48: Ecological Juxtaposition
Spunky Bottoms, Meredosia, Illinois M E R E D O S I A, I L I pass so few cars heading north from Jerseyville that I start to count them. There are long breaks between the need to dim my headlights. I’m near the intersection of the Cardinal and Cub fan-bases and hoping to make it to the banks of the Illinois River in Meredosia right about the time the sun rises. My headlights provide only a narrow glimpse of the landscape I’m driving through – a nearly tortuous condition for someone who loves to closely watch new lands pass while traveling. An hour later, as the morning light moves in, I’m crunching along a macadam road through an expanse of dynamic bottomland farm fields. Every half mile the road zigs at 90 degrees; then zags another 90 degrees. It’s a driving delight, especially now that the view expands beyond just the feeble headlight cone. Illinois is most-known for Chicago, but less-known is that it’s one of the to...