The state of Illinois, in our eyes, was just beautiful. Beautiful and well kept farms, manicured corn
fields were everywhere. Our destination
for the night was Sangchris Lake State Park, about 10 miles south of
Springfield, Illinois. Beautiful lake
and a great campsite (#18). We set up
camp and went into the capitol city to go learn about Abraham Lincoln. Springfield is a very easy city to navigate
around. First stop was the Abraham Lincoln Museum. The presidential library is across the
street; however, it’s a research library so we walked in and walked out and
over to the museum.
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| Crossing that mighty Mississippi! |
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| Look who greeted us in the museum foyer |
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This is an absolutely great museum! One of the best, if not the best. All displays are interactive and bring to
life our 16th president’s history.
They start with his childhood, young adult, courtship days, marriage,
president and his assassination.
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| The young Lincoln teaching himself. |
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| What an awesome display of families being sold into slavery. Looked so real. |
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| One of young Abe's jobs in the store. |
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| Courting Mary |
He served as president from March 1861 until his
assassination in April 1865. He was the president
that led the United States through the American Civil War – our bloodiest war
and perhaps its greatest moral, constitution, and political crisis. In doing so, he preserved the Union,
abolished slavery, strengthened the federal government and modernized the
economy.
He was mostly self-educated and became a lawyer in
Illinois. In 1854 he became a leader in
building the new Republican Party. His
presidential victory prompted several states to secede from the United States
and form the Confederate States of America.
His Gettysburg Address became an iconic endorsement of nationalism,
republicanism, equal rights, liberty and democracy. And I guess for the first time in my life, I
realized that this was a speech he wrote and gave at Gettysburg, where there
were so many dead from the war that they buried them there at the Soldier’s
National Cemetery on the afternoon of Nov. 19, 1863, four and a half months
after the Union armies defeated those of the Confederacy and the Battle of
Gettysburg (Pennsylvania).
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| Typical home life |
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| Scene at the White House |
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| Mary Lincoln |
His most famous and successful general was Ulysses S.
Grant. As the war progressed, his
complex moves toward ending slavery included the Emancipation Proclamation of
1863. Lincoln used the army to protect
escaped slaves, encourage the border states to outlaw slavery and pushed
through Congress the Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, which
permanently outlawed slavery. One of the
displays was overwhelming and rather stressful, even incorporating a live
person in the display. I never thought about just what could happen if the
amendment wasn’t passed. Wow. Really tough times.
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| Their 11 year old son Willie is dying from typhoid fever. |
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| This display had a live person pacing around the table talking about the pros and cons of the emancipation proclamation. Things I never thought about! |
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| The civil war..... |
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| I sure didn't remember all of this story in history. |
On April 14, 1865, five days after the surrender of
Confederate general Robert E. Lee, Lincoln was shot by Confederate sympathizer
John Wilkes Booth and died the next day. He has consistently been ranked among
the greatest presidents. Whew!
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| Great display of John Wilkes Booth entering the booth to shoot Lincoln. |
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| Lying in state. |
We stopped by the house where he and his wife Mary and
family lived. The National Park Service
has done a great job keeping this place up!
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| The Lincoln Home |
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| Looking down the street |
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| The most photographed view of the Lincoln Home |
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| And the Illinois State Capitol |
We really enjoyed the campground we were at. Too bad it was for just 1 night. Beautiful moon. Waiting on a cool front to push through.
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| Great campsite! |
Next our travels take us through the cornfields and into
Parke County, Indiana, the heartland of covered bridges. We did not see all of them, but there are lots
of trails along some beautiful back country roads. Here’s some that we stopped at.
We did stop at Bridgeton. They have restored the Mill and
the Bridge there. Quite beautiful. Even bought some stone ground grits and wheat
bread flour.
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| Yummy products! |
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| They were just about to start grinding! |
We also stopped at Turkey Run State Park. Just happened to be a National Free Admission
to Parks day! Cool! But oh my, the people!!! Really crowded. This is a beautiful park, lots of
trails. This is the first day of fall
and it’s on the cool side, cloudy. But
there were lots of toobers in the river and canoes.
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| No way was I walking over this very busy suspension bridge! |
Stopped at an Amish milk dairy and fruit stand. Now that’s some good souvenirs from the road!
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| Buggies and bicycles every where! |
Our next stop was the Newmar Factory in Nappanee
Indiana. This is where our motorcoach
was manufactured. And by the way, we are
celebrating the one year anniversary of our Dutch Star this month! Time has flown! And it’s still the best way, we think, to
enjoy this full time life of ours. Unable to take pictures at the factory, but one of the awesome memories was watching them drive the coach chassis over into a bay.......I mean, there was a steering wheel with a guy driving the heck out of it, with his golf cart attached to the back. No sides, no nothing! The plumbing pipes were all you saw on the base of the motorhome. This was a BUSY place. And......all the men looked alike. Amish and Mennonite. They tend to have the same beard and hair style. There was nobody standing around taking a break. They all worked together. They produce 11 coaches per day - a mixture of all the coaches they make. Very impressed with how they work here!
Until next time…….
