Coffee, Coffee, Coffee!

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I picked Cay up and we headed out to Kewanee because I had spotted a Java Hut: oh, the luxury of a lattee!. It was an interesting place: the girl at the counter asked if wanted to tan, to get a haircut, or???? How ingenious to have a day spa, tanning, hair, piercing,and tattoo salon with a coffee bar: and the receptionist was wearing a pirate eye patch..... Oh, if only I would have had more time, energy, and money! ( I am not making fun of a disability-she had poked herself in the eye, or something about her contact lens, but it did make a really odd first impression.)

We headed out to Elmira where Cay had many family memories: her grandfather had his medical practice in the tiny little house across from the falling-down Elmira School. At one time there were several Presbyterian churches in Elmira-one had service in Gaelic.

After lunch we were off to the Court House. Heaven to have a whole room of great big heavy books with leather covers and full of birth, marriage, death, and land records. Big bummer to find out that there were Great Aunts suing other Great Aunts over the land where the Maxfield home stood. I was writing like a madwoman, so it will take a while to sort out all of the intrigue. As Cay said, " Sometimes you find out more than you wanted to know about your family." The intrigue was helped a bit by knowing the historical significance of the Court House: Lincoln and Douglas had debated there during the election. It is a beautiful town square.

We hoped that the sun would finally be down enough to retake the cemetery pictures, and we were partly correct. I am probably going to have to go out by the light of the moon to get a clear image of my great grandmother's parents' monument: it is white, the letters are worn, and it is not even close to a tree for any kind of daytime shade.

Of course by now we had worked up an appetite so we headed out for some really bad Mexican food. Let me tell you, any one of us could be successful with a Mexican restaurant in Stark County. The place was packed , even though there was no rice, no beans, and the deepfried taco came in a red plastic basket sitting on top of a square of oily waxed paper! No salsa! AND they give us instead sour cream for dressing...... The saving grace of the food in Stark County is that it is CHEAP! I have yet to spend over $12.00 for a meal, and most of the time it is far less. Of course, many times it is actually very well priced for what you get. The saving grace is Connie's whose food is not only cheap, it's also GOOD. It's a good combination because it is the only place to eat in Toulon.

Tomorrow, Friday, is my sight seeing day. Indian Creek is having a rehearsal dinner followed on Saturday morning by a wedding. I have to give up my room, so I decided to drive into Springfield, see what central Illinois is like, and see the new Abraham Lincoln museum. I hope that stupid GPS starts working! I have been going non-stop and I hope that Friday will be more restful.

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Comments

[Richard]

houses
I'm surprised by how beautiful many of the houses are there, and the generally good condition of everything. Where do those people get their money--tourists?

[Great Aunt Cora]

Tourists?
There are very few tourists here-maybe just me this week.....I was also surprised by all the lovely homes, but then I was reminded that Toulon is the county seat and many homes were built that were then inherited and kept up as much as possible. If you look closely, many are showing signs of wear, and I didn't take pictures of trashy places with piles of junk and abandoned cars: those exist here, too. However, I saw graffitti for the first time this week on a shed and I was shocked. Generally the town is tidy and shows the pride that the towns people take in their homes, town, and country. I had to bid Cora good-bye this evening, it was teary. I am also very, very tired. My blog is a day behind, but tonight it may go to two days behind. It is very time consuming-the photo upload is very slow. Tomorrow is a traavel day-yuck!