series about our recent vacation traveling down the Mississippi River. To see the introductory article in the series, click here.

Today we started out from Springfield in a southerly direction to find Honey Point, Illinois, the birthplace of one of Kenna’s grandmothers. Honey Point isn’t on many maps, but fortunately Google Maps shows a location for it. After about a 60 mile drive, we turned off the freeway and headed for Gillespie, which was a bit too far south. We backtracked to Carlinville, the county seat of Macoupin County, and thence to the indicated location. Despite having both my iPhone and my handheld GPS, getting to Honey Point was an adventure. The route preferred by both devices went down a dirt road that ended abruptly just before a railroad track. We had to backtrack, find another road, and fortunately that worked.

The exact location specified by Google Maps turned to be in the middle of a cornfield, but fortunately there was a utility building by the road with a sign, “Honey Point Township Hall” so we knew we had made it. Getting back out was interesting, too, as we navigated down narrow farm roads trying to get back to the state highway.

We had a picnic lunch in the town square of Carlinville, a classic American town just like the one in the “Back to the Future” movies except that the courthouse was a couple of blocks away. The county seat is a notable building built some years ago but unfortunately in poor repair.

We decided to take back roads west from Carlinville toward Hannibal, Missouri, our next planned stop. The road was smooth and scenic, and an unexpected treat was a ferry crossing of the Illinois River near Kampsville.

Online reviews made the hotel options at Hannibal seem marginal, so we opted instead to stay in Quincy, Illinois, a larger city about 20 miles to the north. We first stopped in Hannibal for ice cream and to get a feel for the city, which as expected was very touristy. We continued to Quincy and found a comfortable hotel where we took our first swim of the trip, and had an enjoyable dinner before retiring.

Mississippi River crossings today: 2
July 9, 2012