Lots to See in Central Illinois

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Geo: 41.7992, -85.4192

On Saturday, we had only a short drive to get to New Berlin then to Springfield. It was about 1.5 hours from Quincy to New Berlin where we stopped first at the West Sangamon County Public Library. I read about the library online before we left home and did not expect them to have anything much of value to Phil's research since the library is less than twenty years old. They did have a small archive and genealogy room, and he found a few useful pieces. As always, the librarian was very helpful and let Phil browse the books and documents on his own. While there, I noticed a three-dimensional poster about the history of the area. One of the vignettes was of the local barbers, then and now. I didn't know the year that "then" referred to, but the old barber was Red McDevitt.

At the library, we confirmed the locations of Little Hope Cemetery and drove a few miles south of New Berlin to find it. We didn't see it on the corner where we expected it, but there were two people standing outside in front of a farmhouse on that corner. Phil got out and went to ask if they could help us locate it. The cemetery was right there on their property but was overgrown and a tangled mess of grass and vines in such bad shape that if was not visible from the road. They invited Philip to park in their driveway and told him to walk along the back fence to find the graveyard. The homeowner also warned him about the prevalence of poison ivy in the area. We walked to the cemetery, and Phil happily walked in looking for McDevitt markers. I stayed on the edge in the low grass since I was wearing sandals and did not want to find out what poison ivy feels like first hand.

After having fun looking through the headstones, we drove on into Springfield. It was only 12:30 p.m. and too early for even the most generous check-in at the hotel, so we went to the Cozy Dog Drive In for lunch. It was there that the first ever corn dog was invented. The corn dog was good, and their French fries even better. I saw this café on the website RoadsideAmerica.com when I was looking for fun, maybe quirky, places to visit along the trip. I found out about the American Gothic House on the same site.

After we got into our room for the night, Phil worked on school stuff and got most of his weekly papers graded, and I did a little bit of laundry. Our hotel does not have its own guest laundry, but they have an arrangement with the adjacent Staybridge Hotel so I could use their laundry room. The washers and dryers were free, which was a nice amenity, but the washers took over an hour to run, and it was impossible to tell where they were in the cycle while it was running. It took me two hours to get everything done. By that time, Philip was ready to eat, and we went to Engrained Brewery for dinner. As we pulled into the shopping area for the restaurant, we saw a huge building labeled Scheel's. We had never heard of that business so I looked it up and found out it is a sporting goods and outdoor recreation store. After dinner, we stopped in for a look since we still need a few supplies for the Antarctica trip next month. It is almost as much a showplace as a retail store. The first thing that amazed us was the full-size, operating Ferris wheel in the center of the store. There was at least one car with people riding in it, too. We found a few things to buy – hiking shoes and wool socks. While Philip tried on shoes, I went upstairs to look around. There was a display of a dozen or so statues of historical figures – mostly U.S. presidents, but maybe some others that I don't remember. The statue of Lincoln was animated and giving one of his speeches.

Our hotel in Springfield has been the best one so far. We had a king suite at the Hampton Inn and Suites Southwest. It has two large rooms—one with the dining table, kitchen, desk, and living area, and the other with the bed and a sofa. It has been a pleasure to stay here. The staff is well trained in customer service skills.

On Sunday, we drove a few miles into the center of Springfield for some sightseeing in the Abraham Lincoln neighborhood. We visited the Lincoln museum first. It is just beautiful and very well done with great displays and interesting, creative and complex presentations using holograms, historical and new video, and, I think, one live actor, but perhaps he was recorded as well just perfectly so. He looked real. We also peeked into the Lincoln Presidential Library before stopping for lunch at the Andiamo Café. Philip had Chicago style pizza and I had a half sandwich and salad combo.

We arrived back at the hotel in time to watch the Cowboys play the Bengals on TV. The Cowboys won handily; Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott are amazing rookies and really shone again in this game. We microwaved popcorn for dinner and Philip had his favorite football beer that we found at a grocery store when we were on our way back to the hotel after sightseeing.

Today, we checked out and drove to Sturgis, Michigan for the night. This is our first time in Michigan, and we are staying just over the state line from Indiana. We found a restaurant we wanted to try for dinner tonight, but when we got there, there was a sign on the door saying they were closed for that long weekend. They are normally open on Mondays. We continued down the street and found Da Vinci's Restaurant open for a good Italian meal.

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