Blogs from Springfield, Illinois, United States, North America

Made it past Missouri and into Illinois. Springfield is probably not your best rest stop. I suggest to continue on.... read more

Na onze eerste nacht in de camper ging het richting de wereldberoemde Niagara Falls. Omdat de bewijzering naar de Falls verschrikkelijk was (een terugkerend fenomeen in de VS), hebben we een tweetal uur zitten klungelen om de juiste plek te vinden. De Falls op zich waren onvoorstelbaar. De Nederlandse taal schiet woorden tekort om deze prachtige speling van moeder natuur te beschrijven. De Niagara Falls omvat twee gedeeltes; de American Falls aan US en de Horseshoe Falls aan Canadese zijde. De Horseshoe Falls zijn het bekendere gedeelte, en zo’n 3 à 4x groter dan zijn Amerikaanse tegenhanger. Een frontside view vanop een boot drong zich op, en the price was right om een tochtje te doen. Tot nu toe was dit misschien wel het meest memorabele moment. Naast foto’s zijn er vooral veel mental pictures opgeslagen ... read more

For tourists, Springfield Illinois means seeing two things, Abraham Lincoln and Route 66. Unbelievably, they are related. The original path of route 66 goes only a block from the main Abraham Lincoln attractions, so they were major stops during the road’s heyday. I saw the Abraham Lincoln Home first. This National Historic Site centers on the house that Lincoln owned while living in Springfield and the surrounding neighborhood. In an amazing feat of historic preservation, virtually every building on these three blocks is original. The streets have been blocked off and converted back to dirt, so the area is remarkably accurate to the period. My initial reaction was that I was back in a recreation like Greenfield Village (see May 27th), but this is ... read more

After a sumptous breakfast we hit the road. First stop in Joliet to see the Joliet Jewel = Rialto Theater (1926). We passed the Gemini Giant in Wilmington and had a banana milkshake at the Polk a Dot vintage Rte 66 Drive In. In Springfield we visited Abraham Lincoln's tomb, we passed St Louis and entered Missouri to sleep over at the Diamond Travelodge near St. Clair. ... read more

So what ever happened to the travelers on route 66? It's like this -- we discovered that not every motel has a computer in the lobby. In fact, we had three straight nights with no computer to record the happenings on our route. So, since we are also doing a journal, we can regress in time three days and catch you up on what has been happening. We had a great time riding down through Illinois. It was great to be OUT of Chicago and in open country through Bloomington and Springfield. I had heard recently about a cafe that had been restored on Route 66 and we arrived in the town of Atlanta,IL just one month after the restored Palms Cafe reopened. It had been carefully copied from an old photo postcard of the place. ... read more

Here are a few Lincoln Museum snaps... read more

What a wonderful feeling! Not packing the Forester and driving less than 5 miles to start our day. However I know there are more 13 hour days on the horizon. Reflecting back on the trip from North Platte to Springfield, Betty came up with a way to shorten the trip. Try to follow her logic and remember after many hours of driving one tends to be a bit psychotic. We traveled through the widest part of Wyoming, Nebraska, and Iowa, so if these states were rotated and we only drove through the narrow part, the trip would be much shorter. This approach is based on her in- depth knowledge of editing photos. I have nothing more to say other than Illinois, Indiana and Ohio have already been rotated for us. Springfield proved to be a wonderful ... read more

Well we started our trip across America with great expectations, but 13 hours later pulling into SLC we were wondering "whose idea was this?". Driving across Nevada can have that kind of effect on even the sanest of travelers. There is no amount of lipstick that can help the endless nothingness of Reno to SLC. However the next morning we were once again ready to continue our journey with North Platte, Nebraska as our overnight stop. 13 hours later we pull into our motel. Not only have we driven over 650 miles, but have lost another hour to time zone change. We only had time for a dog walk followed closely by a "crash and burn". The good news - we are still taking to each other with KC as the go-between. Our next stop is ... read more