#and trains are spaced 30 minutes apart and take 90 minutes to arrive at SF which is usually a 40 minute drive for me. | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

travelingtheusa · 7 years ago

Text

ILLINOIS

11 Oct 2017 (Wed) – We drove into Springfield again today. The weather was cool and drizzly (the temp was 53 degrees when we got up and it didn’t get much warmer all day). First stop was at the Dana-Thomas House. It is a 12,000 SF house with 16 levels designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. We enjoy seeing his buildings as we travel around the country. He has designed and built some very unusual and quite distinctive buildings.

After the house, we toured the new state capitol building. It was built in 1888 and was incredibly huge. Their capitol stands 73’ taller than the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. Interestingly, the dome is not copper like most other capitol buildings we have seen. Inside, we had to go through security screening. The interior of the building was a real eye-opener! There was gold trim everywhere, murals and pictures on the walls, and a gorgeous rotunda with a stained glass ceiling. A circle of plaster relief panels that look like metal surround the base of the rotunda on the second floor. Sculptures and ornate lighting fixtures and chandeliers decorate each of the four floors in the capitol.

We stopped for lunch at the Feed Store; a soup and sandwich shop set in a historical building. You walk in, give your order to an order taker, then take a seat. When your meal is ready, a waiter brings it to your table. They had quite a selection of soups to choose from. The meal was excellent.

After lunch, we walked across the courtyard to tour the old state capitol. This was where Abraham Lincoln worked. He sat in the library downstairs, tried cases in the courtroom, gave his “A nation divided . . . “ speech upstairs, and celebrated his win in the presidential election. It gave me goosebumps to know I walked the same places he did. The building was renovated a few years ago. They took down the building, put in a two story parking garage underground, covered it over, then rebuilt the capitol building on top. The inside of the building is almost fully restored to its 1800s condition.

10 Oct 2017 (Tue) – It rained last night. I woke about midnight with a thunderstorm passing by. The campground was not filled with puddles this morning so the drainage in the area is very good.

We drove into Springfield this morning and went to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. This was one of the best museums I have been to. There were two theaters and two distinct areas – one describing the life of Lincoln’s before the election, and the other area depicting the life of the Lincoln’s during the presidency. The videos were so interesting. One was 15 minutes and used holograms to tell the story. The other was a more traditional video that told the life story of Abraham Lincoln. There was another area with some artifacts from the life of Mr. & Mrs. Lincoln.

After the museum, we went to the Visitor’s Center and picked up a free parking pass. We then walked back to the truck and drove to the home of the Lincoln’s. It turned out to be a four block neighborhood turned into a National Park. They wanted to capture the feel and look of the place and time where the Lincolns lived from 1844 to 1861. It was a lovely home made more special when you look at Abraham Lincoln’s humble beginnings – his childhood lived in a one-room cabin.

After the tour of the Lincoln home, we walked down the block and had lunch in Obed & Isaac’s Microbrewery. The sky had opened up by then and it was pouring. After lunch, we drove back to the campground. There was a stop at WalMart where Paul tried to make an appointment for an oil change. Unfortunately, this WalMart doesn’t have a lift heavy enough to lift our truck. So Paul just picked up some DEF and we’ll continue to look for somewhere to get the oil change done.

We got a sad call this morning from Paul’s sister, Joan. The daughter of Paul’s other sister, Christy, is in the hospital with a heroin overdose. She is brain dead and on a ventilator. I called Christy who said the doctor told her there will be no recovery from this event. The young woman is only 28 years old.

9 Oct 2017 (Mon – Columbus Day) – We left Big Rock at 9:45 a.m. The drive to the Double J Campground in Chatham was not even two hours. The campground is about 15 minutes outside of Springfield. It is very nice; right off I-55. Almost all of the campsites are pull through and fit big rigs. There are full hookups, wifi, cable TV, laundry, a pool, and rec area with several types of games. The facility is kept very neat and clean. It looks like almost every campsite has its own tree.

After set up, we did the laundry. The camp has three washers and three dryers. We used all three machines at a time. We no sooner finished getting the wash started when a couple came in with their laundry. Normally, we wouldn’t use all the machines but it was the middle of the day and we didn’t expect anyone else to come in. Our bad.

8 Oct 2017 (Sun) – We left the Great Lakes Naval Training Station at 10 a.m. We had to drive over to the marina to dump the tanks. It was an awkward squeeze and backward movement to line up the sewer line but Paul did it. While he emptied the tanks, I walked over to the dock and talked to some guys who were fishing. They were catching salmon. One of the men showed me a 25 pounder they had caught.

The weather was nice and our next campground was only 73 miles south west. The Big Rock Campground is about 20 minutes outside of Geneva, Illinois. Paul lived here for about three years when he was 11-14 years old. His family moved to New York in 1964 and, as they say, the rest is history.

The campground is new – the county opened it three years ago. There are 110 sites and they are very nice with lots of space. The water hookup is far behind the campsite so we had to use a very long hose to reach the spigot. There is no sewer hookup but they do have a dump station. The trees are young so there is no shade to speak of.

After lunch, we drove to Geneva where Paul recalled several places of his youth – their second floor apartment, the bicycle shop where he worked, an early style 7-11 store, and a former newspaper shop where he and other boys would put together the Sunday papers on Saturday night. We parked and walked around the town. There is a small park on the Fox River where the kids used to ice skate in the winter and further down is a spillway where they used to swim in the summer. I think he enjoyed the reminiscing.

On the way back to the campground, we stopped to pick up some groceries and refuel in preparation for our move tomorrow.

7 Oct 2017 (Sat) –They had a 5K race this morning and will be having a marathon race tomorrow. Much of the parking space and park access was closed off in preparation for the races. Our timing sometimes is poor.

We had planned to take a 10 a.m. boat tour in Chicago but they were booked (probably because of all the people in town for the marathon). We got a 4 p.m. tour time so we decided to go to Navy Pier for lunch and spend time exploring some of the area. When we got into the city, we walked to the boat tour office to see if we could get on an earlier tour. Indeed, we were able to squeeze on to a 2 p.m. tour. It was well worth asking!

At 1:15 p.m., we arrived at the loading site and took our place in line (we were second to arrive). At 2 p.m. the boat took off with a docent who talked non-stop for the entire 90 minute ride up and down the Chicago River. He described many of the buildings. There were several architectural marvels to see and some that left you scratching your head.

After the river ride, we stopped in an Irish Pub and had dinner. By the time we were done, the sky had opened up and it was raining pretty hard. We walked back to the truck and returned to base. After feeding the animals and changing into dry clothes, we went to the base movie theater. We were going to see “It” but that played at 5:30 p.m. The 8 p.m. movie was “Wind River.” I had not seen any ads about it but since we were there, we went in to see it. The story wasn’t bad but the sound was poor. Whoever the sound editor of the movie was, failed in the job. It was difficult to hear the dialogue.

6 Oct 2017 (Fri) – We drove into Chicago today. The traffic was that familiar city stop-and-go. It took an hour to get to the Field Museum. The museum was HUGE! The architecture of the museum was just as good as the exhibits it housed. There were three floors of various categories to look at. There was a special display called Jurassic World. It was a simulated tour of the island from the Jurassic Park movie. There were animatronic dinosaurs that were pretty lifelike. A velociraptor was also on display that I think had a person inside the costume. The tour was fun.

On the main floor was Sue, the most complete skeleton of a T-Rex every found (they don’t know what gender the dinosaur is; the name is for the researcher who found the skeleton). There was a section devoted to birds that seemed to go on forever. Who knew there were so many different kinds of birds? We looked at the history of the planet, marveled at the peoples of the Pacific islands, explored dinosaurs, wandered through a collection of mammals, and were amazed by a display of gems. We had lunch in one of the cafes. At 4:30 p.m. we agreed our tootsies had had enough and left. We walked along the shore of Lake Michigan on the way back to the car. There was a group of four men fishing on the marina with a very large fish lying on the dock. It looked like a salmon with the hooked beak and sharp teeth.

The traffic was heavy and it was raining as we left. Rather than sit in traffic for hours, we stopped at a restaurant and had dinner. We wound up getting back to the camper at 8 p.m. My feet and back was so sore from all the walking we did today. It felt good to just get off my feet.

5 Oct 2017 (Thu) – We left Berrien Springs, Michigan, at 9:40 a.m. The weather was pleasant and the drive was uneventful. We changed the voice on the GPS in celebration of the Halloween season. The voice of a ghoul comes on about every ten minutes, in addition to giving directions. It was quite entertaining to hear Boris (that’s the name I gave to the voice) warn us not to look in the trunk or to ask if we saw that werewolf on the side of the road. It gives us a chuckle.

We arrived at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station around 12:30 p.m. We got pulled over by the SPs and asked about pictures I was taking of the base. The officer made me erase them from my phone. Although there was no sign warning visitors not to take pictures, picture taking is not allowed.

Unfortunately, the directions to the office to check in were not so clear. I tried calling the office and spoke with a clerk who was NOT the sharpest tool in the shed. She had us running around in circles! We finally found the office, checked in, and drove to the campground. It is a small campground with about 20 campsites right on the shore of Lake Michigan. The sites are very close together and only have electric hookup. We had to drive to the marina to fill up our freshwater tank. It was a tight fit between a fence and the building but Paul was able to squeak by. I had to watch to make sure the camper didn’t get hung up on overhead wires.

After hookup, we drove to the base theater. The USO was hosting a show with Steve Martin and Martin Short. It was one hour long. I felt Steve Martin had lost his edge and was not as funny as he used to be (he’s 72 now). Martin Short had lots of energy. They played the part of two guys who don’t like each other but team up to go on the road together because of their big egos and need for money.

This is a basic training base. The entire training battalion of cadets was at the show. We had to sit up in the balcony because all the seats on the first floor were reserved/taken. After the show, we had to drive around scores of marching servicemen and women.

We stopped at Samuel Adams Brew House, an eatery on base. I had a steak and Paul had a pasta special with a beer (of course). Everything was good.

0 notes