Odds and Ends - Catching up on the trip to Chicago

A few things I meant to mention but forgot along the way.

It was so hot in Hannibal and Springfield I finally resorted to walking around naked with a spray bottle constantly turned on. Carla disapproved at first until she saw how utterly practical it was.

I got the blue tone shift out of the Panasonic Lumix yesterday I think. Here are a couple of pictures I took Thursday morning in Springfield to test.

Here is a tilted picture of the Illinois capital building; need to make sure I get level

And what the heck are a Norb or a Taberin? If you know, please post a comment

And as we returned from our early morning walk around Springfield (80* at 8:00) I captured a better picture of our hotel.

Of to breakfast! I'll check in later.

Day 8 - Springfield to Chicago

Thursday August 12, 2010

Another full day; we are hot and tired so I'll let the pictures do the talking today. We planned to drive the whole way on the old Route 66 but plans changed because we spent so much fun time with Barbara May Steiling, my mom's cousin.

We've seen so much corn on our trip! I've tried to get a picture or two that can give some idea of the vastness. This is the closest we've come. This was taken just off Route 66 at a gas station.

There are hundreds of little places with neon signs; this is typical. We were stopped briefly at a stop light and had traffic behind us so I didn't have time to frame it well.

After about 45 minutes we got to Atlanta where my grandpa's family had a farm nearby

Atlanta also boasts a giant, this one holding a hot dog; another treasure to keep your eyes peeled for if you are traveling the Mother Road

Here is a picture of downtown. Just in front of the cafe is little museum. We went in to look around. We told the people there I am related to the Bakers, Masons and Steilings; she knows some people of all those names. Upstairs we found a small card catalog with funeral notices from over the years. I was pretty close to tears when I saw the notice for Hazle Howard Baker - my grandpa. It mentioned my mom as one of the survivors. Very touching

About 15 miles away from Atlanta is Heyworth where my mom's cousin Barbara May Steiling lives. She lives in a house she moved into with her parents in the early 1950's when she was in high school. The woodwork in the house is magnificent. 

We had a lovely picnic lunch of cold cuts, fruit, ice tea and fresh tomatoes from the garden. Yum!

This is Barbara with her dog Dolly Annabel Burkhardt Steiling. Her cat Midnight declined the offer to be photographed.

Then we hit the road for the 3 hour drive to Chicago. I take back whatever I said about midwest drivers yesterday. Chicago drivers are nuts. When it comes time to make a lane change, they just turn into your lane no matter what. Driving up Lake Shore Drive was nerve-racking to say the least. If I could have I would have just stopped the car and start sobbing. But it wasn't an option, and Andrew had given us good directions.

We got there just as the pizza was delivered. Susan Barbero from work had recommended Lou Malnati's Chicago style deep dish pizza. It was delish.

And of course a picture of Andrew and Henriët

After pizza we went for a 20 minute walk north on Broadway until we got to the corner where we could see the Wrigley Field lights.

Upon our return Henriët and Andrew presented us with a surprise for desert: a special chocolate mint crisp. And I do mean special; it was made with mint chocolate from South Africa and a caramel/condensed milk filling, again from South Africa. It was so sweet of Henriët to use up these valuable homeland treats for our pleasure.

After all that we are sitting and relaxing in Andrew's apartment; your author is hard at work on this very blog entry while Carla and Henriët relax. Shortly after, Andrew took Henriët home and we'll reconnoiter in the morning at Orange, a breakfast place that makes killer French Toast. 

Day 7 Hannibal, MO to Springfield, IL

Tuesday August 11, 2010

Our hotel in Hannibal was real close to a bridg, so we headed down the street, gassed up, turned right and headed over the Mississippi river and into Illinois

It was a short 2 hour drive across the western half of Illinois on US 30 / I 72. This drive was very typical of what we've experienced here and unlike any driving in Oregon, Washington, or California. The speed limit was 65 so I set the cruise control on about 67 and just headed across the state. I passed 2 trucks, a pickup hauling a trailer and a sedan in 80 miles; in turn I was passed by 2 cars. When it came to passing a car, I'd see the car in the distance and slowly, ever so slowly gain and pass. In Oregon it seems as though when you are coming up on someone they speed up for a while. Not here, everyone just maintains their speed.

After a couple of hours we hit Springfield.

Notice the sign says "Route 66"; tomorrow we'll be taking the Mother Road into Chicago.

We spent the day at the various Lincoln sites. First we went to Lincoln's house where he, Mary Todd and the kids lived before he went to Washington, DC. If you've seen a picture of the house, odds are it is from this angle. There are marks on the street showing where most photos are taken.

Here is Carla outside the front door.

We also toured other old homes in the neighborhood and learned a bit about the Lincoln's neighbors.

Then we headed over to the Lincoln museum which was fantastic.  There were separate displays for his Illinois days and his Washington, DC days. Pictures were not allowed except i the opening.

What's that I hear? You want train pictures? Well, downtown is surrounded by two train tracks and we heard trains while we were in the museum. And we sent to the recently restored Union Station; but trains don't stop there anymore, because the tracks don't go by there anymore.

But I did capture a picture of the old depot where Lincoln gave his farewell address before he headed to Washington DC to be sworn in as our 16th president. They say it was a cold rainy day but over 1,000 people showed up.

We then checked into our hotel, the Statehouse Inn which was billed as a historic hotel. We are in Springfield, Illinois, where everything is related to the nineteenth century so we were thinking of a quaint brick hotel. What we got instead was a hotel built in the 60's and there is no mistaking the vintage.

We had dinner at Cafe Brio which was rated high on yelp; but we weren't impressed. Wilted greens, salty soba noodles and sour guacamole.

Tomorrow morning we head up Route 66 to Atlanta, IL and then take a state highway to Heyworth where we visit my mom's last remaining cousin, Barbara May. She is fixing up a picnic for us. We'll share stories and pictures then finish our eastward trek at Andrew's place in Chicago.

Day 6 Omaha to Hannibal

Tuesday August 10, 2010

We we passed through parts of three states today. Leaving Omaha we crossed the Missouri river and immediately turned south through southwestern Iowa. As we drove we listened and sang along to "The Music Man" sound track. After less than an hour we hit Missouri; we went south to St. Jo, turned west and drove clear across the state to Hannibal on the Mississippi river.

Carla started off driving today; she did 4 hours and I did the last 2+.

We've tried to capture the "Welcome To" signs as we enter each state; either we missed Iowa's or they don't want to welcome us. But on the first overpass, just over the river, we saw some work on four sculptures. Here is one of them

After heading south, I found we were paralleling railroad tracks; looks like we've crossed over to BNSF territory.

We did capture the "Welcome to Missouri" sign a little later.

If you know me, you know I love to eat pork. As we were driving down the road we saw this truck and for a few minutes and couldn't figure out what the heck it was carrying; I had the camera at the ready and snapped a few pics. Most show the whole truck, but I like this one because it is the best pig picture.  I've never seen anything like this driving to work.

We've been driving for days, but apparently haven't gotten far from home! Carla figures some of the early pioneers on the Oregon trail just stopped here and called it Oregon so they could write back saying they made it!

We pulled into Hannibal shortly after 2:00. We found a nice Best Western hotel with a great view 

of the Mississippi (and train tracks were a bonus). We walked through the historical Mark Twain part of town seeing the museum and Mark Twain's original home:

And here is a shot of part of downtown

Sorry for the picture quality; the pictures taken with the Panasonic Lumix camera are all very blue.

Then we got on a river boat cruise where we went up and down both the Missouri and Illinois sides of the river.

It was incredibly hot in Hannibal. 95* with the humidity raising the heat index to 115*. But it had just sprinkled a bit and the breeze on the river made it bearable.

After the cruise we went swimming in the hotel pool then went to Lulubelle's for dinner. It was the best dinner yet. It is a little B&B that serves dinner to all comers at night. We had a pasta dinner for 2 - boiled shrimp, a great mixed great salad with a nice vinaigrette then grilled chicken and artichokes over some pasta. For dessert I had a piece of bourbon pecan pie.

Statistics
We hit 2,000 miles today when we went through Lentner, MO. Our stats for car time at this point shape up like this

• Miles: 2,046
• Total drive time: 37:08
• Average speed: 55. This has dropped dramatically since we hit Nebraska. At the end of Wyoming our average speed was 64.
• Average miles per gallon: 31

Tomorrow

We have a 2 hour drive to Springfield on tap for tomorrow. Carla has been pouring over the guide book figuring out which Lincoln sites to see. Then Thursday we take Route 66 up to Chicago, stopping in Heyworth, IL to visit my mom's cousin Barbara May.

Day 5 North Platte to Omaha

Monday August 9, 2010

Nebraska is a wide state; we spent our third day getting almost all the way across. We again travelled on US Highway 30 rather than the Interstate; it is so enjoyable; very little traffic; speeds up to 60 MPH and we passed through a bunch of tiny, small and medium cities.

We drove without stopping until we got to Grand Island - a fairly good size city. We've been craving DQ milkshakes all week, so about an hour before we got to Grand Island I got on the iPhone and searched for one. Good thing we didn't leave it to luck, this little spot was off the main drag.

It wasn't a full on DQ with burgers but they did have a choice between Barbecue sandwiches or hot dogs and potato chips instead of fries. We went for the barbecue, which I think was a mistake judging by the noises coming from my stomach this afternoon. But we did get a couple of nice cold milkshakes which is why we went. They were very refreshing as the temp at 11:00 in Grand Island was 85* with high humidity.

We were of a more "get there" than "be here" mentality today; we wanted to get a picture of a small town, but our picture of the best looking building is marred by the rearview mirror. Sorry.

We saw a LOT of trains today. We learned yesterday that there are 36 loaded coal trains heading east out of North Platte every day and 36 empties coming back. Add to that the manifest trains, the grain trains, and container trains and you have a train about every 10 minutes.

US 30 parallels the railroad; as we pulled out of North Platte we went by 4 stopped trains headed west waiting for space in the yard.  Continuing east we saw at least 5 more empties running by. It was tough to get good pictures in the morning because the light was in front of us.

But later in the afternoon I got my favorite picture so far. We were on the southside of the tracks, talking with Andrew on the phone when I saw a set of headlights in the distance. Just after that there was a railroad crossing where I could pull of the highway jump out of the car and get the camera ready. It was a high priority container train rolling by at over 50 MPH with horn blaring. This is a sight I never get to see in Portland; trains just don't roll through P-Town that fast.

Driving next to the river the last couple of days we wanted to dip our toes in. After passing Fremont we found a state park on the river. We pulled in and drove around a bit until we found a nice little beach on the North Platte river. The water was very warm; not like stepping into the Sandy River near home. There weren't many people around so we had to take pictures of each other instead of getting a "couple" shot. I hope you can get a sense of how wide and slow the river is here

From there it was a short drive to Omaha - a big city: we had to get used to traffic again. We took a dip in the pool and then asked around for dinner recommendations. We ended up at the Drover where they specialize in whiskey marinated steaks. After you order your steak they dip it in a sauce of bourbon, soy sauce and garlic for 15 minutes then grill to order. One of the things we wanted to do on the trip was have a great mid-western steak, so we shared a rib eye; it was deilicious. 

We really are spoiled by the quality of restaurant food in Portland. Don't get me wrong; the steak was excellent, but the salad bar was a bowl of iceberg lettuce, some grated carrots, shredded boiled eggs, and that hard red "bacon bits".  The grilled summer squash and snow peas with the steak was good though.

I wish I could share sounds as well as pictures. The insects I thought were cicadas last night I think are crickets. OMG they are incredibly loud; there must be thousands of them in each tree. As soon as you step out you hear this incredibly intense, loud click/buzzing sound. It is like nothing I've ever experienced at home.

Day 4 Cheyenne to North Platte

Sunday August 8, 2010

We had a pretty short day today; so slept in a bit. After a weird breakfast where we had fun people watching, we  hopped back on I80 and it wasn't long before we were in Nebraska

At about milepost 1 in Nebraska we turned off I 80 and found US 30; part of the Lincoln Highway

We've been looking for a DQ everyday for a milkshake; found one in a small Nebraska town; but it wouldn't open until 11:30; after church I suppose. The handmade sign in the door says "Clean carpet; pleas clean your boots

When we were imagining our drive across Nebraska, we envisioned driving down a long corridor dwarfed by corn stalks on both sides. While we did see lots of corn, we saw a lot more. One of the prettiest was a field of sunflowers; proof that we didn't stop just for trains.

We were close to the tracks most of the way. The train speed limit seemed to be 50 MPH while ours was 60 or 65. We caught up to one train, got around front and took a picture; then back in the car to get to the next spot. 

We ate lunch in Hoke's cafe in Ogallala (sp?). Funky place. We got in just as they were getting ready to close. Everyone was paying their bill and leaving as we arrived. The waitress wasn't all too pleased to see us, maybe she was just having a bad day. The guy in the booth next to us was raving about how good the ribs from the buffet were. We just split a BLT, an order of onion rings and a couple of chocolate shakes.

We stopped for a couple of historical markers; one was in honor of the first irrigation farm. The one in this picture was for California hill. Just south (behind us looking at the marker) is the location the emigrants crossed the South Platte River on their way to California and Oregon. Just north of of the marker (on the other wide of the marker) is California Hill which the emigrants climbed. Apparently there are still wagon ruts visible on California Hill 

Once we hit North Platte it took a little hunting to find the Golden Spike Tower and Visitor Center. It wasn't that hard to see; it's the tallest thing around, but getting to it proved a little tricky. 

This is one of the largest freight classification yards in the world. There are two complete yards; one each for eastbound and westbound traffic with a whole locomotive shop for each. One locomotive facility is for the EMD units; the other for the GE locos. The tower is on the EMD side. The 7th and 8th floors are viewing centers; the 7th floor is open air and looks north; the 8th floor is enclosed and circled the entire tower. There were a couple of retired Union Pacific employees there to talk with. One guy was a diner car steward on the City of Portland run in the 40's and 50's. This was the first class train between Chicago and Portland. We talked a bit about Portland; he had chosen that route because he had family in Camas, Washington

This is looking northwest from the tower

Here I am in train heaven. I was very thankful that it wasn't storming as we had expected. 

As we looked east out of the tower we saw a cornfield with some designs cut in. I thought it was writing at first then figured out it was a corn maze. Carla had wanted to go in one on this trip, but this wasn't open for business yet. We'll have to come back for Carla's birthday in September.

As we continued around; we saw what the maize maze will look like. It is done by the local boy scout troop.

After checking in to the hotel, we went to the movies to see The Other Guys; pretty funny. We had heard an interview with Will Farrel and the director on Fresh Air during our drive and heard a couple of stories about how they had to cut the film at just the right moment before the actors started laughing.

Coming back to the hotel we drove with the windows down and heard a huge racket of bugs (cicadas?) in the trees all over. They were loud. Walking from the car to the hotel there were little jumping bugs about the size of your pinky fingernail everywhere. Just outside the door to the hotel was the largest praying mantis I've ever seen with one of the little bugs on top. We ran up to the room, got the camera, came back and took a picture.

Tomorrow; more of the Lincoln Highway into Omaha. It's a longer drive than today so we probably won't stop so much.