Both me and the Glue have been in a fried chicken frame of mind so yesterday it was time to have some.  After eliminating Gallaghers, Bottoms Up, Broadway Grille and Pistol City for various reasons we decided on the Opera House Bistro in Red Bud mainly because I'd been wanting to give it a try and Sundays are the only day it opens before 4pm.
We got there around 11:30 or so and parked about a block away which meant a short brisk walk.  The place appears to be three old store fronts that they've combined.  One part houses the bar area and the other two house the eating areas although one may be a banquet type room.
I ordered a Boulevard Irish Ale and the Glue went with Blue Moon.  The Irish Ale was tasty but the Glue's Blue didn't hit the spot for her so on the second one she went with a bottled beer.  We were both disappointed when the waitress informed us that they no longer do the Sunday fried chicken buffet.  I decided on a fried catfish po' boy and upgraded my side to tempura mushrooms both of which were recommended by the waitress.  The po' boy was good but nothing special but the mushrooms were very good.  The Glue went with Bistro fried chicken and sides of mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus.  The fried chicken is a boneless half a chicken and was real good.  The mashed potatoes didn't have gravy on the them but the Glue said they were good as were the asparagus.  As we were finishing our drinks we talked some with the waitress who ended up being a co-owner and was very friendly. 
When we left we went next door to Lieferbrau Brewing and the place was hopping for a Sunday afternoon because of their bloody mary bar.  We sat at the bar and after trying a couple beers both of us ordered the dopplebock which I really enjoyed but at 7% alcohol one was enough.
The place doesn't seem very big with a small bar area on one side and a small sitting area on the other but apparently they have an upstairs and are getting ready to open a downstairs.  They also have a real nice outdoor area. 
While sitting at the bar we got to talking to guy who went to SIUC and worked at Pags with my old housemate Fog, another small world thing.
Even though we didn't take care of our fried chicken hankering it was a good trip and we'll be back at both places in the future.

Coming into Murphy on Route 13 from the east and then turning north on 13/127 is a four lane highway in a mostly industrial or rural area.  The road is in good shape and is well lit.  Just before the stoplight at the Motomart/Sergios intersection the speed limit drops to 40mph, not that most motorists obey that.  Turning north on 13/127 the speed limit increases to 45mph until just past the viaduct, once again it's mostly ignored.
Going north on 14th street past the viaduct the area is mostly residential and sparsely lit.  The road is one lane and is not in overly great shape. The houses are much closer to the Additionally the houses are much closer to the road than on 13/127.
Given these factors it makes no sense that the speed limit on north 14th is 50mph which seems about right.  My solution would be to raise the speed limit on 13 to 45 or 50.  I'd also raise the speed limit on 13/127 to 50mph and then 55mph past the aluminum factor intersection.

We tried out the following places for the first time in 2018:
Mary Jane's Burgers and Brew
Pistol City
Kretzers
Morello's
Hook, Line and Sinker
Red Onion
Mascoutah Steak House
Jackson Street Brew
Up In Smoke
Landmark
Tractors
Southside Ribs
Broadway Grille
Underground
Keepers Quarters
Mellow Mushroom
Downtown Abby
Marlow's
Schiappa's
Newell House
Additionally I tried out Dale's Burger Shack but the Glue wasn't with me.

We also tried out the following but only had drinks:
Longbranch
Broadway Biergarden
Blue Room
Fuzzy Duck
Slammin' Sammy's
River Rat's
Wooden Hills
Barrel 131
The Hop
Barren's Winery
Mr. T's
Slotzy's

There's probably a few that I forgot but that's the price a person pays for poor decisions. 
Pizza, fried chicken, fish, steak, cajun, ribs, wings, Italian and others make for some nice diversity in the places.  While there are a few we probably won't go back to most of them we'll visit again and a few of them we already have gone back.

Yesterday we decided to take a quick trip to Paducah mainly to pick up some Fat Edd's shrimp on the way back.  We also decided that since we're down that way we should try out the Mellow Mushroom which we'd heard good things about.
Once we cleared carbondale it was a pretty easy trip until we got just this side of the Metropolis exit when traffic came to a crawl.  I was in the left lane wedged between two semi's so we couldn't see what was going on but it was obvious that the problem was in the right lane.  Cars kept going by in the right lane and merging which slowed everything down until a semi pulled halfway in the right lane to block it off and things moved a little better.  The problem ended up being an oversize load with a flat just on the other side of the bridge.
Once we got to the Mushroom we debated on getting appetizers at each stop but decided on a small pizza and a small order of jerk wings.  We got pepperoni and grilled mushroom trio on the pizza.  They have 48 beers on tap which is nice and we both settled on the Yuengling.  The pizza was very good and the dough was outstanding.  I was worried the jerk wings would be too hot for me but they weren't and were very good also.
We then went to Paducah Beer Werks for an Irish Red which is my favorite local beer.  There wasn't very many people there and the barmaid was very friendly and had been to both beer school and whiskey school so we ended up having a second one and getting a Crowler to go.  I'd never heard the term until my nephew asked if they had them.
On our way out of two we stopped at Roof Brothers Liquor to get some Yuengling and any other beer we don't find around here.  I didn't really see anything else and one of the employees told me they had two Yuengling 12 pack cans for $15 so I got a couple cases.
At Fat Edd's we decided to get a couple appetizers and a beer.  The Glue got an Amber Bock while I went for their house beer which is made by Schlafly.  We ordered 12 shrimp and an order mushrooms along with a to go order of 24 shrimp.  As you can tell we really like their shrimp and cocktail sauce and it didn't disappoint.  While the mushrooms aren't as good as El Greco's they're at least in the conversation and were very good. 
Of course when we got home we had some more shrimp and cocktail sauce.