To appreciate the downstate Illinois, you need a discerning eye, patience, the ability to appreciate what is inside and not just eye candy. You need to have a love of what is authentic, a nose for the mysteries hidden in the banal.

There are many neat things in the rest of Illinois, but they just don’t come out and smack you in the face. You would have to search for them.

Then again, maybe they don’t need you coming around there with a superficial outlook on life.