what John Mellencamp and I have in common

Well, do we have in common?
In case you haven't guessed , we are both from Small towns in the Midwest.
I took a vacation and flew back home to Jackson, Missouri. in case you don't know flying into rural America can be challenging, the nearest airport to Jackson, Cape Girardeau Regional, is only served by one airline (Great Lakes) with two flights a day to St. Louis.
When I booked my flight, neither flight made sense with the flight I was finding to Saint Louis- It's one of the more confusing airports I've been to. I would have to overnight in the big city . I tried getting a flight from LAX instead of ONT(la/Ontario) , but not deal.
So I decided to rent a car, about the same price.
Then I had my accident and decided the driving a strange car in a large city with one arm was not a good idea. So I called a shuttle bus service -even cheaper!
Then my brother and my nephew Chuck(not the navy seal) decided to pick me up.
I got into Saint Louis and found my mom and Chuck. Chuck had been sick, but we all went to Steak n Shake before heading home(yes, I like regional chains)
So we made it home and settled for the night.
Wednesday, I got before mom and got the paper
and a photo from her front door.
We started out on our rounds. We stopped her friend, Loretta, to drop something off. We found another of her friend, Shirley, there getting her hair done. This a surprise since she had fallen and broken her hip a month or so ago.
we then went across the street to what used to be Leonard's Feed. it still has iconic horse in the window and mural on the side, but the inside is... clean! I remarked to the lady that was running a gift shop there that was the first time I had seen it like that!
I then walked over to the courthouse lawn (Jackson is the seat Of Cape Girardeau County.) I thou a photo of the Gazebo and of one of my dad's old places of employment, Jones Drug.
We then headed over to the cemetery to pay our respects. I was thinking about John's songs (notice the headstone is for three bodies? That's probably where they'll bury me (Copyright John Mellencamp)
We then went to wal mart - The folk here could not believe that tamales came in a can from the Kelly Food company, so I had to get proof. Alas, Wal mart did not have Irish Tamales.
We then went home. My brother and sister in law came over the afternoon. We then went to to couple of historical sites
The first is Old McKendree Methodist church, which is the oldest standing Protestant House of worship west of the Mississippi. It said it was open from dawn to dusk, but my brother found a pad lock on the door. a theme to this trip.
mom then took us over to old bethel Baptist. which was the site of the First Protestant House of worship west of the Mississippi Unlike the Methodist, this building (the one with picnic tables) is a recreation. It was the first time i had been there, Growing up, I knew it was there, but was on private property with no easy access
(in case you're wondering the Presbyterians and Lutherans set up shop a county to the north, and the Episcopalians, being genteel city folk, wound up in Saint Louis)
Thursday , Thanksgiving day, I took a walk before we had the community thanksgiving service at my mom's church. I went uptown(it's on hill, so it can't be downtown) and got the neat photo of the Courthouse while standing in the middle of high street.(I remember thinking as child how busy and bustling uptown was.)
I then wandered down to take photo of the Current Baptist(red Brick) and Methodist (grey Stone)churches and took a photo of the high school.
All this reminiscing brought to mind my favorite of John's songs - check it out - maybe I can pass some of this on: