Day 22--Springfield, Il.: The Land of Lincoln

Today we spent the day here in Springfield, so it was so nice not to have to pack up first thing and be on the road (we are saving that for our big driving day tomorrow to Chicago!). Our day did start of with a bang, though. For most who may not know, we have been counting down days to June 24 for a while now...it's the day Spiderwick Chronicles is released on DVD. Ben is such a HUGE Spiderwick fan, and for those in my family who have had to endure stories about Ben and Spiderwick stuff for weeks (months!) on end, they are sick of it I'm sure. To make a long story short, I hope, Ben has convinced himself that we have a house brownie, which is a little creature who lives in our walls and helps us (like in the movie), and his name is Thimbletack. Over time he has gotten Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide and other various Spiderwick things, but he has been begging Thimbletack (through notes left almost every night for weeks) for the "real" field guide which Arthur made. Thimbletack doesn't have that great of connections, but he tries.


So last night Ben, who thinks Thimbletack is traveling with us, wrote him a note saying, "Can you give me the book yet? I want it this night." After Ben went to bed, Thimbletack wrote back, "SPRINGFIELD IS NOT IN ILLINOIS, BUT LET ME TELL YOU THIS MY BOY, I CANNOT BRING WHAT YOU WANT FROM ME, BUT PLEASE ENJOY THE DVD!" Daren and I got a good laugh out of it (at 1am), and then Daren had a brilliant idea...Walmart is open 24-hours and there is one right by our hotel, so he went to buy the DVD to help Thimbletack out. We placed it under the note and continued on with the note: AND NOW TO RIVERTON I MUST GO, I'LL SEE YOU SOON, DON'T BE SLOW. Ben couldn't believe it when he woke up this morning! It was pretty sweet, but how long do you think he will hold on to this Spiderwick thing???? (The Springfield reference is because he thinks the Spiderwick Estate is in Springfield, so he has spent plenty of time out in the car looking on the GPS for it)

Ben and the boys spent part of the morning in the car parked right outside our hotel room, watching Spiderwick Chronicles. After that we got going on our day for a tour of Springville (I can't help but think of that singer Rick Springfield from the 80's everytime I hear that name!), home of Abraham Lincoln. Our first stop was to the Oak Ridge Cemetery to see Lincoln's tomb, and it was another beautiful cemetery with many rolling hills. It is an amazing monument dedicated as the final burial place for our sixteenth president after he was assasinated at Ford's Theater in Washington DC, just after the Civil War ended.

It was neat to see the sarcophagus where Lincoln's body lies--it's much nicer to see it like this rather than like Lenin's Tomb in Red Square, Moscow, Russia, where they have managed to preserve his actual body to look at in his tomb as you walk by (I saw that when I was in Russia in 1994, teaching English to preschool children). Inscribed above the door behind this is, "Now he belongs to the ages," spoken by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton at the moment of Lincoln's death.

This is the beautiful old state capitol building where Lincoln gave his famous address, "A house divided against itself cannot stand."

We took a break in the day to get back to our Route 66 roots and we found the Cozy Drive In, a famous eating establishment along the Mother Road. They are known for their corn dogs, and I'm telling you they are good! My favorite thing there was the "Route Beer" in bottles with the Route 66 logo on it. Very clever. Now I'm pretty sure that this will be my last Cars movie reference--I know I said that before, but I think now it's true; until I find something else. Sally's motel, the "Cozy Cone" was named directly from this place. I love this picture, complete with 3 old guys just chatting together with the tailgate down. (Hmm, tailgate...football season will be here soon, yea!!)

There was Route 66 memorabilia everywhere you looked, some of it quite old and all very cool!

After our break we went back into town to go to the Lincoln Presidential Museum. I was convinced that we would be there for 30, maybe 45 minutes max, but thank goodness for their children's play area that allowed them to mess around with fun stuff while allowing us to go do some exploring on our own. We ended up staying about 2-1/2 hours, and it was a great exhibit. Here we are, posing with our new friends, the Lincoln's!

In this part of the children's area, called Mary's Attic, is old-time fruits, veggies, breads, and other foods, plus cooking ware (a dutch oven). The boys had a blast "creating" a new meal.

Will found the wood train, so we hooked up some wooden animals behin for him to drive around. It was a huge hit!

A funny story about these bellows, which are usually hanging by the fireplace. I took it off and showed it to Ben and asked him what he thought it was used for. Since we have an electric fireplace at home, he has no clue. His best guess was that it was used to cool hot foods down. Jake's guess was that it was used to crumble up food inside. Good answer, good answer...and the board says...strike one, strike two. (My best attempt at Family Feud) They had other fun things for kids there like some dress up clothes, some old games they played back in the day, plenty of Lincoln Logs, and a big doll house which was a replica of Lincoln's home, the only one he ever owned, and all the while playing old-time music in the background, like "Polly Wolly Doodle All Day." The boys had a blast.

At the end of the day we found Lincoln's law office where he practiced with his two partners from 1843 to 1852. What do you do with those lawyers?!!

For our final leg of the tour, we went back to the cemetery to see the flag retreat ceremony, held each Tuesday. The 114th Illinois Volunteer Reactivated Infantry demonstrates Civil War military drills and conducts flag retreat ceremonies every Tuesday night during the summer. We finally were in the right place at the right time!!

The boys had just about had it by that point of the day, but they did hold still long enough to watch the flag being lowered and folded, while putting their hands over their hearts. We managed to dodge storms long enough to watch the whole ceremony. The storms really do come and go so fast around here!

"Piece" signs:

In Springfield, Il.

I couldn't resist the Cozy Drive In sign in Springfield.

Now on to our final Route 66 destination city tomorrow--Chicago!!

Total mileage to date: 4.279.2

Weather: overcast with a few showers (including right now, with thunder), high 84 degrees

Premium gas price paid in Springfield: $4.13