Day 2 - In Illinois

Another day of things not going exactly as planned - but it was GREAT! We left the hotel early this morning and almost immediately got off the interstate highway - headed to Springfield. The country side is beautiful - we saw lots of HUGE windmills in the farm fields. As we drove we saw lots of small villages - very few new homes and even fewer brick homes. We lucked up on a small town named Vandalia. This is the site of Illinois' first capital and we actually walked through doors and stood on wooden floors where Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas stood in service to the Illinois House of Representatives. WOW! As you can see from the picture, I had my picture made with Abraham Lincoln with the first capital in the background. We also saw the monument to the termination of the Cumberland Highway. Didn't mean a lot to us until we learned that it was the first federal highway, was supposed to go from coast to coast, and they ran out of money. James commented that evidently President Obama was not the first President to spend federal money for "the good of the states." Ha! When we left Vandalia, we headed to Springfield. Boy what a sight - the current state capital is beautiful. We thought Alabama's was beautiful but this puts ours to shame. We made LOTS of pictures and the one here is James with the House of Representatives in the background. After a tour of the capital we went to the Presidental Library and Museum where we had our picture made with the Lincoln family in front of the White House. From there we went to the cemetery and toured the Lincoln tomb which again is fantastic. We learned that it was built with money donated - none came from the southern states (SURPRISE!) Guess what - with all of this we didn't make our planned stopping time of 5 p.m. It was closer to 7 but it was worth it. Tomorrow we head west for a while to Rock Island Island, Il (I used to work with people from there and I just want to know what it looks like) and then we head north toward Minneapolis - Wonder if we will get that far - probably not! But it is great being on the road.