Road Trip North 2025-26, Day 8: Churches So Old and Back to the Cold

 

Today I sat out on our balcony at the Pyramid and did my morning prayers in the bathrobe they had left in the closet, then Travalon and I set out to find the buffet breakfast, but the secret elevator is very hard to find so we walked around the whole pyramid before finding it. My FitBit said we got a workout for doing that. The food was very good, and on our floor there was very tasty coffee. Here is a photo of our room that was supposed to look like a hunting lodge.

Then we drove a very short distance to St. Mary's, a church built in 1815 by German immigrants because they didn't want to go to the first Catholic church in Memphis, which was built by the Irish. (Sounds just like the church we went to back home for years.) It was so beautiful, and the priest was very animated when he gave his homily. This is a little grotto off to the side.

Here is the main church.

I loved the brass details in the sacristy. (A parishioner insisted on giving us a tour afterwards.)

We drove by the Pyramid, and over the bridge featured on yesterday's blog post.

Then we drove for a long time, stopping only for bio breaks, until getting to a place called Boomland around three. Since we'd eaten such a large breakfast, we hadn't been hungry until then, but Boomland is a fireworks superstore/gas station/random stuff store, and they had pizza that smelled so good we each had a slice. We also got a couple of stuffies - photos soon.

In Perryville, Missouri we stopped at a shrine because there were about a million billboards advertising it on the freeway, and it wasn't too far off the road. We took a long walk outside, went to the gift shop (where Travalon bought a Prayer Bear), and went into their church, which was built in 1818. The shrine is the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, built in 1929, and the church is called St. Mary of the Barrens. Here are some photos.

Here is Our Lady of the Rosary with a Rosary Lady!

This is Our Lady of Knock.

Our Lady of Altönning. Never heard of her before.

We also drove through a town called St. Genevieve in Missouri, where we had gone to Mass on a previous trip. I think some of my photos aren't downloading, so I'll post those, and the photos Travalon took with his good camera, tomorrow.

We stopped for a light dinner at the Subway in Staunton, Illinois around eight, and a few blocks away we spotted a display of Christmas lights.

We stopped at a rest stop along Route 66.

Now we are at a Country Inn and Suites in Bloomington, Illinois for the night. It is so cold and windy here! We should be home in the middle of the afternoon tomorrow. I've loved this trip, but I'm ready to be home, and we've slowly been reacclimating to the cold.

Famous Hat