2010 Illinois Suburban trip
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July 4
 Today was Kyle's turn to sleep in late. I took my shower, checked my email, and saw what was happening on Facebook. I didn't want the poor boy to sleep too late and be pressed for time so I threw a shoe at him.
 IHOP was an easy choice for breakfast. There were a couple nice bikes setting outside. Looked like they were on a journey. When we got inside there was going to be a 20 minute wait. Did we want to wait? We took a vote and it was unanimous...NO. A beautiful girl I'll wait for. Breakfast food...no.
 We drove down the road a bit and found Daphne's Restaurant. It looked like a nice place so we ate there. I had a ham omelette. Very tasty. It's hard to find one that isn't made with cheese. Kyle was checking out the waitress.
 Our first stop after breakfast was to go to the capitol building. We found some unassigned parking at a visitor's center and headed toward the capitol center. There were a couple memorials along the way. This is one of the tallest capitol buildings in the country and looks impressive. We worked our way around to the front of the building. The sky was partly cloudy and the temperature was somewhere between warm and a little hot. We took a break under the canopy for a smoke, then decided to go inside and explore.
 There was a security checkpoint right inside the door. Capitol police, metal detectors, X-ray scanners, the whole nine yards. I forgot to take the metal Flipnotes thing out of my pants pocket and got to make another trip through the metal detector. You were only allowed to freely explore the main floor unguided. Going up required one of the guided tours. We roamed the halls seeing what there was to be seen. Kyle and I found an open door to the basement that was making a nice breeze. The dome is awesome to stare up into.
 We still had an hour until the next tour started. We went outside to explore and kill some time. We walked around the front lawn and around the block to check out the festivities.
 They were still setting most things up so we eventually made our way back inside where it was cooler. I got through security in one try this time. We sat around until our 1:00 pm tour.
 According to the tour guide during the week the capitol building is open for free roaming, but on the weekend the upstairs are only available by tour. Consequently, the tour was pretty rushed. You barely had time to look at anything before he was asking people to move on. He even got onto to some people who he felt were lagging behind. Kyle was lusting over the girl in the green shirt.
 We decided that when we come back tonight to watch the fireworks we would use a taxi. After the tour we hopped in the Suburban and hit a convenience store for something to drink. An ambulance went by, and I thought how nice it was to be on vacation.
 We had plenty of time before the the evening festivities started at 6:30pm. We started driving and Debby suggested visiting the settlement of New Salem...officially called Lincoln's New Salem Historic Home Site. It's about 20 miles northwest of Springfield. It was a nice leisurely drive on 2-lane roads. The site is an authentic reproduction of the settlement where Lincoln spent his early adulthood. It has paved walkways through the village, which was nice since Debby used one of their wheelchairs. The village was interesting. Reminded me of Cade's Cove in Tennessee or Springmill Park in Indiana. It sprinkled a few times and the mosquitos were pesky if you walked through the grass and riled them up. We picked up some pins!
 Kyle forgot to bring his belt and has been fighting droopy drawers all day. On the way back to the hotel we stopped at Walmart and Kyle found a belt. We got back to the hotel at 17:23 and we rested for about an hour. Then we called a cab who picked us up at 18:45. He dropped us off at the far corner of the festival block as the streets were barricaded for the event.
 We were no sooner out of the cab when this golf cart appeared to give Debby a ride, and off she went. By now the festival was in full swing. Food booths, radio vans, live music, and tons of people.
 At the start of the trip the extended weather forecast was sunny with a chance of rain late Monday. Today, however, the weather has had a threatening feel. We walked around for awhile to check things out then found a spot on the lawn near the street. We had some elephant ears and pop. We sat there watching the crowd and waiting for the dusk fireworks. I was treated to seeing an Amtrak train pass thru. Kyle...what are you looking at?
The bell tower looks cool lit up against the evil sky. It sprinkled a couple times while we sat there. The clouds would roll in and out. Cloudy one minute, then sunny the next. Feels like Indiana. About 7:30 it started raining. We rode it out and eventually it stopped. Just a couple more hours until the fireworks. No problem. A little after 8pm we started to see dark clouds and some lightning. The cool breeze felt good and dried us out from the earlier rain. Then...about 8:30...the storm hit. Big drops and lots of them. We decided to abort.
 We walked up the street to where the taxi had dropped us off earlier and took shelter under a building canopy. John called the taxi and ten minutes or so later it arrived and took us back to the hotel. We hit our rooms to dry out. I turned on the John Wayne marathon. Kyle went to the weight room for awhile. John came by on his way to do laundry and I hung out with him for awhile in the laundry/weightroom. Afterwards I did some internet browsing then went to bed. I assumed they would cancel the fireworks, but John & Debby watched them from their window. Sigh...tomorrow we head home.
78 miles. Click here for our next day's adventure. |
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