Where’s the coolest/most interesting place within a days drive of carbondale, IL? Obviously, I’m within distance of stl, arkansas, kc, colorado, tennesse, and other destinations; so which one would provide the coolest road tripping experience and be the easiest to get to within the time frame of a days driving. Thanks.
Well, Chicago’s about 5 hours if I’m not mistaken.
There are the entire cities of Chicago, St. Louis, Nashville and Memphis, the Cahokia Mounds just outside of St. Louis, the Land Between the Lakes in Kentucky, several smaller Civil War battlefields, the New Harmony utopian community in Indiana and a lot of other stuff.
The only problem with Carbondale is that there’s nothing actually IN Carbondale.
In St. Louis you have the Bud brewery and the bowling hall of fame (somehow those two just fit well together).
There’s also the Meramec caverns in Stanton, MO. http://www.americascave.com/
And of course Branson, MO. http://www.bransonmo.com/
You could go to Graceland in Memphis. http://www.elvis.com/
Gamble in Tunica, MS. http://www.tunicamiss.org/
There are also several huge man made lakes in MO, KY and TN.
Other than that, I don’t know, maybe drive to Cincinnati and get a bowl of chilli?
Shawnee National Forest is pretty cool, if you’re looking for some non-urban adventures.
http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/forests/shawnee/
Also, for some good cheesy fun, try this site: Roadside America
“Coolest” may be an exageration, but the sights listed on this site are pretty silly, and silly is a good thing, in my opinion.
Have you read Neil Gaiman’s American Gods? You could go on up to Wisconsin and see The House on the Rock and the Dickeyville Grotto.
And on a related note, there’s also The Rock in the House! It’s about 100 miles northwest of the House on the Rock. There’s also the Wisconsin Dells, on the subject of cheese.
I admit that we may now be stretching the criteria of “within a days drive of Carbondale, IL” just a tad…
If you are a basketball fan, there’s plenty of excellent basketball schools within a couple hundred miles of Carbondale. Well hell, the Salukis are pretty good too. But maybe drive up and catch a Hoosier’s game or a Kentucky game? Then there’s Mizzu and U of I of course. There’s also many more in that area. Even the high schools down there have great teams, you might check out Teutopolis (just east of Effingham on Rt 40), you could spend most of the day just perusing their trophy case. The Teutopolis Wooden Shoes. 