Day 4 of my Route 66 journey, and I am still in Illinois! I know, I know - I have only traveled about 350 miles, but I am not going in a straight line and I am trying to see everything that catches my interest.
So let me pick up the story from where I left off, in the campground at Lincoln's New Salem State Historic area. We went geocaching last evening while it was still light and a bit cooler than it had been during the day. I am sorry to say that we did not find the cache that was supposed to be hidden here, at Abe's statue. But we found Abe reading a book again. See what reading does for you?
Since the geocaching did not go so well, I back tracked a bit to take a picture of this flatboat that we passed on the way to the park. It doesn't look like a very comfortable way to travel. If you can enlarge the photo, you will see an interesting story about Abraham Lincoln in 1831 in New Salem.
We had to see the Lauterbach Giant and drove past the Cozy Dog Drive In before leaving Springfield.
In honor of my mother, I sought out this Shrine of Our Lady of the Highways. It's sitting in the front of a farm and I would guess there is a story to go with it. I liked the Burma Shave-like signs after you pass the shrine, with the words to the Hail Mary prayer. I am sure that Mom was saying the prayer with me for safe travels.
So let me pick up the story from where I left off, in the campground at Lincoln's New Salem State Historic area. We went geocaching last evening while it was still light and a bit cooler than it had been during the day. I am sorry to say that we did not find the cache that was supposed to be hidden here, at Abe's statue. But we found Abe reading a book again. See what reading does for you?
Since the geocaching did not go so well, I back tracked a bit to take a picture of this flatboat that we passed on the way to the park. It doesn't look like a very comfortable way to travel. If you can enlarge the photo, you will see an interesting story about Abraham Lincoln in 1831 in New Salem.
This morning I had to attend some meetings by phone. It's too bad I don't really want to work much, it seems I could get many more hours of pay. But that would cut into my travel time. I will have to focus on earning money this winter to pay for next year's adventure. I wonder what it will be...
Once we got moving, we set off to find Route 66 again near Springfield. We found this old unused section in Sherman, where they are celebrating "Shermanfest" this weekend.
It was hard to believe that today was the first day of Autumn, my car indicated that it was 98 degrees this afternoon when we were in downtown Springfield. So we missed many of the Lincoln related sites, but captured a few. Bungie even took a walk around Union Station Park.
Right across the street from the park, you will find the Lincoln Presidential Museum and the Lincoln Presidential Library.
Trying to find Lincoln's gravesite turned out to be a bigger challenge. Calvary Cemetery was not built to be friendly to Subaru's pulling T@G campers, following GPS instructions. If you haven't had the pleasure of attempting navigation of the cemetery from this entrance, I will save you the trouble and recommend that you enter from Walnut Street. We never did find the gravesite and I just couldn't bear going all the way around again. It is not easy to do a U-turn with a camper there.
While trying to find Abe's Boyhood Home, we stumbled upon the State Capitol building. The Boyhood Home site was very crowded with school buses and the like, so we kept on moving.
We had to see the Lauterbach Giant and drove past the Cozy Dog Drive In before leaving Springfield.
This is a stretch of very old Portland cement Route 66 south of Springfield. I liked the road sign. The Route 66 Guide calls it the Glenarm Alignment.
In honor of my mother, I sought out this Shrine of Our Lady of the Highways. It's sitting in the front of a farm and I would guess there is a story to go with it. I liked the Burma Shave-like signs after you pass the shrine, with the words to the Hail Mary prayer. I am sure that Mom was saying the prayer with me for safe travels.
Deciding to continue the theme of playing it by ear. I did a search of the phone for campgrounds near me and found Rustic Acres in New Douglas, IL. They gave me the site right next to the restrooms, which is important when you travel in a T@G. If only they had WiFi, but I am very pleased with Verizon and my iPhone hotspot, so I am not going to complain. They even gave me a senior discount, so life is very good.
Tomorrow the plan is to leave Illinois finally and get through St. Louis without incident. Happy trails!
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