Thursday, April 29th

This blog is dedicated to Bernice Hilton (Dennis' Mom) and Vito Soroka (Ilene's Dad). We miss both of them so much and wish that we could share the experiences we will have on this trip. They both loved hearing our stories and places we would visit. We know they are with us in spirit and maybe with their help we'll be blessed with pretty good weather this trip. Here's to you Mom Hilton and Dad Soroka!

We left Lexington, Michigan bright and early today, pulling out of the driveway at 7:00 AM. Headed for Route 66, though it would take a few hours to connect with the historic highway. Route 66 has a mystical aura to it; all about dreams, travel, sports cars and the promise of a trunkful of memories. The road dates back to 1926 and follows old trails laid out by the early explorers. Beginning in Chicago, the road traverses the country in a southwesterly direction, ending in Los Angeles.


We traveled the somewhat boring I-69, I-94, I-80 and finally caught up with the narrow road south of Chicago. In many places, the road no longer exists. At other spots, the road comprises half of a divided highway.

We stopped in a little town called Odell, Illinois, pursuing a couple of historic gas stations. Now we knew that the road would not be a superhighway, but little did we know that it would be a quiet side street! The two gas stations were a mere 1000 ft apart. One was flanked by a home with the yard dotted with antique gas pumps. An elderly couple sat in matching rocking chairs and was more than willing to share a story or two. Sadly, we couldn’t stay long, as Springfield, capital of Illinois was beckoning us. We wanted to photograph the capitol building, along with Lincoln’s home and his burial place.

The wind was rather daunting today. Winds were at 35 mph, gusting to 47 mph. I had trouble hanging on to the motor home door when exiting the rig. It impacted our mileage, but we still got 14 mpg, so we’re not complaining.

We quickly found a municipal campground in Springfield for $15. Then we headed downtown to catch some of the state buildings before we lost any more light. As the day winds down, light becomes more and more yellow and it causes a problem with anything that isn’t purposely a sunset type picture. Unfortunately, rain is predicted for tomorrow and so we want to see what we can do. We managed to photograph the State Capitol Building, Supreme Court, State Museum, Lincoln’s home and several war memorials. We were able to enter the Capitol building and photographed both the House and Senate chambers. There were statues of Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln and other founding fathers of Illinois. There was a glorious statue of a goddess like creature in the center of the building. Dennis got a great shot pointing to the dome of the building with the arms of the goddess reaching towards the sky.

I asked one of the sentries at the Senate chambers where the photo of Rod Blagojevich was located (all former governor pictures adorn the hallway). The guard quickly explained that no picture was planned because the legislature voted to refuse to pay for the “dethroned” Illinois governor’s portrait.

When we were walking the historical area around Lincoln’s home, Dennis walked under a maple tree. Suddenly, a branch broke due to the high winds and fell on Dennis’ head and neck! He said that at first he thought someone had clubbed him to steal his camera gear and so he began to run. Then he realized what happened. He is sporting a bump on his noggin but otherwise seems “normal”.
Going to get a good night’s sleep as we plan to photograph a few more things in Springfield in the morning and then head on down Route 66 towards St. Louis.