October 13, 2018
Visitor Center – cabin is in winged roof area on the left
Samuel Clemens, AKA Mark Twain, is one of America’s iconic writers. But there’s always more to the famous man or woman than his or her fame.
Who was Samuel Clemens? Continue reading
October 11, 2018
Home Sweet Home
WE LUCKED OUT! The Recreation.gov website was overhauled and is a serious mess. I went online and spent over an hour fighting with it to find a campsite near Hannibal with little success. According to the new and “improved” reservation system all campsites at Ray Behrens were walk in only so we rolled out and figured it was Thursday so we should be able to get a site before weekenders showed up.
For those following our blog, we were trying to post things chronologically but we have so many posts to do for the summer trip that it is taking a long time. This means the places we’ve toured recently get pushed farther and farther back and are old posts by the time we get to them. To get the current postings out there while they are fresh in our minds, we are going to start posting current news with occasional bursts of postings from prior wanderings. This also gives people a ball park idea of which area of the country we are currently wandering through.
Once we are caught up, we plan to delete this notice. We will post mini-notices to let people know when we’ve published another burst of older information.
October 10, 2018
Cahokia Mounds is an incredible park that has been on our must see list for a long time.
Even their front doors are incredible – although they are now permanently locked and have been replaced by “conventional” doors due to the extreme weight of the metal doors.
Cahokia Mounds Visitor Center doors
October 8, 2018
We spent a very enjoyable day at the Melvin Price Lock & Dam. We also took an awesome tour conducted by a very high energy volunteer guide.
Visitor Center
The locks and dams along the upper Mississippi River are enormous, at least compared to us puny humans.
Lock and dam
October 7-10, 2018
After much searching in the St. Louis area, we opted for Pere Marquette State Park as our home base for touring Cahokia Mounds. There was no central location to stop at since this was a dip in our travels. We left Springfield, Illinois with plans to hit Cahokia Mounds then loop back up to Hannibal, Missouri. Continue reading
October 2, 2018
Long View of Exterior
While hitting the Lincoln sites in Springfield we noticed a flyer for a Frank Lloyd Wright designed home, the Dana-Thomas House. I like some of Wright’s designs so we figured we’d check it out. Continue reading
John is really good at all the historical facts and numbers. He labored over his Lincoln posts to make sure his data was correct and everything flowed well. I hate numbers. I can’t remember numbers, dates, statistics and other number type things. That puts me more in the “color commentary” position for the blog with thoughts and impressions.
So here’s what I took away from the Land of Lincoln:
Abe as a child:
Abraham Lincoln grew up on a farm on the frontier. His mother died when he was young and his father decided to move his household. So, when Abe was 8, his dad handed him an axe and said something along the lines of – Abe, start chopping. We’re going to build a cabin and clear a farm. Continue reading
September 30 & October 2, 2018
We spent parts of two days at the Old State Capitol. While the exterior may look a bit timeworn, the interior has been nicely restored.
This building served as the capitol from 1839 to 1876. During the 1840s and 1850s the capitol dominated Springfield’s square and was the center of public life.
September 30, 2018
I found this museum in downtown Springfield, Illinois a fascinating place to visit. As usual for us, we spent the entire day there and had more than enough to keep our interest.
There were two main exhibit halls dedicated to Lincoln: the first examined his early life through his election as president while the second covered his time as president. A third exhibit hall was dedicated to Illinois’ bicentennial and to the four presidents that lived some part of their lives in Illinois: Lincoln, Grant, Reagan, and Obama. Each exhibit hall had elaborate dioramas and artifacts.
Spirit of the Woods 