Listing Through Life

B&B’s can be iffy sorts of places, in my experience. We once stayed in one in Galena, Illinois that felt like a dorm and didn’t have locks on the doors. We stayed in one in Eureka Springs, Arkansas that didn’t have heat on a night that went down to -2°.

But I was in the mood for adventure, so I reserved rooms for us and our friends at Summers Riverview Mansion in Metropolis. The name doesn’t lie, exactly. We could see the Ohio River if we looked off to the left far enough. But mostly what we saw was the casino across the street.

Henk and his wife manage the place. They were very friendly and accommodating. Whenever we were out of our rooms, Henk was nearby ready to regale us with stories of the house or the area. When I asked if I could get his picture in the chair, he immediately said yes and then struck this pose.

A figurehead from an old steamship stares out from an upstairs window. I can’t explain the extension cord that dangles between his eyes.

The entire home is decorated with antiques.

That’s the entrance hall above. The dining room is on the left below. Our friends had the room on the right.

Here’s our room. I didn’t check, but I’m pretty sure there was no mattress on our bed. It felt more like a sidewalk.

When the hostess took my breakfast plate, I told her I was ready for dessert. She returned with a Hersey’s kiss in a bowl. We very much enjoyed our stay, and although it’s unlikely we’ll ever be seeking another night’s lodging in Metropolis any time soon, if we do, we’ll stay here.

I noticed Fort Massac the previous time I was in Metropolis — about 23 years ago — and have ever since had it in the back of my mind to return. So naturally, as I’ve come to expect from Illinois, the fort was closed and unreachable behind a chain-link fence.

The Spanish may have had a fort near here in the 1500’s. The French did for certain, from 1757 to 1763, at which point the British took over. The British never established much of a presence, which was nice for the American forces under George Rogers Clark who captured the region in 1778 during the Revolutionary War.

In 1794 the Americans constructed a fort. Aaron Burr and Gen. James Wilkinson met here to draw up plans to conquer Mexico and the American southwest during the summer of 1805. The fort was destroyed by the New Madrid earthquake of 1812, rebuilt and than abandoned. The site, without the fort, was the scene of a troop encampment at the beginning of the Civil War.

What exists now is a reconstruction of the footprint of the 1757 French Fort next to a reconstruction of the buildings of the 1802 American Fort.

Desperate for a red chair photo, I set it atop the southeast bastion of the French Fort with the Paducah Bridge that carries I-24 across the Ohio River in the background. The trees in the left-distance are in Illinois. Those on the right are in Kentucky.

The site also includes a statue of George Rogers Clark looking heroically out over the river.

We pondered the Ohio River for 15 minutes or so, walked around the fence that kept us from the fort, and left. And so goes vacationing in Illinois.

Big John is somewhere around 30 feet tall and somewhere around 45 years old. He stands in front of the Big John Grocery in Metropolis Illinois. I am unable to explain the ring on top of his head.

In 1959, a fan of Superman began collecting … everything. Much of it is on display in a small museum in downtown Metropolis. Artifacts used in various movies and TV shows are mixed with toys and advertisements and clothing items and kitchen ware and … Some of the stuff was amazing, but it was all jumbled together so haphazardly that the effect is almost instant sensory overload. There are a few hand-lettered signs describing some items, but there’s a great deal that remains unexplained. There’s no way to give a coherent detailed explanation of what we saw, so I’ll just post a small percentage of the photos I took and let you see for yourself.