St. Louis can be a lot closer to Chicago than a map would seem to suggest.
Yep. I know what you mean. Those big city 'urban areas' give the wrong impression to the 'elites' on each coast and then they think ALL of a state is like those hellholes.
When I was a teen in the 60's we'd joke that if you went 30 miles South of Joliet IL (about 35 mi SW of chi) you'd be in Kentucky. Well that's not far from the truth as far as the people and values go. As they do talk 'funny' (heavy accent) and are very conservative.