CRUISING CAPE GIRARDEAU'S NEW EXPRESSWAY

Highway 74 opened Monday. By Wednesday afternoon, I still hadn't taken that two-mile drive over nearly virgin concrete.

My friends had. They talked about the freshness of it all and the general lack of traffic. They warned me not to drive too fast; the police were out enforcing that 45 mph speed limit, they said.

The sun was shining, the temperature was rising, the breeze was blowing. It was time to get my motor runnin' and head out on the highway.

Highway 74, that is.

A newcomer's view of Highway 74 probably would depend on which end he started, because the views around Sprigg Street and South Kingshighway are very different.

I started at the Sprigg Street stoplight, taking a right onto the highway. A left would land me into a short concrete wall, which presumably protects the neighborhood on the other side.

The view wasn't good. It made Cape Girardeau seem, as my southern relatives would say, downright cityfied.

A tall wire fence keeps stray children and animals from wandering onto the road. On the other side is a hodgepodge of nice homes, not-so-nice homes and a few homes in very poor condition. One house has some mean-looking dogs in the yard -- dogs that likely are sick of all the loud construction and will get even sicker of all the four-lane highway traffic they can't chase.

But dogs, like people, get used to almost anything. Even a highway only a few yards away.

And the street signs! They looked as though they were transported from St. Louis. None of those little poles on the street corner for us! These signs are big and commanding. They can't be missed.

One said West End Blvd., announcing the highway's only through-street. There's a big intersection, and on Wednesday afternoon more people were lined up on West End than Highway 74.

None of the cars I saw on Highway 74 was turning onto West End. There weren't many drivers for after school on a Wednesday afternoon, and the few I saw appeared to be using the highway as a quick east-west route from Sprigg to Kingshighway, or the reverse.

After Highway 74 crosses West End, the view gets pretty, with lots of trees and open fields. It's part of Cape Girardeau most people probably haven't seen since roads didn't go back that way.

The next big sign was for Minnesota Avenue, an exit that goes only to the south.

There's one house off the exit, a mixed blessing for the family. They can use the highway to get to their home, but so can everyone else.

I knocked on the door. No answer. I sat in my car for a little while, watching the curious take the exit, notice the dead end and then get back on the road. There were only a couple flimsy sawhorses blocking the dead end, but I'm sure the deep mud on the other side was the real deterrent.

Just past the house and also on the south side of the road was the backside of River Eagle Distributing Co. "Budweiser" was spelled out on the wall in big red letters. It was enough to make me stop by River Eagle after my cruise, something the River Eagle people probably want liquor store owners to do.

"You should see it at night," one of the secretaries advised me. She used Highway 74 to get to the Show Me Center one day and really liked the new road. Her coworker had taken the drive just to see how things looked, and she liked it, too.

The trip ended at Kingshighway, of course. The stretch to Interstate 55 probably won't be completed for another two years, and the extension to the new Mississippi River bridge for four years or more.

Be warned: The stoplights at Sprigg and Kingshighway can be tricky. The left lane must turn left and the right lane right, so keep that in mind when you approach the orange barriers.

When all the paperwork in Jefferson City is complete, old Highway 74 will become Southern Expressway, a name it already has but not many people use. I don't know if people will stick to using the old two-lane -- there certainly were more people on it Wednesday than on Highway 74.

Maybe drivers don't realize new Highway 74 is open, but advertising works. The Missouri Highways and Transportation Department predicts the traffic count will be up to 10,900 daily in two months and 17,010 by 2015.

I'll probably be counted.