Springfield to Staunton, October 11, 2011

We did not log a lot of miles today.  Instead we did a lot of tourist-ing.  We visited the Lincoln Presidential Museum and Lincoln’s Tomb in Springfield.  The museum was an incredible history lesson and a powerful reminder of the incivility of politics and war.  I never liked history when I was in school.  The facts didn’t stick with me beyond the final exam and the battles were meaningless.  This museum presented hiSTORY – it illustrated the people and their interactions.  It showed the horror of war and death in the 1800s and the casual disrespect for the lives of African American slaves.

The power of the stories was real and immediate.  I learned more about American history in those few short hours than I did in all of my school years.  The story of President Lincoln’s first year in office and the beginning of the civil war was wrenching.  He was vilified in the media. I was surprised at our emotional reaction as we walked through the Lincoln white house years and saw the story of the death of his son.  One section that Dennis and I both loved was a great holographic presentation called the Ghosts of the Library.  Springfield’s most famous resident gave us a memorable morning.

For our afternoon we have to give two shout-outs: one to Jane Rogers and one to my brother Tim.  For lunch we went to Joe Rogers’ Chili Parlor (in Springfield).  Jane had told us about it and we have to say that her husband’s “long lost relatives” cook up a mean batch of chili and great tamales!  Tim told us about a place in Staunton that is vintage Rte 66 – the Country Classic Cars.  It looks like a used car lot but all of the cars and trucks are vintage.  Dennis will upload pictures of a few of our favorites.  Our only problem with the place was finding it!  We learned the hard way that some stretches of the highway have frontage roads on BOTH sides of the road.  So, we did not travel a lot of miles today but we experienced the southern reaches of Illinois and really enjoyed it. 

We are staying in Edwardsville this evening in a Comfort Inn.  It is clean, friendly, comes complete with breakfast and is completely acceptable.  The Illinois countryside has been beautiful.  It has been filled with farmers bringing in the harvest and has reminded us of the bounty of the Midwest and of our many blessings.  Speaking of blessings, one of our stops was at a small shrine called Our Lady of the Highway.  It is being maintained by a family (picture posted by Dennis) whose house is on the Mother Road.  It has provided a place for travelers to say a prayer for safe travels for several decades.  And, tomorrow we travel on to Missouri – we’ll make sure to capture the change.