Abe's Home Town

We finally left Michigan after the storms from Ike passed through, about ten miles into Indiana we found out that all the freeways around the bottom of Lake Michigan were closed due to flooding, sixty miles and three hours later we were through all the detours and back on our path.


We set up camp near Ottawa so we could try and locate two more of
the Whispering Giants, the first one we found was out at the Starving Rock Lodge, we had to do some more detours to get to it but we made it.








The next one was a little harder since it was located at Riverside Park, the flood stage for the Illinois River is 22 feet and two days before it peaked at 32 feet 8 inches, a new record. We did managed to get close enough to get a few pictures of the top half of it that was sticking above the water.








In town we found Washington Square which was the site of the first Lincoln - Douglas debate, out here in the mid 1850 over 14,000 people made their way to this site to listen to the debate.




Day One in Springfield
Time to move south to Springfield, home town of Lincoln, to start out with, this is one of the cleanest and tourist friendly city's we have ever been to.

Our first day in Springfield, it's bright and sunny and it going to 80 degrees so we decided to tour the town of Salem, about 12 miles NW of Springfield. This is the town that Lincoln settled in when he was 21 and lived here until he was 26 and elected as a State Representative. This is the town were he self-educated himself and became a lawyer, while doing this he kept busy by trying his hand at owning a small store, unsuccessfully, and teaching himself the trade of being a surveyor which he was very successful at.



They have recreated the entire village and there are about 15 buildings with interpreters














On the way home we made a few stops the first was at Oakwood Cemetery to Visit Lincoln's Tomb, of course the front part was under construction so it was hard to get any really good pictures of the outside and we were not allowed on the second level, but the inside was open and we were able to view the tomb. Also all the War Memorials are located here in the cemetery.





And finally we ended the day by stopping at the Illinois Military Museum, this is a small museum on the National Guard Base. It has an excellent exhibits that do a great job of explaining the history of the guard and it's assignments during the various wars, right now they are loading up and 25% of them are being shipped to Afghanistan starting next week.



There are two very unique artifacts here, the first is Santa Anna's artificial leg,and the board that Lincoln used as a target when he tested the new Spencer repeating rifle on the front lawn of the White House.





Day Two in Springfield



Since it was cloudy and a light rain today it was a perfect day for the Lincoln Museum, this is absolutely a must see and plan on spending 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 hours. This is all new and the building is designed so that you can't help but see everything, there is a large round lobby in the middle of the building and everything is in rooms and displays around the lobby, you enter the display from
the lobby and when you exit you are returned to the lobby. They have two movies which are about 20 minutes each, to enjoy it better see the movie "Ghost of the Library" first then "Lincoln's Eyes" in the Union Theater second, we saw them in reverse order but once you see them I think that you will see why it's better this way, no I'm not going to tell you why. Every exhibit here is done to perfection and there are about eight of them, plus they are set up so none of them are really that crowded.

When we left the museum we crossed the street to the Lincoln Library so Cathy could due a little genealogy research while I walked through the exhibit about the "Great Springfield Race Riot of 1906".





The Lincoln Depot is restored and is now the City Visitors Center.





On the drive home we decided to get our kicks on Route 66 and came across the Cozy Dog Restaurant, according to the newspaper articles on the wall this place and the owner were the inspiration for the movie"Cars" I couldn't figure out why but that's what the papers said. A Cozy Dog anywhere else in the world would be called a corn dog, but here where they were created you better order a Cozy Dog or you'll be shown the door. This was one of the original stops on the old Route 66.




Day Three in Springfield
Today was probably what we would consider a BUST. It Started out great, after driving around in circles for 30 minutes we finally managed to find Charlie Parker's Diner, the famous one that was on "Diners,Drive-ins & Dives". One of the unique foods to this city is the Horseshoe, so that's what we both ordered, it starts with two pieces of toast, covered with a few eggs, whatever style you want, followed by your choice of bacon, sausage or ham, then either hash browns or American fries and topped off with either their homemade cheese sauce or sausage gravy. This may sound like a lot and it is so we ordered the Pony which is a half order, we still had trouble getting it all down.
Tomorrow we go back for the 18 inch pancakes.

After breakfast we drove up to the Lincoln Home National Historical Site, the NPS was given controll of the house and bought up the four blockes that surround the house. They returned everything to what it would have been like when Lincoln and his family lived there, even the little Elm tree in front of the house gets replaced every few years so it will always be the size of the one that was there during the time lincoln lived there.

You have to visit the house if you are here but don't expect to much from the Rangers that work here, the Ranger that gave us the tour basicly walked us through the house and gave us very little information about Lincoln or the family. The visitors Center was nothing more then a gift shop with very little information or displays about Lincoln, and finally they show to films at the center, who ever made these films cared more about their filming technic then they did about conveying and information to the audience.
Maybe we should have done this site first, but after doing the other things this was a bit of a disappointment. One cool thing was that the banisters for the stair case are all original so when we went up stairs we were touching something that Lincoln himself had touch. I'll never wash that hand again.

A Day at THE FORD

Or as we still call it Greenfield Village and The Henry Ford Museum. It was going to be in the mid 80’s and cloudy so a perfect day to spend walking around. They redid the entire Village two years ago and they did a fantastic job, it’s ten time better then before and the way it’s set up the people entering can now go in three different directions so there is very little crowding at he various areas.



They had the old steam engine out today which is nice but when it takes off you don’t want to be around because of all the black soot and smoke it puts out.







They now have a fleet of about 50 Model T’s that are always driving around the streets along with the horse drawn buss and of course the couples out for a little bicycle ride.











Walking around to the different buildings and homes they have characters there to explain the history of the site, here we’re listening to the Wright Bros on their front porch right when they returned from Kitty Hawk telling us about their successful flights.





Other parts of the village have many types of business, Grist Mill, Wool Spinning Shop, Glass Blowing, Lumbering, Iron Works, Pottery, Rail Road Round House, the Firestone Farm (of tire fame), a plantation with Slave Quarters and a ton of others things to see and do.


For your safety members of the US Army patrol the entire park.









After Lunch we followed the marching band to the back of the park were the Game of Nine (baseball) was getting ready to be played, to day it was the Village La Ti Da’s against the Wyandotte Stars, notice how they spell it on their uniforms (Y& . ). During the second end they all came to a stop to salute the train and passengers as it made its way across right field.




After the game we headed towards Independence Hall, which is the entrance to the Ford Museum, they have a special Chocolate exhibit which everybody wanted to see, but they only gave you one little sample so it wasn’t really worth it.

Homer, NO! not Simpson, MICHIGAN

We spent the week of the 4th house and pet sitting at the kids place in Wixom, this gave Cathy a chance to do a little gardening and I spent a few days running the motor home around for tires, brakes and front end alignment. Which means we spent a lot of money.

When the kids got home we gave Nick and Rach two days to recover before we threw them in the motor home and took off on a road trip to Homer, Michigan, look it up. We stayed at a great resort that had everything a kid could want and everything was free, Nick hit the putt-putt course probably 50 times, while Rach spent every minute she could in the pool making new friends.

We did a few side trips from the park, one to the state museum in Lansing, Nick wanted to go to Indiana so we did a little trip across the border to Pokegon State Park for a picnic. We also went to the Binder Park Zoo in Battle Creek and a late night trip to the Cascades Fountain in Jackson.
Some picture follow of the fun they had.

This how we spent 90% of our time while we at the park. Putt-putt then a few hours swimming, then some time in the hot tub then a few minutes in the dry sauna then back to pool, some nights till after 9pm.












The kids wrapped up in some animal skins. A future Auto Show model and NicElvis at the Motown exhibit.










At Binder Park Zoo, you can buy crackers from the ranger to feed the Giraffe, you go anywhere near the fence and they're there with their tongue hanging out.






Nick feeding a pygmy goat and Rach at the turtle rodeo.
















View from the bottom of the cascade, I put the insert in so you can see Nick & Rach at the very top. The cascades as it starts to get dark. They open at 8pm, start music around 9:15 and then at 10pm they do a computerized show where the lights and music are in sync, this goes until 11pm.


Just playing around a little, this is the first time that I have tried posting a video, this is the Cascade Fountains at Jackson, Michigan. The video was hand held and the bugs were starting to get me.

Catching Up

It’s been since Columbia S. Carolina since I’ve done anything with the blog some I’ll do a little catching up here. We really haven’t been very busy doing too much, just a lot of sitting around and resting up.

When we left Columbia we drove up to Waynesville. N.C. parked right on a nice little mountain stream and goofed off for two weeks, we did a few mountain drives to some little towns and some friends from Green Bay stopped in for a few days so we did a lot of catching up with them.
Then it was on to Knoxville, we always stop in Knoxville because of McKay’s book store, this is the best used book store in the country, we get there at 10 in the morning and leave for lunch about 1:30, and we went there twice in 5 days. Some more fiends from Shelby Ohio stopped in here for two days on their way home, so we did a bunch of running around with them.

Our next move was to Lexington, Ky , we stopped here so Cathy could get some genealogy research done over in Frankfort, and there’s a great Mexican Restaurant in Georgetown. The Viet Nam War Monument in Frankfort is the most unique one in the country. It’s a giant sundial with the names of the Kentucky soldiers KIA engraved in the concert surrounding it; it’s designed so that the shadow of the dial points to the soldiers name on the anniversary of his death and only on the anniversary of his death. The MIA’s names are located right at the base in front where the shadow will never fall. A Viet Nam Vet who became an architect with the GI Bill designed it. It is well worth the drive over to see this.


We also drove down to The Civil War Site Camp Nelson. They are just starting to restore this site and are doing a great job and have tons of things planned for the next few years. This Fort had a life span of three years start to finish, it was 4000 acres, had over 300 buildings and running water through out the camp, when it was closed everything was dismantled and moved except for one bldg that was there when the camp started, the former property owners house. An interesting history to Google.








A week off non-stop rain in Springfield, Ohio so Cathy could do some more research in Columbus and right now were sitting in Wapakoneta, the weather finally started to dry and warm up, just in time for all the amature campers to come out for the holiday week-end. When we got here the park was empty but Friday night they started pulling in by the droves so that now there are kids and dogs and campfires everywhere you look. It’s funny but when you start traveling full time you really start to dislike the holidays, it’s like a bunch of strangers show up in your backyard and start using your grill and pool and spa and everything else and then Monday they all leave without even saying thanks.

Almost forgot, I heard on one of the travel forums that the Lincoln Museum in Fort Wayne Indiana was closing there doors May 31st, this museum was started about 100 years ago by the Lincoln Mutual Life Insurance Company, it appears that the new owners decided to pull there support so the museum will be history. We decided that we better get over there so we did a day trip and toured the museum, glad we did. Since the Botanical gardens were just down the street a block or two we also went there but just did the indoor stuff since it was really cold and windy







Next stop SE Michigan and a summer of Grandkids.