A commoner dines at 17th Street Barbecue, Murphysboro, Ill.

If you look at the bottom of this blog, you’ll see a list of my five favorite barbecue joints of all-time.  Third on that list in 17th Street Barbecue in Murphysboro, Ill.  But I have a confession to make.  

Sure, I used to frequent 17th Street’s O’Fallon, Ill., location (sadly, it’s officially closing Nov. 30) and I had an opportunity to make a detour whenever I was in the Saint Louis area.  I also make it a point to visit the 17th Street stand every year at the Illinois State Fair.  But as much as I love their barbecue, I had never been to “Mecca,” the original restaurant where the legend of Mike Mills and his amazing barbecue -- which won the World Championship four times -- all started.

Thankfully, that changed earlier this summer when The April and I committed to making a dinner stop in Murphysboro during her SIU road trip down memory lane.

As the name implies, you’ll find 17th Street Barbecue on 17th Street, one block north of Illinois Highway 149 which slices east-west through downtown Murphysboro.  Surprisingly, there isn’t a lot of signage to direct you to it, but as long as you can find 17th Street, you’re obviously going to be ok.  

Beating the heat at the Missouri Botanical Garden

I was hoping to have a new laptop computer I could take with me on the road by now, so I could catch up on my blog posts during the week when I have down time.  Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened yet, so I keep getting further behind on things I’ve been meaning to write about. 

That said, I’m pulling this post out of the way-back machine from this summer when The April, The Kiddo and I took a weekend trip to Saint Louis to take The Kiddo to Six Flags.  Fortunately for my few faithful followers, I will not be posting about Six Flags.  But, for a change of pace, I did think our stop at the Missouri Botanical Garden was noteworthy.

Summer bar crawling through Carbondale

If you’re one of the few faithful followers of this blog, you’ve probably noticed my postings have become more and more infrequent over the past few months.  Well, there are a few reasons for that.  The good news is I have a new job which has been keeping me quite busy and requires a lot of travel, and I’m certainly not complaining about that.  The bad news is that schedule, along with ongoing computer issues when I’m home, has kept me from staying up-to-date on my blog postings. 

Hopefully, soon, I will start making up for lost time and catching up on some of my more “blog-worthy” (at least to me) adventures past and present.  One of those adventures happened earlier this summer when The April and I visited Carbondale, Ill., where she went to college at Southern Illinois University.  The purpose of the overnight trip was to allow her to show me some of her favorite haunts while she attended school there.  It was a fun stroll … or crawl, in this case … down memory lane.

PK's is a classic dive bar and Carbondale institution.  

A kiddo and her Cozy Dog

Sometimes I still find it hard to believe people willingly go to my hometown of Springfield, Ill., on vacation.   I know it was the hometown of our 16^th president, too, and I get the nostalgia factor of Historic U.S. Highway 66 which once cut through town.  But when you’re surrounded by reminders of Abraham Lincoln and Route 66 every day, it becomes easy to take it all for granted. 

Recognizing this, I’m always up to the challenge when one of my few faithful followers suggests I act more like a tourist in my hometown and blog about local places and events.  So, when I had the opportunity not long ago for alone time with The Kiddo, I decided to take her to one of Springfield’s culinary landmarks – and one of historical significance when it comes to fast food – the Cozy Dog Drive Inn.