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MATTOON, Ill.—We had come from afar to look for the treasure of Mattoon. For years, it's been rumored that the government would help build a clean coal plant here. It was to be called FutureGen but has taken so long to get here that it's jokingly called NeverGen. It was the great hope that this prototypical small Midwestern town (population 17,177 in 2008) has always been searching for but could never find...

ST. LOUIS—The place: 12:45 p.m., Friday, in an old courthouse overlooking the Gateway Arch. The courthouse was once used to hear the Dred Scott case but has now been turned into a St. Louis history museum. Red, white, and blue banners are draped across the banisters, accentuating the giant American flag that hangs below the 90-foot-high cupola.

LANSING, Mich.—The stimulus doesn't come with an instruction manual. When both receiving and applying for money from the federal government, all 50 states are left wondering: How should we keep track of where all the money is going? What are the criteria to apply for more money? How should we calculate the number of jobs we've created or saved? How should we decide whether this thing is working?

These are the central questions of the stimulus, yet the feds only send advice, not answers. And if the feds don't know the answers to these questions, then who does...

LANSING, Mich.—It should be said up top: I have found a stimulus project that has not created a single job. Nor has it saved any. Twenty-thousand dollars have gone to the Lansing chapter of Volunteers of America to restock their food kitchen, and according to the Obama administration’s rubric, it should be a failure of a stimulus project. The $20,000 comes from FEMA via the United Way, and it has gone toward buying more goods for the food pantry here, where they've served 85,439 meals this year, a 9 percent increase from last year. Next year, they’re aiming to serve 100,000 meals.

DEARBORN, Mich.—On the ride over to Ford's (F) Rouge manufacturing plant, Henry Ford's great-grandson came on screen to welcome us to a place where "our past and our future are side by side." I should have known then that the factory tour would completely ignore Ford's present.

CLEVELAND—As we go across the country, we’ll be asking people we meet the same question: What stories will you tell your grandkids about the recession? A new response is below:

Pittsburgh. July 6, 2009, 3:40 p.m. Taken from outside a Jimmy John's Gourmet Sandwiches.