RIVER CITY JOURNAL: GO NORTH TO SEE AMAZING WONDERS THAT YOUR NEIGHBORS LIVE WITH

Having done just about everything I can for Cape's tourism, here are a few tips about Chester and Perryville.

I don't know much about traveling. I just know what I like.

Or something like that.

There's been some hoopla recently about turning our fair River City into a tourist magnet.

If downtown golf courses and bridge pieces-parts won't do it, I don't know what will.

In light of recent events, I've decided that I'm too close to Cape Girardeau to have much perspective about tourism here. How can I know what would make me drive here, book a hotel room, pick some restaurants and spend my tourist bucks? I go home -- here -- every night anyway.

During the three-day Labor Day weekend, I decided to take another approach. What other towns in our area have interesting things to see, and which one would get me into my car with a map?

That's how my wife and I wound up in Perryville, Chester and St. Mary -- and points in between last Saturday.

Perryville? Chester? St. Mary?

Was that the best we could do?

Frankly, yes. We discovered there are some interesting things to see in those towns. I suspect that we looked at those towns much the way folks there look at Cape. At least I hope they think as highly of my town as I think of theirs, now that I've been a tourist there.

Here's the way most of us look at nearby towns: The exit signs along the interstate tell us how much farther it is to where we really want to go.

Be truthful. Isn't that what we do?

Most of us have, at one time or another in our lives, been to Perryville or Chester or St. Mary. OK. Been there. Done that.

But let me tell you what we found, all in just one day.

We had been to St. Mary of the Barrens and the magnificent grounds of what used to be St. Vincent's Seminary at Perryville -- the first institution of higher learning west of the Mississippi, we were told -- once before. Both times, the museums have been closed, so we still haven't seen what we are told are amazing collections.

But if you walk around the Vincentian property, acres and acres of it, you can't help but take note of the beauty there and the loving care the grounds still receive.

The church, which is a national shrine honoring St. Mary and her miraculous medal, is worth, at a minimum, a couple of hours of your time. We were fortunate enough to be adopted by a tour guide -- we were the only tourists there -- who was brimming with facts, opinions and concerns about the future of that lovely place. What a gracious guide she was. We left feeling good about St. Mary of the Barrens, about Perryville and about our wonderful hostess.

As we headed across the Mississippi into Chester, Ill., we were unsure about how to get into the heart of town. We took the first available street and wound up on Water Street, which is actually below the town proper but runs right along the river. No floodwall. Up-close views of the river. A sense that we were, truly, in a river town.

Then we got lost. Yes, I hate to admit that we were lost in Chester, but it's a fact.

We finally figured out how to get downtown. By then I was so turned around I didn't know which way to go. Chester is built on a series of hills, and getting from one hilltop to the other isn't as simple as a straight line. Somehow in our wanderings we even managed to miss the famous Popeye statue, and Popeye is the big draw for Chester. It is the home of the cartoon and comic character's creator.

But the nice woman at the Popeye museum told us how to find our way back to the statue (it's right next to the bridge). And another nice woman who owns an antique shop gave us elaborate directions to the Cohen house, which is a beautiful blufftop home with totally unobstructed views of the river valley. And someone else told us how to find the covered bridge east of town.

And we had to try Reid's Harvest House Restaurant, which is probably the best-known business establishment in all of Chester. Our verdict: lots and lots and lots and lots of food.

St. Mary, of course, is known for its huge, all-under-one-roof antique mall. The woman with the antique shop in Chester would take issue that the collectibles and junk in such malls are really antiques, but it goes without question the huge mall at St. Mary has something for everyone's tastes, grand or not.

By the way, there's a shortcut between Perryville and Chester that takes you to St. Mary. Just take the Perryville Municipal Airport road. By the way, we saw a fellow landing what looked like a one-man gyro-copter made from a kit as we passed the airport. We've got to go back for a closer look.

Now, if you're walking shoes aren't tingling with anticipation, that's OK. I didn't say Perryville, Chester and St. Mary were among the top 10 wonders of the world, did I?

But my wife and I have found, in our many moves and travels, that very often the most interesting things to see are nearby -- if not in your own hometown or your own backyard.

We've always enjoyed scouting out towns that are close by or we haven't seen before when we travel to other places. We've never been disappointed.

I take that back. There's that night we spent in Cleveland. But that's a long story you don't want to hear.

So here's my travel tip for the week: Go north. You can't go wrong.

And don't get lost in Chester.

~R. Joe Sullivan is the editor of the Southeast Missourian.