Traveling Through Illinois – Stories of I-55 Landmarks & Landscapes between Chicago & St. Louis
If you have been driving through Illinois on I-55 and exclaimed, "There's nothing out there but corn " you aren't alone, but you couldn't be more wrong. Learn why Steven Spielberg visited Waggoner, Illinois, and what fruit Abraham Lincoln used to christen the town named after him, as well as what route was frequented by flesh-eating birds and what antique mall was said to harbor a spaceship. When you travel in the company of LuAnn Cadden and Ted Cable, every mile marker between Chicago and St. Louis hides a story, and even grain silos become adventure destinations.
About LuAnn Cadden (St. Joseph, Missouri Author)
LuAnn Cadden peddled books for years for Barnes & Noble, Borders, and other bookstores before she finally started writing them. While a Naturalist for the Missouri Department of Conservation, she wrote magazine and research journal articles and interpretive trail guides. Her love for travel, interpretation, and writing led her to write a guide for an unconventional trail, Interstate 70 in "Driving Across Missouri," published by the University of Kansas. Her goal was to help travelers of the fast-paced interstate see beyond the billboards through the stories of the people that live and work along the route and of the history and natural landscape they are driving through. In her second book, "Traveling Through Illinois," published by the History Press/Arcadia publishing, she tells stories along I-55 about her beloved native state.
She was commissioned as the editor and as an author of a travel CD produced for the Missouri Department of Transportation and local Convention and Visitors Bureaus across the state called "Missouri Highway 36: The Way of American Genius."
Cadden has a B.S. in English/Writing from Illinois State University and a B.S. in Education from Missouri Western State University. She supplements her writer's folly as a copy editor, public speaker, and school librarian and resides on historic Lovers Lane in St. Joseph, Missouri. You can reach her with any comments or questions about her books at luann.cadden@gmail.com.
