Central  Great Lakes Fall Tour
October 28-29, 2006
St, Charles, Mo.

It was informal on arrival.  Here you see some of
the participants watching the World Series.  Organizer
Denny Coughlin arranged it for the St.Louis
Cardinals to win the World Series the evening
we got there.

Then next morning it was time for the road tour.
All toad tours start with getting ready.

First stop - Robert Wadlow Statue.  Robert Wadlow
was the tallest man in the world, he lived in Alton,
Illinois.  This statue is his actual height.

And Solid Axle'rs always seem to be thinking about
driving...I wonder why?  Here's Todd Powelson
trying out Robert's chair.  The chair was specially made
for him, of course, and this is a stone replica exact to
size.

Next stop was the Elijah Lovejoy Memorial.  Elijah
was a publisher who was anti-slavery.
He was murdered by a mob, and his printing
presses were thrown in to the Mississippi
River.  This is the tallest monument in Illinois.

Here you see three solid axles in
front of the legendary Piasa Bird.
Indian legend has it that this bird
could snatch up a person and
fly away with him.  (L to R) Jeff
VanHooser, Denny Coughlin,
and Todd Powelson.

Then we drove the river route to the tiny
Illinois town of Elsa.  There are two main
streets in the town, here we are heading
north on one of them.

This view of the lane at Pere Marquette
State Park can give you an idea of the
fall colors that we enjoyed.

We crossed the Mississippi and the Illinois
Rivers via ferry boat.

Our hats go off to Denny Coughlin for setting up a great fall colors tour.  It was fun, educational, and
totally enjoyable.  I've said it before, if you missed it, you missed it.