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Published: January 8th 2012
Waking up in America is very different to waking up in Europe. It is so much busier - the cities never sleep. Breakfast American style comprises of enough food to feed the five thousand and have some left over.
Chicago like many American cities is a city of two halves - the affluent part with the Magnificent Mile with its high class shops to the ghettoes on the outskirts. Most buildings are new - built after the great fire. A mixture of style ranging from Gothic to Art Deco. It is definately the Windy City with a nippy wind being pulled in from Lake Michigan which felt and looked more like an inland sea.
We walked Navy Pier admiring the restaurant boats moored on the harbour side and wished we had more time to go on the lake. Visits in the past to areas on water or near the sea always meant having a trip out on the water. Loch Lomond, the sea off the coast near Oban and Devon and Cornwall - Lake Michigan was no different - it begged a trip on its waters.
Evening meal was spent in the Italian Village a disney psuedo Italian
styled outlet where you expected the Mafia to be hiding round every corner. A bit over the top but then that is America.
Monday found us in the rough part of the city. When you are brought up on stories of Cowboy Bill, the Bradley millionaire and Al Capone running one of your relatives out of Chicago you cannot fail to want to have a look at the reality. We hired a taxi and asked to be taken to the street that Cowboy Bill and his wife lived in 1911. The taxi driver agreed to take us but only if I stayed in the car and Glenn got out quickly to take photos. We wondered why this should be but as we got further out of the city it became crystal clear. Clean neat streets were replaced by graffiti covered run down buildings,burnt out shells of houses and empty properties. Burnt out cars littered the streets and curtains twitched. Thiswas the other side of America where unemployment amongst the coloured population was rife and we were unwelcome guests. Bills house was still there little changed from the old sepia photos we had at home. What a shame he wasnt
run out of Chicago by Capone just chose to come home due to lack of work on the railways.
Hiring a car was an interesting experience. We had done this at home via the Internet using one of the reputable companies. The car a small green vehicle looked strangely out of place due to its size. We may as well had put visitors in big letters along the side of it. The Americans drive on the same side of the road as mainland Europe but stangely enough it felt different than driving in France or Italy.
Illinois is a very flat state and once you leave Chicago the landscape becomes quite boring with fields after fields of corn and maize. The odd town appears on the horizon and a glimpse of a water tower emblazoned with the town name for all to see .
Our first stop was to meet relatives in Peoria. Peoria is rather off the beaten track and not on the tourist routes. Signs on the way showed 500 miles to Memphis - but no mention of the nearest town or city a few miles down the road. The drive was boring and we
began to consider the wisdom of seeing so many of our relatives. Three weeks sounded a long time but we had by now found ourselves four days into the holiday and seemingly wasting our time. The weather turned poor as we drove into Peoria, heavy rain and thunder. We had to stop on the side of the road to let it pass overhead. The windscreen wipers ineffectual clearing the rain away.
There is nothing much to see in Peoria. It's one of those places you pass by on the way to somewhere else. We stayed at a Red Rooster motel probably the best we saw after Chicago. It had good breakfasts and spacious rooms. We met our first relative here - our great grandfathers brother had emigrated to Illinois in 1905 escaping the hard life of mining in Derbyshire. He managed to move from mining to mining management carving out a much better life than he had had back home. We were meeting one of his descendents that evening and another in a nursing home in the city the next day. We enjoyed meeting them but it was with some relief as we headed away to Springfield the capital
of Illinois.
Springfield is the home of Abraham Lincoln. He arrived in Illinois in 1831 and moved to Springfield by 1837. The period between 1831 and 1836 was spent in New Salem. One of the sights of Springfield is Lincolns home which has been preserved. This is where he lived between the years of 1844 and 1861. Located on the corner of 8th and Jackson the house has twelve fully furnished rooms in the style of the period and containing Lincoln memorabilia.
Also worth visiting was the Old Court House and the Lincoln Memorial located on Monument Avenue. Dedicated in 1874 it contains the tombs of the man himself, his wife and three out of their four children. .
Our final homage to Lincoln took place at New Salem where an entire log village has been preserved. The site comprises of 23 fully furnished log cabins, homes, stores, tradesmens shops, a tavarn, school, wool carding mill, sawmill and flour mill. This historical village allows visitors to wander at their own pace and to read the information on the log buildings which explain various aspects of the village's history On the day we visited interpreters dressed in period clothing may be encountered throughout the village. All were happy to discuss aspects of life in the village at the time Lincoln lived there. The small museum shop sold items related to Lincoln and we bought a gold coloured christmas tree decoration depicting a log cabin deep in the woods at New Salem. A reminder to be brought out every year and hung on the christmas tree.
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