My month in Illinois

where I went this month

What I learned from spending this month in Illinois
(in no particular order)

I learned that the affection people have for Chicago is reasonable - I found it to be a very likeable city.  I see in the news that their politics are somewhat bizarre, but I also saw for myself that there is an incredible variety of people living there.  I saw all ages, all races, living together in a way I don't see everywhere.  (Honestly, I was surprised to see so many elderly people there - residents, not just tourists.)  I saw energy and scenic beauty and a wide range of income levels.

I learned that the vast majority of Illinois's land is used for farming - mostly crops (not livestock).

I learned that Illinois has a beautiful forest - the Shawnee National Forest - that covers much of the southern part of the state.

I learned that, aside from Chicago, Illinois doesn't have much for population centers.  The Peoria-Bloomington/Normal-Champagne/Urbana area in total has only about half a million people and, besides Springfield a little way to the south, that's it for anything other than smaller towns.

The fact is, most of Illinois is rural; town life is what there is.  I learned that many people, including most young people, prefer it this way.  They like small-town life and deliberately choose it over city life.

I saw that a lot of Illinoisans like to go camping, and many like to go fishing, but that there didn't seem to be much interest in outdoor sports otherwise.  At least, I saw few signs of it anywhere.  There's that one place that offers scuba diving, and I think I saw one ad for whitewater boating, but that's all I can think of.

But then, Illinois doesn't have any mountains for skiing, its rivers are mostly huge and not conducive for pleasant paddling trips, and there aren't that many lakes.  Illinois has just a sliver of the state that fronts on Lake Michigan, but no other shoreline.

The research I did before I came here told me 80% of the land is in agriculture, but only 20% of the people work on farms; that now farming is primarily big business, rather than small family-owned farms.  I could see for myself that most of Illinois is being used for farming.  And I could see for myself the vast tracts of land used for crops.  I don't know how much land one family could afford to own and work these days.

I learned that the divide I keep hearing about between Chicago and the rest of Illinois is real, and I can see that likely both sides are to blame.  Chicago is one of the largest cities in the United States, after all, but the fact is Illinois's other population centers aren't particularly populous, so Chicago is on its own.  Literature and history are replete with examples of miscommunication between city mice and country mice, and I see no reason for Illinois to be any different.

I honestly didn't find folks in Illinois to be particularly friendly.  They'd talk to me when I'd say something to them, but they certainly aren't a chatty bunch.

I didn't hear any particular praise of their state from most people.  Only occasionally would someone suggest I go see some particular place, and almost always it was Shawnee National Forest.  The forest is heavily wooded and lies in hilly land.  It is a pretty area, but I'm wondering if part of the attraction is just that it isn't flat cropland.

Illinoisans don't claim any particular scenic beauty, and I couldn't see that they had any reason to.  Instead, I found it to be pleasant country to drive through, but if you don't like farmland then there's not much to look at.  In that sense, too, Chicago has a leg up because of its location on Lake Michigan.

Overall, I'd have to say that, to me, this is a really odd state.  It's not a very well-balanced state, I think, and I'm not sure Illinois is clear about a state identity - other than Land of Lincoln.  I think it'd do them some good to do some collective thinking about why Lincoln loved it here so much, and maybe pursue whatever those strengths are.  Instead, they seem to be locked in a rural vs. urban, Chicago vs. everywhere else divide, and I doubt if it's doing the state much good.

Illinois - Days 27-29 - Ft. Massac State Park

The travel dilemma

You may remember I stayed here overnight a couple of weeks ago - this is Superman's hometown, remember? - and thought it was very comfortable.  I was also quite pleased to find I was picking up a wifi signal, which is the main reason I came back.  My plan was to stay here the rest of the month, get caught up on my blog and ready for my next state, but "the rest of the month" part isn't happening.

Turned out I couldn't get a reservation for the night of September 30th because the entire campground is booked.  (More on that shortly.) 

Unfortunately I hadn't known this when I made a reservation for Lily at the Banfield in Louisville at 1:30 on October 1st, and reservations for all of us at the nearby KOA beginning then.  I had a surprisingly hard time getting that vet appointment and didn't want to try to reschedule.

Louisville is a 3-hour drive from here for people who go 70 mph on the interstates, but I go no more than 65 mph, which of course makes the drive longer than 3 hours.  Plus, I take several rest breaks with one usually including lunch, which also add time onto the drive.  All of that meaning I'd have to leave really early to make it to the Banfield halfway across Kentucky by 1:30 even from here.

There are no campgrounds in Illinois nearer than 30 backroad miles from here, which would add a whole lot onto the already long drive.

In other words, I had no good options.

I thought long and hard about this self-imposed rule of mine to spend the entire month inside each state, and decided this was the time I needed to break that rule.  So, sadly, I'll be leaving Illinois on the 30th, rather than on the 1st, and going to the Louisville KOA a day early.


The Encampment

The reason for all this inability to stay at the state park is something I'd never have foreseen.  In mid-October the park will host its 26th annual Encampment, which is a 2-day event that commemorates the battle held here.  The park ranger told me they expect about 200,000 people to attend.  Yes, that's Two Hundred Thousand.  Crammed into this tiny town and this tiny state park.

Beginning October 1st, the park makes all its campground spaces first-come-first-served.  This means for those who want a campsite (with electric hookup) they have to reserve a site for September 30th, in order to be actually in the site when October 1st rolls around, thus becoming the first come to claim it.  People apparently made reservations ages ago, which is why the entire campground is booked for that night. 

The interesting part to the park ranger is that squatting in a campsite means you have to pay for it in advance or somebody else could slip in instead.  So folks are paying $20 for every night from at least September 30th (some are already here) until after October 20th, when the Encampment is over.  The ranger said some folks make this Encampment their annual vacation trip. 

The ranger also noted that quite a few of those paying for 3 weeks of camp site actually live in Metropolis.  Apparently they want to be even closer to the action than they already are - and it is, after all, their home town and their local shindig.  I figure it's a little like tailgating at football games - you can sit at home and eat and then go to the game, or you can go early and be in the middle of the excitement.

To deal with the mob, the state park creates non-electric camping spaces in all kinds of places where now there's just parkland.  And help is brought in from state parks all over the state, as well as from the central DNR office, because they're responsible for everything.  Though these days they get help from groups such as Friends of Fort Massac, but still.  200,000 people?

http://metropolistourism.com/encampment/  This is a local link with more information about the event.  The ranger told me the only vendors that are allowed are those that fit in historically - no funnel cakes, for instance.  They have a special day for school kids the day before the official start of the Encampment, and kids get bused in not just from Illinois schools but from other states as well.  I'll have to keep this in mind because I would likely not be able to find a camping spot in this part of Kentucky at that time.


Farming in Illinois

I talked to someone who grew up in a farming family from Iowa and Illinois and knows a lot more than I had time to learn about farming here.

She confirmed what I'd heard - that most people living in Chicago think almost anywhere south of the suburbs is in southern Illinois.  She learned this when she told people she lived in the Springfield area and they said oh yes, southern Illinois - when, in fact, Springfield is almost in the smack dab center of the state.

She told me that before white people arrived, most of Illinois was wet prairie and had been for centuries.  As the prairie grass would grow and die each year, it would add another layer of mulch to the increasingly fertile soil.  By the time white settlers arrived, the soil had become black with rich decayed mulch and is still an extremely fertile place.

And I was right in thinking that what they mostly grow here are corn and soybeans.  I was also right in thinking that farmers are currently very worried indeed about their economic future, thanks in part to the trade war.

She said few people realize that the relief money the administration is sending to farmers is more than double the amount of the auto industry bailout approved by Obama during the recession; she thought it odd that people are still - years later - upset about that bailout but haven't said a word about double that amount going to farmers.  I certainly haven't seen any publicity about it.  Presumably, the few who happen to have noticed think it's different for mom-and-pop farmers than for fat-cat auto execs, without thinking about agri-business, or about the auto assembly-line workers.

She said that, despite the trade war, farmers had planted their crops when the rains stopped a few months ago because they had a deadline of June 2 (I think she said), and if they didn't have their seeds actually in the ground by then, they wouldn't be able to get crop insurance.  Insurance problems on top of everything else hadn't occurred to me.

I told her I'd been hearing reports on farm futures and was surprised to hear prices on "lean hogs," because is the opposite "fat hogs?"  She said actually lean hogs were a result of the 1970s push to reduce animal fat in our diets.  That was the time when folks believed we should remove all fat from our meats (which I refused to do because it adds so much to the flavor).  So hogs were gradually bred to produce meat with less fat in it, which is what we have now.

She herself thought the real dietary culprit was and is sugar and talked a bit about the politics around reducing sugar consumption nationally, but my brain started to get a bit overloaded at that point because I couldn't take notes and had to remember everything (I was walking the dogs at the time). 

I wish I'd met her earlier and that I had time to ask her more questions, because I've just been traveling through 5 agricultural states (Ohio through to Illinois) and will meet many more next year, and I want to understand more about what I'm seeing and what life is like for the folks that live there.


Time in Metropolis and the campground

I saw someone with a t-shirt that read in large letters "That's Too Much Bacon" and in smaller letters "said nobody ever."

I spent a day getting things done: buying groceries, doing laundry, changing the sheets, taking out the trash, dumping the sewage tanks, getting a shower, cleaning the RV's windows.  And walking the dogs in between tasks.

Metropolis has a flashy Harrah's Casino, located on the river at the very visible end of one of the main streets.

There was once a coat hanger factory in the building next door to the state park.  Friends of Ft. Massac have bought the building and the land and have plans to convert it into a part of an historic village to go with the fort buildings on nearby state park land.  Did you ever consider that there's a factory making coat hangers somewhere?  I always assumed they multiplied themselves while hanging at the back of dark closets.

For most of the time I've been here, I've had trouble with my wifi reception.  I'm getting it, and my gizmos are saying it's a good connection, but most of the time it's as slow as dial-up and is driving me crazy.  A disappointment when I'd planned to spend so much time catching up on my blog.

I'd paid in advance to stay here until the 30th in campsite #5.  As with all Illinois state parks, there's a notice at the campsite that says so, with my name on it.  I left for several hours to run those errands and, when I got back, found the campground hosts had sold my site #5 to someone else. 

When I talked to the hosts, they said we didn't know you were coming back, you should have left something at the site.  I said I'd figured the notice saying I'd already paid for 2 more nights should have been notice enough.  Then they said well, I'd just have to move to another site, but I already knew the only other sites available would have been difficult with the dog-walking and refused to move.  And then I had to wait while the campground host and the guy in the other RV walked around the campground trying to find a space for the very large Class A he had.  And finally the guy unplugged his electric cord, cranked in his slides, released his hydraulic stabilizers, and chugged on down the road, and I could get back into the site I'd already reserved and paid for.

But it took me a while to stop being peeved.  If there were other campsites, why didn't those "hosts" put this guy in one of them in the first place?  And why did I have to leave something to prove I was coming back (which we now know could easily have been stolen) when I'd already left a sign saying I'd paid $40 to stay there for the next 2 nights?  And why did they think I should be the one to move when I'd already been staying there 2 nights and I'd already reserved in advance that specific site and that other person just came in without a reservation?  And why were those "hosts" trying to make it seem like this was all my fault instead of theirs for being lazy - they must have just looked at my site (across the street from theirs) and seen that it was empty and not bothered to look for one that hadn't been reserved.  This is the first time in all these many months and many campgrounds that I've run into this and I wish there were some way I could make the management realize those "hosts" aren't doing their image any good.  But it'll be a long time before I come back this way, so I'll let it be someone else's decision.

In the meantime, I'd been afraid the campground would be completely jammed over this weekend because of people coming for the Encampment.  Walking around with the dogs, it's looked to me like almost all the sites were reserved.  But even on the weekend the campground has seemed not much more than half full, which is a relief to me.  Much less noise from kids and other campers, fewer dogs.

There's a resident doe and the twins she bore this year.  The young 'uns are half grown now, though they're still noticeably smaller than their mother.  The three hang out together, but they seem to have almost no fear of humans or vehicles or even dogs which I find worrying.  I've seen them all several times - at dawn, at dusk, in broad daylight.  Feeding at vacant campsites and in a clearing near the dumpster and in the center of a camping loop.  I wonder what they'll do when 200,000 people show up.  These babies are not learning skills to help them cope with the real world and I'm afraid when they're on their own they'll get hit by a car or shot or mangled by a dog.  But maybe mama will figure out a way they can all spend their lives somewhere here in the park.  The living seems to be good for them here.

Illinois - Day 26 - Ohio River Road

Fort Massac State Park, Metropolis
Thursday, 26 September 2019

today's route along the Ohio River Road

Although Lincoln Trail State Park was very pleasant, I had no wifi reception there.  I'd been planning to stay tonight at Cave-In-Rock State Park along the southern edge of Illinois on the Ohio River, but once I realized I was unlikely to get a wifi signal there either, I decided to keep going.

I'd already made reservations at Ft. Massac State Park beginning tomorrow night, so I just decided to go there a day early.

As you can see from the map the road, which has official signs saying it's designated the Ohio River Scenic Byway, doesn't often go very close to the river.  But I found as I drove that even where it appears to follow the river, I still couldn't see it.  I spent almost the whole drive searching unsuccessfully for some sign of it.

What I did see quite a few of were operating oil wells.  A lot of them.  Usually smack in the middle of cornfields.  I have no idea how the farmers and the oil folks make that work, but they obviously do.  I saw quite a few petroleum-related companies in various small towns as I drove.  I've never connected Illinois with oil but it's clearly making a contribution to the economy.

I also passed several churches labeled as General Baptist Churches, which is a label I've never seen before.  I guess it's a branch of Baptists, like the Southern Baptists back in Texas.

I saw dead cornstalks being cut down to about a foot from the ground - one time by a machine that looked like it had an alien spaceship sitting on top of it.  And I passed other fields where it looked like they were actually mulching and spreading the 1' high remaining stalks.  Then I remembered having seen huge trucks of what looked like the chopped-down corn stalks and wondered where they were being trucked to.  Do they get ground up and used for something?  So maybe the spaceship machine cuts down the stalks, and after the debris's been gathered up, the second machine comes along and prepares the field for planting again.

At widely separated distances, I passed 2 A-frame houses with roofs that went all the way down to the ground.  I haven't seen such an extreme pitch outside of a ski slope and wondered what kind of weather they were built for.

I passed a road marked for Little Texas.  All I could find online is that it's either an isolated place to camp or it's a band.  Take your pick, because I didn't go down that road.

I passed the turnoff to go to the Wabash Cannonball Toll Road.  As far as I can tell, the road leads to a bridge that crosses the Ohio from Illinois to Indiana, and the toll's charged on the bridge.  Not only is this bridge considered haunted but, as a narrow one-lane bridge, it's also considered one of the world's most dangerous.  Here's a link if you're interested.   https://historicbridges.org

As a change from pork dinners, the Allendale Firemen (per their sign) are having a steak dinner.  And a church in Mt. Carmel is having its annual chowder dinner.  I connect neither of those meals with Illinois, but apparently they do.

I passed a gas station with a Sinclair dinosaur on its sign but the station had no other insignia and I didn't think Sinclair was still a functioning gas company.

I passed a sign for Dinger Bats that said "Illinois's first wood ___" and I couldn't remember the rest.  But it's a company on the edge of the Shawnee National Forest that makes baseball bats of such quality that they're sold worldwide.  I just couldn't figure out what makes it Illinois's first something.

The land got more hilly as I went farther south, just as it did when I was in Ohio and Indiana at a comparable latitude.

I was very surprised to pass a field of what looked like maize.  I think of that as a southern crop, though I'm seeing a lot of indications that I'm a lot farther south than I was a month or two ago.  Not the least of which is people's accents when I talk to them in local stores.

I have a new theory about why Illinois drivers don't want to pass me, even when I signal and pull over.  Maybe they don't know what I'm doing.  Maybe nobody up here does that.  On Texas back roads it's completely common to let people go by; in some states (e.g. Washington) it's the law.  But maybe drivers in this part of the country never pull over for following vehicles but leave them to pass or not pass on their own.  Today there was a driver following me and clearly about to pass me when I signaled and pulled over for him, and he immediately stopped trying to pass and even came to a complete stop when I did.  Huh??

Cave-In-Rock State Park was designated partly for the huge cave formed by natural forces, but also partly for the mostly nefarious historic uses the cave's been put to.  Check out this link if you want to know the story.   www.interestingamerica.com/Cave-in-Rock

Edgar Lee Masters and Lewistown

Lewistown, Home of Edgar Lee Masters

For those who don't know or can't remember from high school English, Edgar Lee Masters wrote a book of free verse called Spoon River Anthology, written as first-person epitaphs.  Published in 1915, it's never been out of print.

sign outside the cemetery the book was based on

His invented town of Spoon River (named after the nearby river), is a working-class town, just as Lewistown is.  One of the things that made Masters controversial, nationally as well as locally, is that these poems refuse to idealize small-town America, as was customary at that time.  Instead, though many characters are good and optimistic, many others are corrupt, hypocritical, and deceitful.

Which brings up one of the other reasons Masters was locally controversial: he often used real people, both living and dead, as the basis for the characters in these poems.  Masters himself said 66 of the characters were buried in the town's cemetery, though only 41 have so far been identified. 

A century after the fact, with those most concerned now dead, the town has come to terms with the book.  People (like me) come from all over the world to see this town, which now offers a walking tour of the cemetery showing where the subjects of the poems are buried, and the identities of the real people that inspired them.

The following has always been my favorite and is a good example of one of the optimistic epitaphs.

Lucinda Matlock, by Edgar Lee Masters

I went to the dances at Chandlerville,

And played snap-out at Winchester.

One time we changed partners,

Driving home in the moonlight of middle June,

And then I found Davis.

We were married and lived together for seventy years, 

Enjoying, working, raising the twelve children, 

Eight of whom we lost

Ere I had reached the age of sixty.

I spun, I wove, I kept the house, I nursed the sick,

I made the garden, and for holiday

Rambled over the fields where sang the larks,

And by Spoon River gathering many a shell,

And many a flower and medicinal weed —

Shouting to the wooded hills, singing to the green valleys.

At ninety-six I had lived enough, that is all,

And passed to a sweet repose.

What is this I hear of sorrow and weariness,

Anger, discontent and drooping hopes?

Degenerate sons and daughters,

Life is too strong for you —

It takes life to love Life.

Masters couldn't figure out what made his novel such a popular sensation and spent much of his life unsuccessfully trying to replicate it. 

He's known by Lincoln scholars for the very unflattering biography of Lincoln that he wrote.  His position was that the "Lincoln myth" needed to be debunked.  Maybe so, but he and his family were strong supporters of the Democratic party and the views of Stephen Douglas, Lincoln's rival for the presidency, so it's reasonable to wonder how much of his personal opinions were injected in the biography.
 
Masters was especially irritated that Carl Sandburg, his contemporary, wrote a glowing, and glowingly received, biography of Lincoln, a fact that might also have influenced the tone of his writing.  But whatever his motivation, scholars recognize that his point of view is considered important for a well-rounded view of Lincoln.

I drove through the cemetery, but even new cemeteries aren't much designed for large vehicles like my RV, and this was absolutely not a new cemetery, though the headstones made it clear it's still being used. 

I also wanted very much to find a place where I could see Spoon River itself, but ran up against the problem that the only river crossings I could find in the area seemed to have almost no place to even pull off the road, let alone turn around, so I reluctantly gave up the idea.

Despite not getting around the area much, I'm still glad I went.  I'm glad to see that this small town has apparently decided that its native son brought them immortality, rather than notoriety, and are now willing to celebrate his talent.

Peoria, Bloomington/Normal and Champaign/Urbana

Checking out Illinois's Major Central Cities

Peoria

Peoria Heights water tower

I gave myself a little driving tour through town just to try to get a feel for the place.  Peoria lies on ground that rises gradually from near river level up to a bluff; the main street for this route is Prospect Drive, and the Village of Peoria Heights is at the top.  Also at the top is Tower Park, named for the 500,000 gallon water tower that they've cleverly made into a tourist destination.  It has an exterior glass elevator that takes folks up 200' to three observation decks that claim a 20-mile view on a clear day.

Along the way through the business district, restaurants have set out sidewalk tables in an interesting way: they've each co-opted the 2 parking spaces in front of their doors and built a 1- to 3-sided half-wall to enclose their table spaces.  The half-walls serve the varied purposes of defining their areas, setting an atmosphere, and protecting the diners from idiots who would persist in trying to park there anyway.  I saw at least 10 restaurants that had done this within the space of a few blocks.

Illinois River, as seen from Grandview Drive

Peoria's crown jewel, apparently, is Grandview Drive, built in 1903 along the bluff overlooking the Illinois River.  When Pres. T. Roosevelt visited here in 1910, he called it "the world's most beautiful drive."  I don't know about "most" beautiful, but it's really pretty.  Of course much of it is lined with very fancy houses, but much of it is parkland with benches and picnic tables.

sample residence along the drive

you can see a long way from Grandview Drive

The river bed here used to belong to the Mississippi River until a glacial bully shoved it farther west.  This sign gives some interesting geological information.

guardian of the entrance's left side

on the right of the entrance

The house where I saw these statues had 2 entrances, one on either side of a curve in the road.  One entrance was guarded by a pair of very attractive and unusually posed lions.  But this entrance was special, as you can see.  I especially like the champagne flute on the plinth of the left guardian.  Couldn't tell what repairs were happening to the one on the right.

A drive through town makes it clear the local economy is dependent on Caterpillar which, until last year, had its world headquarters here and still has several manufacturing plants here.

Two of Peoria's well-known native sons are Richard Pryor and Dan Fogelberg.  Pryor has a statue in his honor and Fogelberg has an honorary parkway and memorial.

Peoria, with a population of 115,000, is home to minor league baseball and football teams, with fancy stadiums in downtown for them.

With the variation in ground levels and site on the river, I found Peoria a pleasant city.  Several people I talked to in East Peoria, though, told me they were glad to live there rather in Peoria which, they said, was too big.


Bloomington/Normal
The cities of Bloomington and Normal (that really is its name) are smack on top of each other and it's impossible for a non-resident like me to tell where one stops and another begins.  Combined, they have a population of 130,000 - decent-sized but not as large as I expected.

One of them has a primary road called Gregory Street.

Illinois State University is not in Bloomington, as I'd thought, but instead is in Normal.  It was founded in 1857 as Illinois State Normal University, and is the state's oldest college.

I didn't stop to take photos, which I'm now regretting because I'm having a really hard time finding any online.  Apparently even Bloomington residents don't bother taking local photos.  So I'll tell you that the Holy Trinity Catholic Church, a historic landmark, is gorgeous, the McLean County Museum of History is impressive, and a place called the Illinois House is stunning.

Illinois House

Actually I did manage to scrape up a photo of that last one.  It was built in 1902, following a fire that had wrecked the previous building, restored in 1977, and is now used as an office building, primarily for real estate companies.  Can you see the amazing beveled glass in those huge arched windows?  The glass must be 1902-original.  Nobody would make those now.


Champagne/Urbana
Champagne itself has 86,000 residents, but the population for the entire urban area is 232,000 - much larger than I'd expected.  And I'm not sure where they all are because the main area of town I drove through didn't seem particularly large.

I saw a lot of sidewalk tables outside restaurants as I drove through town and it seemed a prosperous area.

The University of Illinois actually straddles the city limits of the 2 primary towns of Champagne and Urbana, which is why you always hear the 2 names combined when folks talk about the school.

I'm afraid I don't really have anything much to say about this area because I honestly didn't see much, and I'm not sure why.  I thought where I was driving was the primary route through the center of town but, if so, then there's not much there, though there must be some reason why nearly a quarter million people would live in the area.  Weird.

Illinois - Days 22 - 25 - Central Illinois

Driving through Central Illinois
Sunday the 22nd through Wednesday the 25th of September, 2019


Route Maps:

route on Sunday the 22nd to Peoria

route on Monday the 23rd to Bloomington area

route on Wednesday the 25th through Bloomington and Champaign

The Campgrounds:
* Carl Spindler Marina and Campground - This is just what the name suggests - a city-owned boat ramp, a small marina, and a campground with a lot of seasonal campers.  Weird little place, but they charged me only $27 for a full hookup site, and I had places to walk the dogs.  It's smack on the Illinois River on the East Peoria side; Peoria itself was right across the river.

* Kamp Komfort - [Why, oh why do people think this spelling attracts campers to stay with them?  KOA (Kampgrounds of America) is bad enough, but in this case both words originally started with c, so it's not like they changed one of them to match the other.  It really makes this former English teach gag and I'd have avoided this place if I could.]  Despite my whining, this is a komfortable kampground, all sites are level, full hookups, and pull-throughs, they have wifi (which is why I was staying there), lots of trees.  There was a fair amount of noise, because I-74 was separated from my campsite only by a hedge and a dozen yards of grass.  But it'd been several nights since I had an internet connection, so I stayed there an extra night to catch up.  A nice feature was what looked like a butterfly migration with the campground as a stopover.

The second day there, I was walking the dogs down the just-barely-2-lane farm road in front of the campground, and when any vehicles came along I pulled us all off the road onto the grass so people didn't have to worry about hitting the dogs.  One time when we did that, the car slowed and stopped and a grizzled older man looked at us and said, "God bless you and your dogs."  And drove on down the road.

* Lincoln Trail State Park - This is a very nice state park with large campsites and plenty of trees.  It has 2 campgrounds, one of which is on a lake; I decided on the other one and, as I expected, found it to be mostly empty.  The campground hosts were helpful, and the state charges only $20/night for an electric hookup site.  It's called Lincoln Trail because it's near the route his family took when they moved from Indiana to Illinois (this state plays up its connection to Lincoln for every ounce they can squeeze out of it).

Comments Along the Road:
I visited 3 cities and a town during these 3 days, and I'll do separate posts on them.  This post is mostly just how we went from Springfield north through central Illinois over to the Ohio River Road in the east.

I heard on the radio this morning that flooding from Hurricane Imelda is so bad in southeast Texas that 80% of the small town of Winnie is underwater.  Winnie, population 3,200, is near Beaumont just off I-10.  It is not a wealthy town.  Its residents are going to have tough times ahead.

Much of my route over the next couple of days lies along Historic Route 66.

I've been seeing a lot of chilli parlors lately.  Note the spelling - it's deliberate.  That's how they spell it here in Illinois.  In 1993, the state legislature proclaimed Springfield the Chilli Capital of the Civilized World, which shows a sense of humor I think.  Apparently they make chilli here with ground beef and pinto beans - good for family dinners but not the real thing.

I passed a hawk sitting on a fence post, and what's unusual about that is the post was only about 4' high, or maybe less.  I've only ever seen them sitting up much higher than that.

I got stuck for a while behind a huge truck full to the brim with fresh green beans.  After staring at them for a while, I was ready to stop him and ask for a handful.

Not far south of Peoria is the small town of Eureka where there's a highway sign saying: "Eureka College - Home of Pres. Ronald Reagan."  So of course I looked it up and learned that no president has graduated from a school this small.  They had about 550 students in 2018, so you can imagine how small it was when Reagan graduated in 1932.

Trumpeter Swan

Tundra Swan

I saw 3 swans in a pond south of Peoria.  The bird book says none of the swan species are in this part of Illinois at any time.  But Tundra Swans pass north of here during spring and fall migration, and Trumpeter Swans have been reintroduced into Wisconsin and a couple of pockets of them winter in other parts of central Illinois.  So these birds might be strays from either group, I suppose - it's hard to tell them apart from a distance (you need binoculars to see the yellow on the Tundra Swan's eyes, not a speeding vehicle).

Between Peoria and Louistown, I was following the Illinois River Road for quite a way without ever once seeing the river, even from a distance.  Illinois is pretty casual about how they designate their various "river roads."

I think I've said before that Illinois isn't much for recycling, and I learned this once again when I had trouble finding public recycling bins.  I finally tracked some down outside a Walmart in Normal, the city next to Bloomington, but it was hard to find them.

I passed what looked like a drug dog at work along the highway.  A cop had a car pulled over and his dog outside jumping around like crazy and veering into the traffic lane.  I just hoped all the cars behind me obeyed the law that says to change lanes when emergency lights are flashing.

I passed some Burma-shave type signs that said: Gun free zones/Arn't [sic] violence free/I'd rather have/A gun with me/gunssavelives.com

Remember how I said the other day that I'd passed the Kaskaskia River and was surprised to find that it was dry?  Well, today I passed a highway sign saying that was the site of the origin of the Kaskaskia River, and here too there was no sign of water - unless you count the surrounding cornfield as a sign of water.

South of Champaign I saw a highway sign that said it was 372 miles from there to Memphis.  I found this a little disorienting because it felt like I was in the middle of Illinois.  I guess 372 miles isn't all that close (wonder why the sign was even here), but Tennessee is 2 states away so I didn't expect such a sign.

And I saw another sign saying, "Welcome to Amish Country Illinois."  I turned off the road from there so didn't go into that area, but apparently there's a community of Amish in eastern Illinois.

I seem to keep crossing the Embarras River; I notice it mainly because the name makes me think of embarrass, and I keep wondering why they'd name a river that.  But it turns out "embarras" is a French term that means a river blockage or obstruction, which makes sense, with the name coming from early French explorers.  Apparently there's some whitewater boating along the river, which would suggest obstructions.

I passed an odd set of Burma-shave type signs that said, I think: "Our state/Our symbol/The Chief/honorthechief.com.  So I looked it up and I'm glad I did.  I've wondered for years where the term "Fighting Illini" came from, and this link  http://honorthechief.org/history explains not only that, but also where the name "Illinois" comes from.  And of course, what this "honor the Chief" stuff is about.  Interesting.

I was picking up an Indiana NPR station and heard farming news, including the prices on crop futures.  I keep forgetting that farmers are also business owners and care quite a bit about stock market information.  Today I heard things like the October price of soybeans, corn and lean hogs.

Speaking of soybeans, I FINALLY found out about that green crop.  Kris's guess was right - they're soybeans.  That campground I stayed in near Bloomington was surrounded by crop fields, and when I walked the dogs in the area I got a really good look at that low-growing green crop I've seen so much of in the last 4 states.

The photo on the left is off the internet, but that's exactly what I saw in those crop fields.  Soybeans.

And that means to me that there are likely a lot of very worried farmers in the Midwest right now, because they've got so many acres planted with this crop and the president's trade war with China, their biggest market, is showing no signs at all of abating.

Paris, IL, established 1823, looks much smaller than its 8,800 residents would suggest.  It was actually larger in 1940 than it is now, as has happened so often to these now-rural towns.  Despite its small population, it has several manufacturing plants: e.g. AeroGen-Tek (metal fabricators, $35,000,000 annual revenue), North American Lighting (the leading supplier of vehicle lights), so I guess unemployment's low around here.  Don't know why the town doesn't look more prosperous.

Marshall boasts the World's Largest Wooden Gavel.  I couldn't find an uncopyrighted photo online so you can see it at this website.  https://www.roadsideamerica.com/

Marshall was also the location (1950-1964) for the Handy Writers' Colony, founded by Lowney Turner Handy, her husband Harry Handy, and the successful novelist James Jones (From Here to Eternity, Some Came Running).  The driving force and primary teacher was apparently Lowney, who is variously characterized as "quirky" and "erratic."  But several writers were published as a result of their stay there.  I know about this because there's a huge mural about it downtown, but I didn't think to take a photo and there's not an uncopyrighted version online.

Springfield

Springfield, the state capital

where I went in Springfield

There's more to see in Springfield than I went to, but I mostly wanted to get a feel for the state capital.

It's on flat land but hasn't really spread out as much as I would have expected for a capital city.  Springfield has about 114,000 residents - not much bigger than Waco, TX. 

The Lincoln Home historical area is less than a mile from the Capitol area and it's easy to see how Lincoln could have walked to the courthouse and law office from his home.


Capitol Building

side view (mine)

front view (internet)

This building is the state's 6th capitol building and, given its historical value, it's likely to be the last.

It was built in 1868 and contains the executive and legislative chambers.

The dome is 408' tall.  I didn't go inside because of parking problems - I had to stop illegally to get the photo I got - but maybe another trip.



Governor's Mansion

I really just stumbled on this when I was planning my driving route.

The mansion was built in 1855 and is the 3rd-oldest continuously occupied governor's mansion in the US.  (Virginia comes in at #1, 1813; but it looks like Illinois and Texas are tied for #2 at 1855, so I don't know why Ill. says it's 3rd oldest.)

This is an internet photo and doesn't do justice to the landscaping, which is beautiful on all sides.


Vachel Lindsay's House

That would be the poet Vachel Lindsay, who I hadn't realized was from here.

This house was built in 1848 and is 7 years older than the Governor's Mansion across the street.  One of the earlier owners was Mary Lincoln's sister (Ann) and brother-in-law, so Abe and Mary visited here often.

It was bought in 1878 by Lindsay's parents, and Vachel was born the following year in this house.  He didn't live here much as an adult, traveling the country to promote his poetry.  Financial problems prompted him to move his family from Spokane (WA) back here to this house.  And here he died by suicide in 1931.

His poetry was well known in his lifetime but critics subsequently had mixed opinions about it, so he hasn't achieved the immortality of contemporaries Carl Sandburg, W.E.B. DuBois and Sara Teasdale.

It's owned now by the State of Illinois and opens for tours several days a week.  (This is an internet photo.  I passed by but couldn't stop because of the traffic.)

Abraham Lincoln in Springfield

Lincoln in Springfield

The home Abe and Mary shared in Springfield was the only home they'd owned, and they lived in it from 1844 until they went to Washington in 1861.  Springfield is also where both Lincolns and 3 of their 4 children are buried.

The House

what it probably looked like in 1844

what it looks like today

When they originally bought the house (left), it had only 1 story and likely looked almost exactly like the brown house (right) catty-cornered to them looks like.  Except the Lincoln house was white, with green shutters.

As they started to add children to the family, they added on to the house to make more room.  First a raised roof and partial upstairs rooms, then a full second story.  At that time, they painted the house the yellow color it is today.

what the back looks like today

an 1865 stereoscope view of the back

Neither Abe nor Mary was much for gardening and, as you can tell from the photo at right, the back yard was neglected, used primarily as a path to the outhouse.

Subsequent renters made some improvements, but it wasn't until the National Park Service took over that it was made presentable.  But there's always been an apple tree in that area on the left, as there is now.

The Lincoln family never came back to live in the house after the assassination.  The only surviving child, their first son Robert, rented it out for some years until he discovered that the tenant wasn't maintaining the house, was charging people to come in and see it, and even was selling some of the family possessions as souvenirs.  Robert ousted him and, in 1887, deeded the property to the State of Illinois for $1, under the conditions that the house be maintained and that no admission ever be charged to visitors.  And a visit today is still free.

Illinois owned the home until 1972 when Pres. Nixon visited and proposed making it a national historic site, as it is today.  In fact, an entire 4-block area has been preserved so that if Lincoln were to walk down those streets today, he'd still recognize the buildings.

When the family moved to Washington, they of course took some of their belongings with them and gave others away.  But much of their furniture was either left in the house or was taken by friends, so many original items are now back in their accustomed places.

their sitting room, as seen in the 1861 photograph

the Lincolns' sterescope

The Park Service knows a great deal about the house because of national curiosity when Lincoln ran for president.  The Democrats were calling him the Railsplitter, essentially pegging him as a hick who knew nothing about running the country.  The Republicans wanted to show that this poor boy had made good, and published photographs of what was a fairly luxurious house for the time.  The whatnot shelves at the right of the photo belonged to Mary, as did the rocker at the left of the photo.  That stove installed in the fireplace was, to my mind, a quite elaborate display of ironwork; that's a recreation of the original.

This was their sitting room; the formal parlor was across the hall and seemed similar to me so I didn't photograph it.  Out of sight on the right of that photograph above was the room Lincoln used for a study (see below), what had originally been his and Mary's bedroom until the upstairs addition was built.

Lincoln's bookcase

Lincoln's study, per 1861 photo

The bookcase at right was Lincoln's own, and I was sorry we weren't allowed to get any closer - you can see the railing we had to stay behind.

Mary's taste obviously ran to the elaborate, as shown by the carpet which was replicated to match the photograph.

Lincoln's bed

his dresser

I took 4 photos of Lincoln’s bedroom.  As I understand it, these items were all his.  The bed looks much too small to accommodate his height – 6’ 4” - but it’s actually 6’ 11” long.  The guide thought it looked shorter because the room’s pretty small, but I thought it was the wallpaper that made it look shorter.

his desk

his armoire

That’s the identical pattern of wallpaper that Mary selected for their bedrooms; the Park Service knows this because, when they were renovating the house, they found a large swatch of the wallpaper sandwiched between 2 boards, apparently during a much earlier remodeling project.  The boards had protected it from the light, so the colors looked just as you see them on the walls.  The NPS found the company that made that pattern and got them to make enough for them to use in the house.  The guide thinks Lincoln must have hated it, because he hadn’t found one man in any of his tour groups that liked it, but Lincoln himself said he liked it very much (which the guide thinks was his way of keeping peace with his wife).  Oh well.  I thought it was too busy for such a small room, but Mary didn’t ask my opinion.

Mary's stove

their kitchen

Mary cooked in the fireplace for many years, particularly when the house was only 1 story high.  Even when they added a kitchen on to the back of the house when they went up a 2nd story, she still cooked in a fireplace because that’s what people did.  Finally, Abe happened to see this huge stove (at right) for sale in town and bought it for Mary.  It weighs 300 pounds.  Mary loved it and seriously considered taking it with them when they moved to Washington (all 300 pounds of it, from Springfield over the mountains to Washington DC) but Abe convinced her that there would be other people in the White House who would do the cooking and they’d already have whatever implements they needed.  Which is why Mary’s original stove is still standing in the kitchen.

Lincoln’s character

Abe loved animals; he was very attached to Old Bob, the horse he rode on circuit.  The family had a dog, Fido, who they decided to leave with a neighbor when they went to Washington.  But Lincoln was especially known for picking up stray cats, and there were always several around the house.

He also loved children, especially his own, who he indulged quite a bit.  But he hadn’t had much of a childhood, because the family needed him to go to work when he was still young.  He was really only able to get an education because of the efforts of his stepmother, Sarah Bush Lincoln.  As a result, he allowed his own children to play and make noise and generally have a good time (as long as they studied their lessons).  Visitors were often scandalized by the boys’ behavior, but considering 3 of the 4 died young, it seems just as well that their time was happy for as long as possible.

Lincoln also befriended the neighborhood children.  The neighbors were a mix of skin colors and income levels and social position, and Lincoln was especially concerned that the poorer children should get some of the treats his sons got.  So when the circus came to town, for instance, he’d gather up a batch of boys and take them all with his sons, paying the entrance fee for the ones who couldn’t afford it.  A nice man.

Lincoln’s family

Mary came to Springfield to stay with her older married sister Elizabeth.  To help Mary find an eligible husband, Elizabeth held a dance and invited all the eligible bachelors in Springfield.  Her invitation included all the attorneys, which is how Lincoln got invited.  Elizabeth considered Lincoln far beneath her sister and wouldn’t otherwise have given him the time of day; in fact, she tried to discourage Mary from even dancing with him.

The two sisters were sitting on a couch when Lincoln saw them and was quite taken with Mary.  She was 5’ 2” and pretty and vivacious.  The gangling Lincoln went up to her and said he “wanted to dance with her in the worst way.”  Mary accepted, despite Elizabeth’s disapproval, but between their height difference and Lincoln not being a very good dancer, the dance wasn’t a success.  When he returned Mary to her sister, Elizabeth asked her what she thought of him, expecting a firm thumb’s-down.  But Mary said she could tell he was an honest man, because after all he’d said he wanted to dance with her “in the worst way.”

Oddly, Mary had said from when she was a child that she wanted to marry the president.  When they married, nothing looked further from reality than Lincoln becoming president, though we know how that turned out.  I feel sure her childhood dream of being a president's wife hadn't included assassination, showing that when you set your mind on achieving something, be sure you really want it.

Lincoln’s Tomb

Lincoln's tomb

explaining the present structure

After Lincoln was assassinated, his friends formed an association to raise funds to build a tomb.  The site was chosen by the Lincoln family.  In 1868 funds had been raised and a design competition was held.  In 1874, President Grant dedicated the tomb.  In 1895, the last surviving member of the association deeded the tomb to the State of Illinois.  The renovations began in 1899, as you see in the photo at right above.

closeup of statues

explains the statuary

As you can see above, the balcony curves out below Lincoln's statue and at the center of the curve is the plaque below.

The Gettysburg Address

Just below the plaque is the entrance to the tomb where the Lincoln family is buried.  I didn't go in so can't tell you any more than is in the renovation sign above.

The bust of Lincoln (right) has an odd myth connected to it: rubbing his nose brings good luck, which explains the reason for its different appearance.  I can't imagine where that came from, and I didn't do that either, but I saw others who did.

There are several other Lincoln-related locations around town - after all, he spent 20 years here.  But these were the only two I visited.