St. Louis: 250 Years, 250+ Cakes. Here we go....: #162: Southwestern High School

Sunday, July 6, 2014

#162: Southwestern High School

My final Illinois cake. Or so I think...that is, assuming that the remaining four cakes are in Missouri. As I write this, on July 15, 2014, there's 4 more cakes that are left to be put out. It's hard to imagine I covered the Illinois side of the 'Cakeway to the West'! I still got a ways to go, as I'm 7/10ths of the way done. I still haven't yet tackled the western Missouri side yet!

Again, by assumption, this was the last Illinois cake put out. This one happens to be in Macoupin County as it was believed that the stl250 team were searching for a location to put one in the big county. I'm not sure why they put it at Southwestern High School, but I can't say it's a bad idea either. I saw on some thread online that they were going to put it somewhere in Carlinville (the county seat), like at some courthouse or government building. I haven't been to Macoupin all that much, but there are several towns, and apparently stuff that is too good to miss.

When I was young, my church group camped at Beaver Dam Park. I'll never forget the time we went paddle boating in the lake and it rained! In fact, it rained so bad we had to go home. I know a lot of people from the southern Macoupin towns, such as Brighton, Bunker Hill and Staunton. I work with a lot of people from Staunton, since...well, there's nothing up there. A lot of people I know from Brighton were in the radio program with me at Lewis & Clark Community College. And yes, they all graduated from Southwestern.

So I was questioning about the whole cake placement thing at Southwestern. I'd say its unique for one reason: it's only a mile from the Jersey County border! Since the town calls itself Piasa, obviously after the Piasa Bird outside Alton, it makes sense to name their mascot The Piasa Birds. I never would have thought they would name their domain address after that too (?). This would make any Missourian's cake-hunting trip quite worth it as they can start in Alton, go the river road to Hardin, then take Route 16 to Jerseyville and end up here. Then go back down to Alton where they started. Just a tip :)