An Excursion to Springfield

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This morning I left Toulon for an Abraham Lincoln side trip. Culture shock! The drive in was beautiful-2 lane highways that wind through small towns and corn fields, and corn fields, and corn fields! Along the way I stopped at the New Salem historical park. It is a living history park and they have done a good job of recreating the feel of a small frontier town-only a lot cleaner and with lots more things to buy. It was also filled with an obnoxious tour group of teen-agers, many summer day care groups, and lots of hot, sweaty families with kids who wanted to go home, go to the bathroom, go get an ice cream, get their parents to carry them, or just whined for general purposes. I only got about a third of the way through it before my teacher response to misbehavior had my neck in a big knot, I decided that a lovely fall day would be a better visiting choice.

Then I was off to Springfield where I promptly got lost. However, miracle, upon miracle, the GPS started working! I finally got to my hotel, and goodness sakes alive, we are not in Toulon any more are we?





Next stop was the Abraham Lincoln Museum. I had heard raves about it and they were mostly justified. It was hard to see many of the exhibits because it was so crowded, and mid-way through the air conditioning seemed to go wacko! I had dressed a little warmer than the people in tank tops, shorts, and flip flops, but even I was chilled to the bone. The museum does do a wonderful job of having one experience how emotionally wrenching Lincoln’s presidency, the fight over slavery, and the Civil War were. Some things you know intellectually, but they have used actors and technology to really grab you and pull you into the torment. I am not sure that I would have taken children as young as the ones that I saw there.

I left when the museum closed- I had about 3 and a half hours to go through it. It would take even longer to go through if you had the time and space between people to get to all of the written displays. Springfield is definitely on my list of places we need to return to. It would probably take at least 3 days to go through all of the old homes and museums.

On the way back to the hotel, I decided to give myself a treat: Oh how wonderful a baby greens salad, a glass of a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, and a dinner of Ahi Tuna with wasabi mashed potatoes can be! What heaven to have some real California food.

Tomorrow it is back to Toulon. Hopefully the wedding went well at my bed and breakfast and my room will be all ready for me…..One last chance to dig into my history.

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Comments

[Richard]

Pictures
The pictures and blog may be a pain, but I feel that they are well worth it. Of course, that's easy for me to say since you do all the work. Still, you are doing a great job: A+ so far.

[Brittnee]

Bad coffee?? For shame!
That is quite unfortunate about your hotel's coffee! Your trip looks like so much fun though! I just bought Manhunt, which is about looking for John Wilkes Booth after he killed Lincoln- I bet it would be an even more interesting read after visiting the museum!

[Jennifer Winch]

Springfield
My grandparents had a farm outside Springfield, and are buried in the cemetary there. There have been a number of interesting books out on Lincoln in the last several years. He was an extraordinary man. Glad you are having a chance to see all this.

[Great Aunt Cora]

Mary Todd's maid
This is something that you will find interesting, Jennifer. I went down to the hotel lounge to have a glass of wine in the evening and some people were talking about touring Lincoln's home that day. The bartender asked if they remembered the little room that was the maid's quarters. It turns out that the maid was his grandmother. She came over from Ireland at the age of 14 and working for Mary Todd Lincoln was one of her first jobs. I wish that I would have had at least three days to tour Springfield-it is just bubbling with history. I would love the names of those books if you know them off hand. Have you seen the PBS documentary? I got it from Netflix before I left on my trip.