Cape Girardeau ( /ˈkeɪp dʒɨˈrɑrdoʊ/, French: Cap-Girardeau [kap ʒiʁaʁdo] ( listen); colloquially referred to as "Cape") is a city located in Cape Girardeau and Scott counties in Southeast Missouri in the United States. It is located approximately 115 miles (185 km) southeast of St. Louis and 175 miles (282 km) north of Memphis. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 37,941. A college town, it is the home of Southeast Missouri State University and the largest city in southeast Missouri. Although it is the largest city in Cape Girardeau County, the county seat is Jackson.

The Cape Girardeau-Jackson, MO-IL Metropolitan Statistical Area encompasses Alexander County, Illinois, Bollinger County, Missouri and Cape Girardeau County, Missouri.

The city is known to some as "The City of Roses" because of a 9-mile (14 km) stretch of highway that was once lined with dozens of rose bushes.^{[citation needed]} Although there used to be many prominent rose gardens around the community, few of these gardens exist today.

Missouri (ⁱ/mɨˈzʊəri/) (nickname The Show Me State) is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. Missouri is the 21st most extensive and the 18th most populous of the 50 United States. Missouri comprises 114 counties and the independent city of St. Louis. The four largest urban areas are St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield, and Columbia. Missouri's capital is Jefferson City. The land that is now Missouri was acquired from France as part of the Louisiana Purchase and became known as the Missouri Territory. Part of the Territory was admitted into the union as the 24th state on August 10, 1821.

Missouri generally mirrors the demographic, economic and political makeup of America and has long been considered a political bellwether state. With the exceptions of the Presidential elections of 1956 and 2008, Missouri's results have accurately predicted the next President of the United States in every election since 1904. It has both Midwestern and Southern cultural influences, reflecting its history as a border state. It is also a transition between the Eastern and Western United States, as St. Louis is often called the "western-most Eastern city" and Kansas City the "eastern-most Western city". Missouri's geography is highly varied. The northern part of the state lies in dissected till plains while the southern part lies in the Ozark Mountains (a dissected plateau), with the Missouri River dividing the two. The state lies at the intersection of the three greatest rivers of North America, with the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers near St. Louis, and the confluence of the Ohio River with the Mississippi north of the Bootheel. The starting points of the Pony Express Trail and Oregon Trail were both in Missouri. The mean center of United States population as of the 2010 Census is at the town of Plato in Texas County, Missouri.

Michael Gregory "Mike" Rowe ( /ˈroʊ/; born March 18, 1962) is an American media personality best known as the host of the Discovery Channel series Dirty Jobs. He can also be heard as narrator on a variety of series and has appeared in recurring commercials for Ford Motor Company.

Rowe was born in Baltimore, Maryland to parents John and Peggy Rowe. Rowe has said in commercials for Dirty Jobs that the show is a tribute to his father and grandfather. Rowe became an Eagle Scout on January 2, 1979 in Troop 16 in Baltimore. During his service project for Eagle Scout at the Maryland School for the Blind, he read aloud to students, and he cites this as one of the reasons he became interested in narrating and writing. On being an Eagle Scout he said "The Eagle Award is not really meant for people who need to be dragged across the finish line. It's meant for a select few... ."'

Rowe attended Kenwood Presbyterian Church in Baltimore when he was younger; his parents still regularly attend. Rowe attended Overlea High School, where he excelled in both theater and singing under the tutelage of choir director Freddie King, whom Rowe credits for first interesting him in performing. An early stutterer, Rowe was able to overcome the handicap while in school. After graduation from high school, he attended Essex Community College, and briefly sang with the Chorus of the Chesapeake, which at the time was directed by King. He later graduated from Towson University with a degree in Communication Studies.