Lincoln, Lincoln I've Been Thinking......

Daily Mileage=313; Total Trip=11,123

Today we crossed the Mississippi river and drove up into Springfield, Illinois. We went to the Abraham Lincoln Museum and Library. (Our friend, Tom Daley said he couldn't believe that we would stop at the Bill Clinton Library/Museum but not the great Abraham Lincoln site. Tom is a consummate Republican however we thought about it and decided to put it into the route.) We stopped at Lincoln's home and took a brief tour then went to the 2 year old museum. The city which is also the capital of Illinois, is a larger city than some of the other western ones we've seen but very well maintained. The buildings, especially those with historic significance, have been restored and are beautiful. However, we left there at 5PM during rush hour and there was still no traffic, where are the people out here?? We also got to travel on the historic and infamous Route 66. (It's not really around anymore, it's become the major interstates, but you do see the reference signs as you travel out west.)

The historic site is really nice and very interesting. Lincoln's home in Springfield is where he and his family lived for a number of years before he became president. It reminds me of some of the Savannah houses. They are restoring the streets in the surrounding area so that there are even gravel streets and wooden curbs. The house was quite substantial however they were not considered "rich" for the time. And Mary Todd Lincoln did do her own cooking on one of the "top of line" stoves for the era. Rich wishes he had one, right!!!

We then went to the Museum which is rather new and very interactive. There is a wonderful library that holds millions of documents and artifacts about Lincoln and his era. It is a research library and not really open to the public. The museum is also quite impressive, although there were times when I felt I was in a Disney World attraction. They have several shows/movies (3D) that are technologically advanced and very entertaining. I think they are well received because most people want to sit down and be fed the information. Many of the other presidential "libraries" have tons of data but it's presented in such a way that you have to read and explore the information on your own. However, I don't want to give the impression that it wasn't worth visiting, it definitely was. We thoroughly enjoyed it and learned a lot about Lincoln, his family and the political times he served in. One of the best exhibits showed a US map on a screen a map during the Civil War. It showed the Civil War (the movements and the casualties) on a week by week basis. One second equaled one week. They showed 5 years (1860-1865) in 4 minutes. It was quite impressive and shocking (over 1 million causalities).

We then traveled back to Missouri and arrived in St. Louis. We went down to dinner at the old, restored Union Station. It's similar to other cities in which they now have shops and restaurants inside the trail station. There was a Cardinals baseball game going on in their beautiful new stadium (we couldn't get tickets but will try for tomorrow since they are playing the Phillies). The city is a "real" city relative to others. It's large, has many elevated highways, lots of old buildings and of course, the Arch. We are doing that tomorrow.

So Good night. Love&Joy, Mare&Rich