Illinois - Day 8 - Lake Michigan to the Mississippi

(Sorry about this font size - I wrote this on my computer's word processing program and I just can't seem to get it to translate to the size of this blog's font.  Enlarge your screen or something to make it easier to read.)

Palace Campground, Galena

Sunday, 8 September 2019

today's route

I’d decided to drive the Illinois stretch of the Great River Route, which meant driving back across the state: the Mississippi forms the entire western boundary of Illinois, separating it from Iowa and Missouri.  The drive is across one of the narrowest parts of Illinois, and the computer said it’d take about 3½ hours, which means 5 or 6 hours for me.  It actually took nearly 8 by the time I got settled into the new campground.

The campground

I’d had a very positive experience when I made the reservation, and when I first booked in, but I found the campsite shared the electric plug-in with the next door site, and for my RV it was on the wrong side. 

When I went back to the office, the first person was on break, and the replacement was as lacking in customer service skills as I’ve ever seen.  I went in smiling and saying I had a little problem and she instantly went on the defensive and tried to tell me things like all the sites were like that (well, no, at least half of them obviously had the plug-in on the right side) and why didn’t I drive in head first instead of back in and other weird things.  She reluctantly (even though the campground was nearly empty) gave me another site, that turned out to be the same way, and she was amazingly rude about it. 

I got yet another site out of her that at first seemed okay, until I discovered that, even after I checked the connection and flipped the breaker switches a few times, I still wasn’t getting any electricity.  She argued with me about it but finally said she was sending someone over to help.  

That person seemed to be an owner and was as nice as she was rude.  He and I agreed on a different site that did have functioning electrical connections, and I gave him an abbreviated version of what the woman had been saying to me and suggested she get some customer service training.  I just thought he should know, because I’d heard her arguing with the people ahead of me, too – it wasn’t just me.  Anyway, a “palace” it was absolutely not and that woman left a really bad taste in my mouth that I’m sure the owners didn’t deserve.  But they hired her.

The drive to get there

We had gray skies and occasional rain all day, but on a Sunday in a rural area, it didn’t matter.

When we passed through some small town, maybe Hebron – it’s not always easy to tell even whether we’re in a town, let alone which one it is – there was a very loud horn going off.  And it kept blaring the whole time we passed through.  At first I thought maybe it was an alert for the volunteer fire department, but I never saw any bustle or people rushing somewhere, so then I wondered if it were a tornado alert system.

For months now, ever since I’ve gotten to the Midwestern states, campgrounds have included bad weather shelter information with their check-in materials, and I’ve been hearing now and then about tornadoes on the radio.  Dayton (OH), after all, got hit with several at one time when I was a few miles down the road (that was a couple weeks before the mass shooting), so I started taking that warning information seriously.  And that’s why I thought maybe that horn was a tornado alert.  But I guess not because I never saw the cloud formation for it and didn’t hear of one later.

I saw notices that the Hebron Fire and Rescue was hosting an upcoming pig roast.  When I was leaving the last campground, I saw signs saying the Beach Park Fire Dept. was also having a pig roast.  And somewhere along the road I saw an ad for yet another such group offering a pork chop dinner.  Clearly Illinois raises pigs, and clearly this is the time of year they use them.

As I passed through the small town of Harvard, I saw a sign for the Harvard Milk Days, which actually happened the first weekend in June.  For this 78th year, it's billed as the oldest continuous hometown festival in Illinois.  As you might expect for something called "Milk Days," there's a cattle show and a milk-drinking contest and of course a parade.  Their slogan is "Nurturing future generations: all we have we owe to udders."

I spent a good part of the day driving between crop fields, spreading out from both sides of the road.  Lots of corn, also soybeans and Christmas trees.

Many small towns along the road.  I passed one community that kept its name a secret and saw the Boone County Family Restaurant and the Lutheran Church separated by about ¼ mile, with roughly equal numbers of cars parked at each.  This being a Sunday, I figure that fact sums up local public opinion.

I passed a street sign for La Harve St. and wondered if they were trying to spell Le Havre or if it was a pun and named for someone named Harvey.

Some of the corn in this area is at least 6’ tall.

I passed several orchards, some of which were selling "Apples, Cider, Donuts."  It’s the apple time of year.

The highway department needs to rethink its categories.  You know those blue signs that say “Tourist Activity” and notify drivers of places of interest?  In Illinois, those signs are almost all a list of local businesses.  I mean, why would Westwynn Kennels be a tourist activity?

I passed a barn that was painted entirely in bright aqua, and another that was Caribbean blue.  I guess these Illinois farmers don’t take themselves too seriously.

I passed a sign saying their local Little Cubs Field was a replica of Wrigley Field.

I passed fields with cows, goats and sheep (not all together).

I saw an actual Bald Eagle sitting at the very top of a tree, looking around for prey as if it were a hawk.  I’ve only seen eagles do that when they’re sitting on the edge of a salmon stream.  But I got a really good look at it and it was definitely a Bald Eagle.

I made a rest stop in Freeport, which turned out to be a lucky move.  I’d been driving a while and really needed to stop, and was sure the dogs did too, and when I saw signs directing me toward the Lincoln-Douglas Debate Square, I followed them and learned a lot.

Lincoln-Douglas Debate in Freeport

Debate Square

Freeport has created this park (at left) to commemorate the historic debate here between Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln during the US Senate race in 1858.  Pres. Theodore Roosevelt dedicated the park in 1903.  Mostly the exhibits are signs that each were half contemporaneous newspaper articles and half explanation.  The articles were faded, had tiny print and were hard to read, so I took photos only of the other halves.

* The background: 

 The framers of the Constitution were stumped by the problem of slavery in 1787 and, essentially, punted; we’re still coping with that (lack of) decision.  In 1808, Congress banned any further importation of slaves to the US, a decision that didn’t change the slavery that already existed.

In 1819, Missouri, a slave-holding territory, wanted statehood.  At that point Congress was evenly divided between slaveholding states and free states, so Missouri’s entry would upset that balance.  In compromise, Maine, a free territory was also granted statehood, thus retaining the balance.  As part of the compromise, Congress agreed that no slaves would be allowed in lands of the Louisiana Purchase above 36° 30’ (the Missouri/Arkansas border).

This sign (at right) explains the interesting context for the subsequent 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act, which nullified the Missouri Compromise by allowing Kansas (above the 36° 30’ line) to enter as a slave state.  Douglas played an important role in passage of that act, a role that resulted in Lincoln deciding to run against him for his Senate seat.

In 1857, the US Supreme Court handed down its all-time worst decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford.  That ghastly decision did several terrible things, but the one that’s relevant here is that the Court said the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional because Congress had no right to bar the extension of slavery into a territory.

Douglas's background

Lincoln's background

* The debate: 

In 1858, Lincoln was nominated for the US Senate by the newly formed Republican Party.  Lincoln had never been elected to a statewide office so, although he was known in his area, neither he nor his party had much name recognition.  Douglas, on the other hand, was one of the most popular members of the strongest political party in the state and was likely a shoo-in for the senate seat.  Douglas could easily draw crowds to his rallies; Lincoln struggled with it.  The debate structure was for one candidate to speak for an hour, the 2nd to speak for an hour and a half, and then the 1st got another half hour for “rejoinder.”  Since there were very few seats, that crowd was standing for 3 hours listening to politicians orate. (Americans were a lot tougher back then.)

Lincoln was 6' 4"; Douglas was 5' 4"

During this 2nd debate Lincoln, having learned from what was said during the 1st, asked Douglas if a territory could legally exclude slavery before a state constitution was adopted.  In what became known as the Freeport Doctrine, Douglas, knowing the Court’s Dred Scott ruling, said yes, a territory could exclude slavery.

You might say that Douglas was merely pointing out that if the Supreme Court says a territory can decide to allow slavery before it becomes a state, then it’s only logical that that same territory could decide to ban slavery before it becomes a state.  But the pro-slavery Southern Democrats were outraged.  At the same time, Illinois Democrats, who were mostly opposed to slavery, were reassured.

Lincoln won the popular vote for Senate, but at that time the US Constitution required senators to be chosen by their state legislatures.  Douglas was the most popular politician in the Democratic party which dominated both houses of the Illinois Legislature, so he was elected despite the popular vote.  (That provision was changed in 1913 by the 17th Amendment, allowing senators to be chosen by popular vote.)

This sign at left explains the unusual amount of press coverage these debates received.  A direct result of this coverage was that Lincoln became known along the East Coast as being against slavery, a reputation that led to the national Republican Party nominating him for president in 1860.

The national Democratic Party nominated Douglas for president but Southern Democrats, still peeved about his Freeport Doctrine, nominated a 3rd candidate and split the party’s vote.  A separate splinter group nominated a 4th candidate and, given these splits, Lincoln was elected US President.  So Freeport has some justification when it says that the road to the Civil War led through Freeport.

Despite losing the election, Douglas was appalled at the states seceding; he was adamantly opposed to the breakup of the Union and offered his help to Lincoln.  At Lincoln’s request, Douglas threw himself into an effort to persuade border states to stay in the Union.  He went on an extensive speaking tour of the South that so damaged his health that he soon died at age 48.

The rest of the drive

The land gradually became hillier as I went west.  I couldn't decide which of these views was a better depiction of the landscape, so I'm showing both.  The one on the left shows more clearly the rolling hills, while the one on the right shows more clearly the scattered farmhouses and how isolated the countryside is.  You see the clouds and rain stayed with us all day.  You'd think since the prevailing winds run west to east, we might have lost this weather system going from east to west.  But it never rained hard so we were lucky.

I drove down one hill labeled as having a 7% grade, and 2 hills had signs warning trucks to use a lower gear, and another had a runaway truck lane, but none of them was hard to negotiate.  They just didn't seem as steep as they were labeled.  I guess it's all relative and maybe Illinois isn't that used to hills.

I suppose it's to be expected in September, but it's still early in September and I was surprised to see leaves already starting to change.

I took this photo (left) at a rest area near Galena.  You see most of the trees are still completely green but this one is mostly orange already.

Galena

Galena, a town of 3,500, is obviously an old town and many of its oldest buildings are well preserved - 85% of the town is in a National Historic District.  It sits in the Galena River valley and the road slopes fairly sharply down going in to town and then back up when leaving on the other side of town.

It's the home of the Galena High School Pirates.  I passed the football field - "Where The Gentlemen Play" - and wondered how these folks reconciled "gentlemen" with "pirates."

Grant's house

U.S. Grant and his family had been living in Galena before the Civil War; when they moved back after the war, the grateful town gave him a very nice house up on a hill above town.  The family lived there until they moved into the White House in 1869.  After his presidency, they lived in this house off and on until Grant died.

I decided not to take the tour, partly because I was tired and partly because it was just his house, not an explanation of his presidency.

We went on to the campground and it was after 4:00 by the time we were settled in a site, so I think we were all tired.