To prepare for my ten-day “Midwestern Triangle” road trip to southern Illinois, Cincinnati, OH, and Louisville & Lexington, Kentucky (I’ll write about Kentucky in another post), I started by looking through several guidebooks:
- Off the Beaten Path Illinois: A Guide to Unique Places by Lyndee Jobe Henderson
- 100 Things To Do in Cincinnati Before You Die by Rick Pender ****
- Walking Cincinnati by Danny Korman and Katie Meyer ****
I found some novels and memoirs set in Illinois and Ohio, some of which I’m currently reading.ย If I’ve already read them, they have a link and star ratings:
Illinois (outside of Chicago):
- Barn Blind by Jane Smiley ****
- The Year of Pleasures by Elizabeth Berg ****
- Anything is Possible (stories) by Elizabeth Strout *****
- The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
- The Eighth Day by Thornton Wilder
- The Nix by Nathan Hill
- Dandelion Wine by Rad Bradbury
- Ordinary People by Judith Guest
Ohio (southern):
- Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance (Middletown) ****
- Beloved by Toni Morrison (Ohio and Kentucky)
- House Under Snow by Jill Bialosky
- The Truth of the Matter by Robb Forman Dew
- Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
- Cincinnati
- Calling Me Home by Julie Kibler ****
- Eligible by Curtis Sittenfield ***

Books set in Illinois & Ohio
I also found some movies set in Illinois and Ohio as follows:
Illinois:
- Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)
- Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940)
- Ordinary People (1980)
- The Breakfast Club (1985)
- Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)
- Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987) ****
- Home Alone (1990) ****
- The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
- Inventing the Abbotts (1997)
- Mean Girls (2004)
- Christmas with the Kranks (2004)
- Man of Steel (2013)
- The Accountant (2016)
Cincinnati, Ohio:
- The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
- WKRP in Cincinnati (TV series 1978-1982)
- Rain Man (1988) ****
- Fresh Horses (1988)
- Little Man Tate (1991)
- The Mighty (1998)
- Traffic (2000)
- The Ides of March (2011)
- The Avengers (2012)
- Miles Ahead (2015)
- Carol (2015) ***
- Marauders (2016)
- Inconceivable (2017)
Itinerary (I’ll write about Kentucky in next month’s post)
Day 1 – Sunday, Feb 24:ย Drive to Lincoln City, Indiana (10 hours) – Spend night in Lincoln City
DAY 2 – Monday, Feb 25: In Lincoln City, Indiana, assuming the government is open by then (!), visit:
- Lincoln Boyhood Home National Memorial, Lincoln City
- George Rogers Clark National Historic Park, Vincennes, IN (1 hour 20 min)
- Salem, Illinois (1 hour 30 minutes) – Richard Pollard’s Yard Art – just north of town on highway 37
- Arrive in Murphysboro, Illinois to visit my sister. (1 hour 25 minutes)
DAY 3 – Tuesday, Feb 26: Murphysboro, Illinois
DAY 4: Wednesday, February 27: Murphysboro, IL: to visit my sister.
- Hang out and explore Carbondale and surrounding area with Steph.
Southern Illinois
DAY 5: Thursday, February 28: Murphysboro, IL to Louisville, KY (3 hours 40 minutes)
- Stop on the way at Garden of the Gods in Shawnee National Forest, IL (1 hour 50 minutes)
DAY 6: Friday, March 1: Louisville, KY
DAY 7: Saturday, March 2: Cincinnati, OH (1 hour 40 minutes)
- Take walk #1: Ohio River: Bridges, Parks and Three Cities (including Covington, KY)ย (4.2 miles)
- Ohio River
- Covington, KY
- Roebling Suspension Bridge
- National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
- Take walk #3: Over-the-Rhine and Pendleton: Urban Italianate Architecture Haven (2.4 miles)
- Findlay Market
- Enjoy whole area on the National Register of Historic Places
DAY 8: Sunday, March 3: Cincinnati, OH
- Pick up Mike from his friend’s house in Centerville, OH (1 hour each way)
- Take walk #2: Downtown: Resurgent Economic and Transit Hub (3 miles)
- Booksellers on Fountain Square
- Carew Tower
- Contemporary Arts Center
- Taft Museum of Art
- Take other walks as we desire; explore whatever we haven’t yet seen.
DAY 9: Monday, March 4: Cincinnati, OH
- Take more walks around Cincinnati.
- Consider the โNati in a Nutshellโ Tour by Urban Adventures
- Explore Covington, KY.ย See walks #17-21 in Walking Cincinnati.

Cincinnati, OH
DAY 10: Tuesday, March 5: Lexington, KY (1 hour 30 minutes)
DAY 11: Wednesday, March 6: Drive home with Mike from Lexington, KY (8 hours 5 minutes)
JOURNAL AND INTENTIONS:
Here are my intentions for this trip:

Illinois & Cincinnati, Ohio Intentions
To see books set in the U.S.A., please visit books | u.s.a. |
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โANTICIPATION & PREPARATIONโ INVITATION: I invite you to write a post on your own blog about anticipation & preparation for a particular destination (not journeys in general). If you donโt have a blog, I invite you to write in the comments. Include the link in the comments below by Thursday, February 21 at 1:00 p.m. EST.ย When I write my post in response to this invitation on Friday, February 22, Iโll include your links in that post.
This will be an ongoing invitation, on the 4th Friday of each month. Feel free to jump in at any time. ๐ย If youโd like to read more about the topic, see: journeys: anticipation & preparation.
I hope youโll join in our community. I look forward to reading your posts!
the ~ wander.essence ~ community
I invite you all to settle in and read posts from our wandering community. I promise, youโll be inspired!
- Josh Hewitt, of Wanderlust Travel and Photos, wrote a very extensive and thorough post about planning a trip to Australia and New Zealand.
- Meg, of wordsandimages, wrote a fetching piece about a summer pet-sit for her daughter in Stanthorpe, and all the creative endeavors she might undertake.
Thanks to all of you who wrote posts about anticipation and preparation. ๐
Interesting – Iโve read some of those books and seen some of those films but could not have told you which State they were set in. Most recently the Elizabeth Strout stories which I enjoyed. I loathed The Corrections. I struggled through it for the first Book Group I joined – which disbanded before we discussed it. The resentment lingers about 20 years later!
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I’m glad you enjoyed the Elizabeth Strout stories, Anabel. I’m trying to decide whether to read Berg’s book or hers next. That’s not good news about The Corrections. I’ve had that book on my bookshelves for years, and I haven’t had the nerve to tackle it. Now, reading how much you hated it, I’m not at all motivated. Good to know; it must have been really bad if the resentment is still lingering twenty years later. Yikes! ๐
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Oh dear, I hope I havenโt coloured your view too much! You might love it. Twice in my current book group it was my turn to lead when the book was long and difficult. One of those times it turned out I was the only one who actually finished it. I resented that too๐.
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I’ve picked The Corrections up so many times and wondered why I ever bought it in the first place. There’s nothing worse than trying to slog through a book you don’t like. From now on, I have to make decisions early on whether to continue when I don’t like an author’s writing, or the characters, or the story in general. What you mention is one reason I can’t do book groups. I have plenty of books I want to read for my own reasons, and I hate having to read books picked by others that I may have no interest in. ๐
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Yes, thatโs sometimes a problem but I like the people and donโt want to stop! We usually agree fairly unanimously on the merits of the book and if we donโt like it we set the world to rights for an hour instead.
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It’s good you like the people so you should certainly continue! It’s good if it just becomes a social hour in the end too! ๐
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You’re going to be busy keeping up with your packed itinerary. I hope you have a great trip, Cathy.
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Thanks, Carol. I hope it will be fun. ๐
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Strout and Smiley are favourites of mine. My destination not quite so literature-rich, although there is one novel set in the vicinity. Same for movies. Found poems are fun. As always, Iโm awed by the detail of your preparation. Had I done this for Stanthorpe Iโdโve been depressed because Iโm not at all,keen on venturing away from the village.
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I’m glad to know you like these two authors, Meg. I’m going to be taking an online course on Found Poetry starting in another week, so I’m interested to see what I “find!” I’m sure you will find much richness during your time in Stanthorpe. You always do seem to. ๐
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Great organisation, as always cathy. I was amazed at the number of movies set in these states. Do you find them on Google? Loved seeing a snippet of your journal. Are you sketching in your journal now? Weโve just had a very productive couple of days sketching away from home, Airbnb stay. Post coming soon…. or maybe not so soon ๐
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Thanks, Pauline. Yes, I did a Google search to find these movies. I haven’t started sketching in my journal yet, only in my class, as I haven’t actually gone anywhere. But I hope to do some soon. I look forward to seeing your post about your sketching!
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Do you still read the books you haven’t made it to, after your visit, Cathy, or are they usually overtaken by the next trip? ๐ ๐ I’m a slow reader so I’d never get caught up, with your phenomenal level of research.
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Sometimes I do read those books, and sometimes not, Jo. I still have several Camino books I didn’t have time to read, and when I returned home I finished the Shirley MacLaine book about her Camino. I do still hope to get to the others while I still have my own Camino fresh in my mind. As far as these books for Illinois and Ohio, I will read what I can before, and then when I return to visit Ohio and Illinois again, which I plan to, I’ll read the others. Right now I have a lot of preparations to do because of this trip and my trip April 4-May 10 to Morocco and Italy. I’ll have plenty of time all summer to catch up on reading, and maybe to finally make it to Delaware (we never went because of horrible weather in December and January). I love to read fiction, so reading novels is always an adventure and a pleasure for me. As for the logistics, that takes a little more effort on my part, having little patience for reading about places, deciding how long to stay, finding a place to stay, etc. That part is fun once it’s done, but not so much fun while in process! ๐
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Here I stand, another blogger who didn’t like The Corrections! As I grow older, however, and am more aware of the passing of time, I don’t waste effort on books I am not enjoying. I think I can judge fairly soon into a book whether it will give me something back and if it doesn’t, I put it aside and find another. It took me a long time to do this, having been brought up to finish what I started but one learns! I love all Jane Smiley’s books. When travelling I always pack a couple of thrillers from authors I can relay on (Ian Rankin, Michael Connolly, George Pelicanos) a few modern novels, one volume of poetry, and if it’s a long trip, either Dr Zhivago or Anna Karenina one of which I re-read every year. I wish I didn’t waste time on re-reading these but the characters are like old friends and I love re-visiting their lives and each time seeing more reasons for their behaving as they do.
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Oh no! Maybe I should just toss The Corrections before I even get caught up in it. I agree that time is too precious to waste time on books you don’t enjoy. Just knowing when to cut it off is difficult sometimes. Nice to know of the authors you enjoy. I’m not a reader of these authors, so I’ll have to check them out. Jane Smiley’s books are a bit dark, but I think she’s a good writer and captures character well. Interesting that you read Dr. Zhivago or Anna Karenina every year. I’ve never been one to read novels twice, but I could see the appeal especially if they are characters you love. Maybe I’ll have to try that sometime. ๐
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Going to New Zealand in 2 weeks and really looking forward to it https://retiredfromgypsylife.wordpress.com/2019/02/14/anticipation-and-preparation-2/
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I’m so excited for you! Thanks for sharing this. And have a great trip. ๐
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