Churches, Barns and A Bridge

There really are other things going on in my life, but I am still compelled to finish sharing our trip to Illinois in April before I tell you anything else. I need to finish something. As I look around the house and in my laptop and see twenty started projects, I think that if I just concentrate on one thing at a time, I can make some progress. As slow as that progress is. 

So here is yet another day in the life of Chris and Hubby on vacation. First stopped at the Norwegian Memorial, just up the road from our resort, but it was closed until May.

Then the Norway United Methodist Church in Norway. 

Finally got to the town of LaSalle where there was a cute little memorial park, but a cooler old church. 

 

My main goal was the Red Covered Bridge in Princeton. 

Spanning Bureau Creek, it is one of only six covered bridges left in the state and the only one still open to traffic. 

Built in 1863, the sign still posted over the entrance reads, "Five dollars fine for driving more than twelve horses mules or cattle at one time or for leading any beast faster than a walk on or across this bridge." 

Have I shared pictures of all the fascinating barns we saw? 

 At some point in my education, I learned the names for these kinds of barns, but haven’t been able to find that information on-line.

 I don’t suppose they teach kids in school anything about barns these days?

Our Freedom at Any Cost

You know, I might actually get through my pictures and my stories from our trip to Illinois in April if it wasn’t for all these holidays popping up. Not that yesterday would be considered a holiday.

It was D-Day, the day in 1944 when the Allied Forces stormed the beaches of Normandy and began the liberation of Western Europe from the Nazis. It was a turning point in the war. A war that had we lost, we would have no longer had our freedom. 

So, when we got to Pontiac, Illinois, we stopped at the Illinois Route 66 Hall of Fame, which is in the old fire department building. In one end of the building is the Livingston County War Museum. It pretty much left me speechless. 

 I just can’t stress enough, in these crazy times we live in, that we have to protect our freedom. At any and all cost. 

Here and Gone

One day during our April vacation, we spent a few hours driving around the town of Dwight, Illinois. We ended up at the historic train depot. I got all excited when I heard the train whistle.

But – 

Whoosh! The train barreled down the tracks and right on out of town. I was in awe.

Hubby laughed at me, asking, “Did you think the Amtrak would stop in this little town?”

Well, no, but you would think it would slow down.  

How often do we say that events in life are just like that? “I remember when she was a baby, and now she’s graduating from high school.” “I can’t believe this year is our 25 year high school reunion.” “Am I really old enough to retire?”

One minute the train is pulling into the station, and the next it is gone. 

Enjoy life while you can. It goes by way too fast. 

Just Two Little Towns

I am slowly getting through our vacation in Illinois in April. Once we got deep into Route 66, it was hard to not go crazy taking pictures. Which is why I can only take you to two towns on this post. 

 The little town of Gardner hosts the 2 Cell Jail House which was built in 1906. I am going to skip the pictures of me and Hubby each in one of the cells. 

 Right next to that was the Historic Streetcar Diner. 

 The city of Dwight was our last stop for the day. There was a whole list of sites to see there.

 

 The Pioneer Gothic Church, built in 1858

 The Oughton House, which is now the Country Mansion Restaurant

 The Oughton Estate Windmill

 Chicago and Alton Railroad Depot, built of native limestone in 1891.

 This is the William Fox Developmental Center

 The First National Bank of Dwight, built in 1905 and designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, one of three banks which he designed and the only one still standing.

  Old Route 66 Family Restaurant

The Ambler Texaco Station, the longest operating gas station along Route 66, filling up cars from 1933 to 1999.  

Another Memorial Day Tribute

 Anyone who knows me or has even read this blog much, knows that I am fascinated by cemeteries. I love walking through them, reading the different headstones and imagining who these people were, how did they die, how had they lived. 

Mt Carmel Cemetery, Morris

DeBoldt Cemetery, Wedron

Ottawa Avenue Cemetery, Ottawa 

It wasn’t any different on our trip to Illinois in April.

 

Until we got to this cemetery.

 I couldn’t get out of the car to walk among these headstones. It was much too somber. I would feel like I was disrespecting all these men and women, invading their lives. Their lives had already been invaded enough during their years of service.

 

Maybe a little late, but yet another tribute to Memorial Day. 

What is Memorial Day for?

On the first full day of our vacation in Illinois last month, as we were driving through the city of Marseilles, just before we crossed the bridge over the Illinois River, I spied what looked like a park on the right side of the road. I directed Hubby to pull in so we could check it out. He slammed on the brakes and complied with my wishes.

Turns out this wasn’t really a park. Instead it was the Middle East Conflicts Wall Memorial. 

Wow. Even now, nearly two months later, I can’t write about this without tearing up.

We all know the Vietnam War Memorial Wall and most of us know someone on it, but the more recent Middle East Conflicts? We are still living through this. This isn’t history, this is current events.  

The inside memorial was closed the first time we stopped, but later in the week, when it was open and we went inside, I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t read any of the names or the stories. These weren’t men and women who could have been my parents or even my siblings. These are warriors who could have been my son, my daughter. 

Just like my friend’s son, Ryan, who died in combat in 2009.

What is this holiday we celebrate tomorrow? And what are we celebrating? Life? Or death? Let’s hope at least we celebrate freedom, the freedom that our soldiers like Ryan fought to secure for us. 

And then things got a little weird

Last winter, when we chose our destination for our April vacation, I started looking up different things we could see and do there. Then I had an epiphany. The old Route 66 runs only thirty or so miles away from the resort where we would be staying. Bingo. Hubby would jump at the chance to travel a few miles of the iconic highway. Finally on the third afternoon we were in Illinois, we hit a few of those famous spots. 

In Wilmington, The Gemini Giant at the old Launching Pad Drive-In. 

In Braidwood, we first stopped at the Polk-A-Dot Drive-In. 

As I was walking around, taking pictures of the figures outside, Hubby noticed some squad cars and firetrucks a few blocks away. Pretty soon the road just past the Polk-A-Dot was closed off, and being curious and not shy, Hubby walked over to the office and asked what was going on. A gas leak. That didn’t sound good. 

We walked back to the Drive-In and just before we went inside we could smell natural gas. Hmm. Perhaps the inside of the Drive-In with its open-flame grill was not the place to be. But we bought some ice cream and headed back to the car. 

The next place on my map to stop was the Briarwood Zoo of metalwork animals. It was just past that officer with his car parked in the middle of the road.

Hubby was not willing to drive around the blocked-off city streets to get to it. He also reminded me that it just might not be safe.

Sigh.

Next stop, Godley, aka Scary Town. According to the “Illinois Route 66 Visitors Guide”, the town of Godley has the Route 66 Mining Museum along with Burma Shave signs. The museum was right along the main drag and naturally was closed, but I was still happy to find it. The Burma Shave signs though, nowhere to be found.

According to the book, “Travel Route 66”, the town of Godley is a once booming mining community, with only a few remaining homes. The “Exploring Route 66 Illinois” brochure says that Godley has the K-Mine Park, Community Center, trails and more. Hmm?

So we drove down what looked like the main drag. There were maybe a half dozen small older homes and a couple dozen trailer homes and then at the end of town, there was a new, modern park with all kinds of amenities, a building at the back which looked like a school to us, a community garden plot, a barnyard of hobby farm animals. We asked ourselves, “where did all this come from and who paid for it?” coz the people living in those mobile homes could not afford the taxes on a park like this. 

All we could figure was it had been built on mob-money. Then we started hearing dueling banjoes. So we skedaddled. I didn’t take any pictures of Godley, I was too afraid of the mob