Illinois and Iowa and Indiana- a trip to see my brother John
Had a fun couple of days in the three of the four "I" states- Illinois, Iowa and Indiana. The latter state I just drove through so it doesn't really count. BUT, I did drive through it for hours so it's going in my count (since it "I" illiterates so nicely!).
The purpose of the trip was to visit my brother John who lives in a small little town in western Illinois. It's in a very rural, sparsely populated area of the state. The county that he lives in has 5000 people in it. Number of Covid cases: 0. To date, there have ten Covid cases in the county. All ten people who had it recovered so there have been no Covid deaths. It's interesting that there's a huge employer in the town, a warehouse, that sends semi trucks out by the dozens each day. So a number of people in the area are going out to larger places presumably where Covid exists. I didn't feel so bad breezing into town from suburban Ohio knowing that a number of employees from the town's largest workforce travel each day.
I was only in town for two days- John and I packed quite a bit in during the two days. I'm glad I went out there to visit John. He normally comes out here at least a couple of times each year since he moved to western IL seven years ago. He asked me if I would want to come out and see his place this summer. He told me about several historical attractions he knew I would be interested to see.
I realized a couple of things about this trip- it was the first time I'd been to Illinois since our brother Jay died, coming on three years now. After we'd been told Jay had died, I made the trip to Jay's place in Schaumburg, IL with my brother Joe and we met my brother John to sort through the items in Jay's apartment. For this trip, I was in Illinois once again but it was for a much better occasion. I told John that it was my first trip to Illinois since Jay died. John reminded me that I'd been in Illinois since Jay died because of soccer- he was right about that, but Illinois wasn't my destination- I just drove through it to get to Missouri for soccer. This trip was the also the first time I'd seen any of my siblings in 2020. How sad it that?? I can't see my sister in Canada (all the sad eyes) due to Covid. I invited Joe and his family to come over 4th of July but they had plans and well, John and I don't see each other often since we're over a six hour drive apart from each other. I blame Covid for me not being able to see my sister but I will give Covid credit where credit is due- John and I have become a lot closer (not physically obviously) because of Covid. We started talking on the phone every day to keep in contact with each other- before we texted regularly but we didn't talk on the phone much. We've not talked on the phone maybe five days total since mid March. And thanks to Covid we're a lot less busy so when John suggested that I come out to visit him, it was easy to say "yes" when our schedule ispretty very light.
I'll let the pictures do the talking from here:
The picture on the left is the view out of my hotel room. Note the cornfield across the street. My room faced the front of the hotel. The hotel had a pool and the room it was in had windows that faced the back of the hotel. Out the window you see a cornfield. Cornfields were the name of the game in Central Illinois. I grew up in rural Indiana so I grew up seeing them. In the area of Illinois where my brother lives, cornfields are everywhere. We drove around a lot to get to various towns. In between all the little towns were cornfields. It was the agriculture milieu of my childhood times ten.
The towns were small! John's town has 1900 people in it. The county has 5000 people in it making it one of the smallest in the state of Illinois. John's town was the county seat. It also housed the high school, shown below which is the county's only high school. To the right is the the county courthouse.
The courthouse up close
On Saturday, we began driving fairly early to make all of our destinations. I had to stop at a stop sign in the town of Bowen, IL (population 494) and read a sign nearby while stopped. After I read it, I glanced in my rear view mirror to make sure no one was behind me (there wasn't), lowered my window, and took a picture of the sign. The sign said: Welcome to Bowen. Home of Josephine Williams. Mother of Barry Goldwater. I had to pause and think for a moment who Barry Goldwater was- Republican, ran for president, lost (I couldn't recall the year at all). I thought it was neat how this town announced it was the home of a woman who was the mother of a somewhat famous politician (from a long time ago).
Of course by FAR, the most famous Republican who has anything to do with Illinois (Goldwater wasn't actually born in Illinois- his mom lived in Bowen but not when Barry was born) is Abraham Lincoln. The Illinoisians LOVE their Lincoln. As soon as I drove into Illinois, I was greeted by signs on the interstate proclaiming I was entering the Lincoln Heritage Land (or something like that- I was on the interstate, I could hardly take a picture of the sign) and various other signs announced exits that would lead wanderers to various Lincoln based attractions.
John and I drove to the small town of Dallas City, IL (population 945) to see the Mississippi River and a Lincoln attraction. Abraham Lincoln spoke at Dallas City and the denizens of Dallas City memorialized it...
On October 24, 1868 Lincoln spoke here- like literally here. The Mississippi River is in the background
Dallas City- the door on a bar we passed proclaimed the establishment to be "Insured by Glock." Sounded pretty convincing to me (not that I had any nefarious intentions towards it, lol).
We got to the woods. There were no signs or path names listed. The stretch of ground that we identified as the path was rough. The worst thing were the cobwebs between trees. There were cobwebs between almost every tree in the path. It became disconcerting after a very short while. I told John I felt like we were in an Indiana Jones movie. We didn't last long in the woods- with no idea where we were going and the only sure thing being that spiders were very abundant and busy in these woods, we turned around and left. We never got to see the pretty water feature.
We decided to drive to Iowa- specifically a town on the Iowa/ Illinois border called Fort Madison. Fort Madison was by far the largest of the towns we visited- population a whopping 11,051. The Mississippi River separates Illinois from Fort Madison, Iowa so we had to cross it. We had to stop on the bridge because the barge we saw back in Dallas City was making its way slowly down the Mississippi and the bridge needed to swing open to make room for it. So we sat for about ten minutes waiting for the barge to pass and the bridge to swing back to form a road over which we'd cross.
Stopped- to let the barge pass through
After the barge passed under the bridge, the light gray section of the bridge slowly moved back into place to form the road that we could use to cross into Iowa.
Our first stop in Fort Madison was at a small diner for lunch. Fried tortilla shell, yum. (I'd had a chimichanga for dinner the evening before so I was on a fried tortilla roll apparently.)
After lunch, we walked down near the Mississippi and the old fort.
After we left Fort Madison, we headed back to Illinois to the town of Nauvoo, IL (population 1,149). Our destination was the Flood Museum. The museum contained some really good information. John and I were the only ones in it so we had a personalized guided tour. The first room talked about how virtually all cultures in the world have an account of an ancient flood- whether they have a Judeo- Christian heritage or not. Ancient writings and drawings from all over the world reference some type of life changing flood. The Flood Museum is run by a group of Mormons- Nauvoo is a Mormon mecca of sorts os Joseph Smith settled in Nauvoo for a while. I'm not sure all of the exact differences between Mormanism and Christianity. Mormons believe in the veracity and literal account the Genesis 1-12 (something not all Christians do). So, the Mormons believe in the account of the flood as written in Genesis.
One of the most distinguishing characteristics of the town is this huge Mormon temple. As non- Mormons, we weren't supposed to go inside the gate (actually we did go inside the gate, not realizing that we shouldn't be in the gate (the gate was open only because a wedding was going on that day (we were recognized as likely being not affiliated with the wedding in any way with our shorts and t-shirts attire))).
The temple is huge! Especially considering how small the town is. Numerous Mormons live in the area and worship at this temple.
A statute of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saints movement- he was murdered near Nauvoo in the town of Carthage (population 2,605- John and I drove through Carthage to get to one of our destinations).
Abraham Lincoln is very likely the last Republican to ever be elected to high office in Illinois. Thanks to Chicago, its huge population and its pro-high tax, pro benies constituents, Republicans are plumb out of luck. I saw dozens of these anti- Pritzker signs (Pritzker is the Democrat governor of the state). At first I thought the signs just said Pritzker Sucks (which seems unnecessarily crass to me as I prefer language to be G rated) but what it really says is Pritzker Sucks the Life out of Illinois Small Business. With minimum wage set to increase to $15/ hour in IL, many small businesses will fail. Costs of everything will increase which will hurt everybody financially (though to wealthy guys like Pritzker, a billionaire, increased costs of every good and service won't be a blimp on his financial radar).
I'm glad we live in Ohio- where we have numerous good sized cities- not just one behemoth like Chicago. The large cities in Ohio all have Democrat mayors and city council members. But, there are plenty of suburban and rural areas of the state where the Democrats don't have an automatic win. It makes the state more balanced. The people in downstate Illinois (basically everywhere geographically south of Chicago) have no voice in state politics. Chicago rules the roost. Anyway, just a few of my political thoughts- I was a political science and history major in college so I am interested in both :).
The purpose of the trip was to visit my brother John who lives in a small little town in western Illinois. It's in a very rural, sparsely populated area of the state. The county that he lives in has 5000 people in it. Number of Covid cases: 0. To date, there have ten Covid cases in the county. All ten people who had it recovered so there have been no Covid deaths. It's interesting that there's a huge employer in the town, a warehouse, that sends semi trucks out by the dozens each day. So a number of people in the area are going out to larger places presumably where Covid exists. I didn't feel so bad breezing into town from suburban Ohio knowing that a number of employees from the town's largest workforce travel each day.
I was only in town for two days- John and I packed quite a bit in during the two days. I'm glad I went out there to visit John. He normally comes out here at least a couple of times each year since he moved to western IL seven years ago. He asked me if I would want to come out and see his place this summer. He told me about several historical attractions he knew I would be interested to see.
I realized a couple of things about this trip- it was the first time I'd been to Illinois since our brother Jay died, coming on three years now. After we'd been told Jay had died, I made the trip to Jay's place in Schaumburg, IL with my brother Joe and we met my brother John to sort through the items in Jay's apartment. For this trip, I was in Illinois once again but it was for a much better occasion. I told John that it was my first trip to Illinois since Jay died. John reminded me that I'd been in Illinois since Jay died because of soccer- he was right about that, but Illinois wasn't my destination- I just drove through it to get to Missouri for soccer. This trip was the also the first time I'd seen any of my siblings in 2020. How sad it that?? I can't see my sister in Canada (all the sad eyes) due to Covid. I invited Joe and his family to come over 4th of July but they had plans and well, John and I don't see each other often since we're over a six hour drive apart from each other. I blame Covid for me not being able to see my sister but I will give Covid credit where credit is due- John and I have become a lot closer (not physically obviously) because of Covid. We started talking on the phone every day to keep in contact with each other- before we texted regularly but we didn't talk on the phone much. We've not talked on the phone maybe five days total since mid March. And thanks to Covid we're a lot less busy so when John suggested that I come out to visit him, it was easy to say "yes" when our schedule is
I'll let the pictures do the talking from here:
The picture on the left is the view out of my hotel room. Note the cornfield across the street. My room faced the front of the hotel. The hotel had a pool and the room it was in had windows that faced the back of the hotel. Out the window you see a cornfield. Cornfields were the name of the game in Central Illinois. I grew up in rural Indiana so I grew up seeing them. In the area of Illinois where my brother lives, cornfields are everywhere. We drove around a lot to get to various towns. In between all the little towns were cornfields. It was the agriculture milieu of my childhood times ten.
The towns were small! John's town has 1900 people in it. The county has 5000 people in it making it one of the smallest in the state of Illinois. John's town was the county seat. It also housed the high school, shown below which is the county's only high school. To the right is the the county courthouse.
The courthouse up close
On Saturday, we began driving fairly early to make all of our destinations. I had to stop at a stop sign in the town of Bowen, IL (population 494) and read a sign nearby while stopped. After I read it, I glanced in my rear view mirror to make sure no one was behind me (there wasn't), lowered my window, and took a picture of the sign. The sign said: Welcome to Bowen. Home of Josephine Williams. Mother of Barry Goldwater. I had to pause and think for a moment who Barry Goldwater was- Republican, ran for president, lost (I couldn't recall the year at all). I thought it was neat how this town announced it was the home of a woman who was the mother of a somewhat famous politician (from a long time ago).
Of course by FAR, the most famous Republican who has anything to do with Illinois (Goldwater wasn't actually born in Illinois- his mom lived in Bowen but not when Barry was born) is Abraham Lincoln. The Illinoisians LOVE their Lincoln. As soon as I drove into Illinois, I was greeted by signs on the interstate proclaiming I was entering the Lincoln Heritage Land (or something like that- I was on the interstate, I could hardly take a picture of the sign) and various other signs announced exits that would lead wanderers to various Lincoln based attractions.
John and I drove to the small town of Dallas City, IL (population 945) to see the Mississippi River and a Lincoln attraction. Abraham Lincoln spoke at Dallas City and the denizens of Dallas City memorialized it...
On October 24, 1868 Lincoln spoke here- like literally here. The Mississippi River is in the background
John says that the Mississippi floods periodically. The sign on the left shows where the Mississippi crested in June off 08. See the barge on the right (it's barely visible but it's there)- we'd be seeing more of it later as we crossed into Iowa.
Dallas City- the door on a bar we passed proclaimed the establishment to be "Insured by Glock." Sounded pretty convincing to me (not that I had any nefarious intentions towards it, lol).
Online, I found information about a small nature park that showed a picture of a pretty water feature in a wooded setting. The park was located en route to one of the towns we were going to so we stopped. The parking lot had room for about eight cars; we were the only ones at the park so the small lot wasn't a problem. Near the parking lot was information about prairies- I don't ever recall reading about prairies as an ecosystem. It was interesting and then we got to walk in a prairie/ almost path that lead to the woods.
The prairie grass was tall even in the path (of sorts). The wild flowers were beautiful.
We got to the woods. There were no signs or path names listed. The stretch of ground that we identified as the path was rough. The worst thing were the cobwebs between trees. There were cobwebs between almost every tree in the path. It became disconcerting after a very short while. I told John I felt like we were in an Indiana Jones movie. We didn't last long in the woods- with no idea where we were going and the only sure thing being that spiders were very abundant and busy in these woods, we turned around and left. We never got to see the pretty water feature.
We decided to drive to Iowa- specifically a town on the Iowa/ Illinois border called Fort Madison. Fort Madison was by far the largest of the towns we visited- population a whopping 11,051. The Mississippi River separates Illinois from Fort Madison, Iowa so we had to cross it. We had to stop on the bridge because the barge we saw back in Dallas City was making its way slowly down the Mississippi and the bridge needed to swing open to make room for it. So we sat for about ten minutes waiting for the barge to pass and the bridge to swing back to form a road over which we'd cross.
Stopped- to let the barge pass through
After the barge passed under the bridge, the light gray section of the bridge slowly moved back into place to form the road that we could use to cross into Iowa.
Our first stop in Fort Madison was at a small diner for lunch. Fried tortilla shell, yum. (I'd had a chimichanga for dinner the evening before so I was on a fried tortilla roll apparently.)
After lunch, we walked down near the Mississippi and the old fort.
After we left Fort Madison, we headed back to Illinois to the town of Nauvoo, IL (population 1,149). Our destination was the Flood Museum. The museum contained some really good information. John and I were the only ones in it so we had a personalized guided tour. The first room talked about how virtually all cultures in the world have an account of an ancient flood- whether they have a Judeo- Christian heritage or not. Ancient writings and drawings from all over the world reference some type of life changing flood. The Flood Museum is run by a group of Mormons- Nauvoo is a Mormon mecca of sorts os Joseph Smith settled in Nauvoo for a while. I'm not sure all of the exact differences between Mormanism and Christianity. Mormons believe in the veracity and literal account the Genesis 1-12 (something not all Christians do). So, the Mormons believe in the account of the flood as written in Genesis.
One of the most distinguishing characteristics of the town is this huge Mormon temple. As non- Mormons, we weren't supposed to go inside the gate (actually we did go inside the gate, not realizing that we shouldn't be in the gate (the gate was open only because a wedding was going on that day (we were recognized as likely being not affiliated with the wedding in any way with our shorts and t-shirts attire))).
The temple is huge! Especially considering how small the town is. Numerous Mormons live in the area and worship at this temple.
A statute of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saints movement- he was murdered near Nauvoo in the town of Carthage (population 2,605- John and I drove through Carthage to get to one of our destinations).
The state loves Lincoln so much that each city or area that can claim a link to him does so. We found an information placard in Nauvoo that explains its relationship to Lincoln. The relationship was tenuous but still a noteworthy one for Nauvoo- Lincoln was an IL state representative when Nauvoo was granted its charter to become a city. Lincoln voted in favor of the charter and that is Nauvoo's link to Abraham Lincoln.
I'm glad we live in Ohio- where we have numerous good sized cities- not just one behemoth like Chicago. The large cities in Ohio all have Democrat mayors and city council members. But, there are plenty of suburban and rural areas of the state where the Democrats don't have an automatic win. It makes the state more balanced. The people in downstate Illinois (basically everywhere geographically south of Chicago) have no voice in state politics. Chicago rules the roost. Anyway, just a few of my political thoughts- I was a political science and history major in college so I am interested in both :).
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