August 5, 2006

August 5, 2006

Before lunch we hit the road again. We don’t want roots to start growing. We head twenty miles east to link up with I55 and head north. Seventy miles later, we enter Springfield, capital of Illinois and home of Abraham Lincoln. Springfield has numerous interesting Lincoln sites. We have seen most of them. Within the last year, a new Lincoln Museum and Presidential Library was opened. With two thumbs up from my brother, we stop to see it. It is well worth the stop but very crowded. We should have come earlier in the day. The museum reviews Lincoln’s life in a very un-museum-like way. It is designed for the DisneyWorld, no attention span generation. For example, the Civil War battle history is covered in a repeating four-minute movie. I still like it a lot. The Gettysburg Address also moves me. Put in context by the museum, I think it is the shortest and the best political speech ever written. It embodies the spirit of the US.

Before heading out of town we stop at Lincoln’s tomb. This is the one site we missed on previous Springfield stops. In front is a giant bust of Lincoln, sculpted by Gutzon Borglum of Mount Rushmore fame.

Back in the RV we head north. Near 9:00pm we roll into Itasca, outside Chicago. Aimee’s mother lives here and has food ready for us.