Chicago, May 3, 2025

 The main purpose of this month-long journey is to visit presidential sites, homes and museums between St Louis and Princeton, NJ, but there are other things I want to do.   I am on my way to the upper peninsula in Michigan to see sister Kristen.   More on that later.

I spent a wonderful weekend with friends Cy and Pam in Chicago.   They recently moved from Houston to be close to grandchildren.  They have a beautiful home and are long-time friends from church.

Saturday morning, we took a Metra train from Park Ridge to downtown and took an Uber to the Griffen Museum of Science and Industry.  (For many years, Chicago Museum .... , but Mr Griffen recently gave $150 mil, so .....)  It has been a lifelong dream of mine to someday visit the captured German submarine, U-505 that is in the basement of the South Chicago museum.   It was everything and more!

At the main junction of the museum is a light show extraordinaire that changes constantly.   We watched as preschoolers sat, stood and danced to the lights and were amazed as they discovered that their movement influenced lines and other patterns on the floor.  Truly magic.  I saw a docent offer random children headsets that turned their view of the room upside down!  Amazement and awe!  They even let me wear one.  I could not catch the ball, and I was the one tossing it.

We visited a very large and amazing train layout.  The first part is Chicago, complete with skyline and the El, and lots of trains!  Next was Seattle (I assume this layout is on loan from a Seattle museum!)

I saw many cool things, but I came to see the U-505.   We had tickets for the 1:00 tour and the program said to be there 30 minutes early for the display that leads up to the actual sub.   Impressive!

As a teenager I read all about Captain Daniel V Gallery and his hunter-killer group during WWII.  They had noticed that the last sub they sank had stayed on the surface for several minutes before sinking, and the tak force decided it would be worth while to capture the next sub, if for no other reason, to capture code books and cypher sets.   Long and short of it - They Did!

They towed a captured German sub across the Atlantic, kept the crew hidden until war's end, and kept all that intel a secret.

After the war, Admiral Gallery convinced the Navy to let his hometown of Chicago have the sub, and by 1954 it had been towed through the Great Lakes.  It spent 50 years outside the museum, but about 15 years ago Chicago lowered the U-505 into the basement and put a roof over it.   It has been restored, sound effects and lights added, and groups of 20 at a time get the full treatment.  This was AMAZING!  This may be the best museum ship I have seen.  Mr Kent, our guide, was a magnificent story teller.  I felt like a kid again, realizing all the stories I had read over 50 years ago!   This was well worth the trip!

We also toured  a restored Burlington Zephyr as we left the museum.  This museum qualifies as a check mark on my bucket list!

Illinois on a Friday

 I spent the night at a Best Western in Springfield, Illinois.  Pleasant breakfast of sausage and egg and I was in the car by 7:30.    Forgot to check the gas gauge and ended up driving about 3 miles off the freeway to find a station.   No, I did not run out, but note that Tuesday in Houston, I paid $2.39 a gallon.    This morning set me back $3.39, and I put more in the tank than the manual says it holds!

Eureka is a pleasant little farming / college town not far from Peoria.   Ronald Reagan went to college there.   The joke on campus is when you ask where something is, they tell you, "oh, it's the red brick building!"  All the buildings are red brick.

The museum is in the student center, probably the newest building on campus.  The room is spacious, bright, and has Reagan quotes throughout.   As president, he gave a major foreign policy speech from Eureka College.   Gorbachev spoke there once.

An exhibit I liked was biographies of some of his favorite professors.   They also have one of his actual English papers!

The garden has a requisite piece of the Berlin Wall.

This is small town America.   The volunteer Fire Department will sell pork chop lunches this Friday.

Next, I made my way to Reagan's boyhood home, still not sure where.   On the way, I crossed the Illinois river and saw a monument to a medal of honor winner, next to a WWII torpedo, in the town of Henry.  I can also tell you the American Legion will host a chicken dinner this month.

I never realized how much farming goes on in Illinois.   I saw miles and miles of farms, and got behind many grain trucks.

Tampico is the birthplace of Ronald Reagan.   I challenge you to find it on the map!   This museum is run by enthusiastic volunteers, with maybe more information than I was looking for.   But I learned a lot about the little town.  They have had visitors from all over the world, especially from behind the former Iron Curtain.   One lady gave the museum a handful of pieces of the Berlin Wall!  

Others did art work.  Little Ronald lived in several buildings on Main Street, including over the bank. 

  I learned that young Ronald's favorite pose for pictures was to look like Rodin's "The Thinker".   I guess it became a local joke, because someone commissioned a statue of him which is in the city park, of a 10 year old Ronald standing on a civil war cannon, with his hand under his chin!

I had lunch at a little pub across the street from the museum.  I was surprised that I could have bought a Shiner Bock in a farming town in Northwest Illinois.   My server said she sells a lot, even more when they have it on tap!

 

I am getting used to GPS, which is good because I could never have found my way without it.   Illinois toll roads scare me, and for good reason.    I'm used to crowded freeways, but Illinois offered me a car on the side of the freeway, fully on fire!   I was doing 70, and was getting passed all the time.

I recently got a present from Social Security, after the repeal of the Windfall profits something, that had reduced my Social Security because I draw teacher retirement.   Anyways, the check was unexpected, and nice, and I walked into a European Train Store outside Chicago and had a lot of fun!   Remember the difference between man and boy is the price of his toys!    There was one train I really wanted, that they could have gotten from the warehouse, but the tariff just doubled the price way beyond what I am willing to pay.

I am staying with friends Pam and Cy, here in Chicago.   They recently retired here to be close to grandchildren.    More on this later.

I will post again tomorrow.

Grant's White Haven

 This morning I drove from just north of Little Rock, to St Louis.   Hiram Ulysses Grant was stationed in St Louis as a young lieutenant before the Mexican War.   His West Point friend took him to his childhood home where the young US Grant met his friend's sister, Julia Dent.   A long and slow courtship ensued.   The Dent family had about 800 acres.   The house was White Haven.    When Grant acquired the house and some of the land, he had the house painted "Paris Green"    They say it's because it was an expensive color and he wanted to show that he was a man of means!  

The name US Grant is due to a clerical error at West Point, and the name stuck.

The National Park Service administers this house and they are doing a fine job.   It took them many years to restore the house to the way it was when Julia and Ulysses lived there.  NPS moves their people around, I guess.  The staff at White Haven wanted to know if I had seen their friend Ashton at Clinton's boyhood home.   He was my tour guide and had asked me to convey greetings to them!

A feature I really liked was a little video that showed what meal time was like between Julia, Grant, and Julia's father.   The video screen is the mirror over the fireplace!

An interesting feature in the house:  this picture shows the construction of the walls.   Heavy timbers, covered with wooden laths, and then plastered.    I remember that my grandparents' house upstairs had wood lath covered with wall paper.    I guess sheet rock is a recent thing!

Much of the land that was once the Dent farm is now called Grant's Farm, right down the street, and is owned by the Busch family.   The farm was closed today, but I spotted a number of the Clydesdales in the pastures!

I stopped at the Illinois welcome center.   It took me a few minutes to figure out the sign in front of the building.   These are the little figures that are on all the Google Maps!

I got to Springfield in time to take a short bike ride.   I should have driven to the trailhead, as the street I took from the hotel to the trail is not very bike-friendly, but the trail was nice.

Tomorrow I will try to leave the hotel early, as I will visit three places before stopping at Pam and Cy's home in Chicago

  

Clinton Boyhood Home

 April 30.  I made it from Houston to Little Rock.

I stopped in Hope, Arkansas to visit the boyhood home of President Bill Clinton.

The staff were very nice and informative.   National Park Service Rangers.   I forget my guide's name, but he was very knowledgeable, and like all good guides, made a point of clarifying which furnishings are original, and which ones bear a real resemblance.   He told me Clinton swears the little roll-top desk is original, but NPS is not so sure.  I met Sheila, who had helped me on the phone last week.  She is a retired teacher and has been a ranger for several years.   I got a one-on-one tour.   The house is on the main drag, close to the railroad tracks.   This was his Grandparent's home, he and his mom lived there for his first four years.   Then the house went through several owners and a fire.   It was almost torn down, but it was purchased for the foundation and restored, becoming a NPS site some years ago.   Most of the furnishings are as close as they could find, but one of his favorite books is the original and is encased in lucite.   His rocking chair looks very similar to the one I still have from my own childhood.

Now, here is a cool thing that I've never seen before.   Hope, Arkansas had a birthday calendar, and they put Clinton on it in 1947!   The ranger showed me a picture of the page, the original calendar is set to January and they don't touch it any more.

One of the best selections of fridge magnets I have seen.   The quote of the place is:  "I still believe in a place called Hope."

  
I asked the visitor's center on I-30 for a place where I could get a salad for lunch.   They sent me to downtown Hope to a country kitchen type place, where salad was nowhere on the menu!  But they made me one and topped it with some of the best grilled chicken breast I have tasted.

I ignored my car's warning and almost ran out of gas.   The exit I took from I-30 led me about 3 miles to a wide spot in the road with $3.00 / gallon gas!   But I got my gas.

Got to my Best Western in Jacksonville, north of Little Rock, just before the bottom dropped out of the sky.    Tornado warning on my phone, sirens, and the lights went out for about an hour, before I was able to walk next door to a Mexican restaurant.   It was still raining, and the freeway is all messed up, so I went to Arkansas from Texas for a Mexican steak!

So, this is my fifth major quest to visit presidential sites.   Thursday I will visit Grant's home in St Louis, and will then head for Springfield, Illinois, to get a running start on a marathon Friday.

I will stay with Pam and Cy in Chicago.   It will be a full weekend!

I welcome comments, it's how I know if anyone is reading this stuff.

Clearing Mud from Keegans Bayou Trail

It’s Saturday morning and we are under Southwest Freeway on Keegans Bayou Trail. This is a 50 foot stretch 8 to 10 foot wide of mud from recent heavy rains.    The stuff really gets in the way of a good bike ride, so five of us decided to get rid of the mud.

We are members of neighborhoods to trails Southwest (NTTSW) and friends of Keegans Bayou.    And no, Jerry isn’t slacking, he has just dumped the wheelbarrow several times!

2 inches of mud on top of a concrete trail will cause bikes to slip out from under you, which is no fun.   We had a number of riders told us, thank you as they went by, but did not stop to help when Pat invited them to take a shovel, even though most of the riders were a good 30 to 40 years younger than those of us holding the shovels!

We are going to try to make a habit of doing this after every major rainfall as a clean trail is a safer trail.

The Bavarian and Rio Grande Railroad

 I have been into model trains for a long time, but have not always "played" with them.   My current 5' X 9' layout sat in boxes in the garage for 20 years, until I decided I needed to set it back up, or get rid of it.   Since I could not part with it, it is now a work-in-progress in my living room.

Logo by Sandie, my sister-in-law

The layout is built around two NTrak modules that I started building in 1987 while stationed in Germany.  The first is 2' X 4' and the second is a 3' X 3' corner module.   These module meet NTrak specifications, so that I could take them to meets and become part of a much larger layout.   This, I have not done since the early 90s.

Railroading is a hobby.   We all know that the word "hobby" comes from the ancient Greek, meaning "expensive"!   And it certainly can be.   I have been replacing switches (turnouts) that cost $15.00 in 1987/92, but now are in the $30.00 range.   The difference is I now have more disposable income, so I only wince when I drop $100.00 or more at the local train store.   In the 80s, this level of purchase would cause a major "family discussion"

I will post more pictures soon, showing details of the track, but I need to clean up the board before I take any more photos.   This layout truly is a work in progress.

Veteran's Day

 It has become a tradition, after posting the American Flag out front, that I try to see how much free food I can get due to my status as an Army Veteran.    My granddaughter compiled a list for me, and I headed for Denny's at 7:00am.    They offer the Grand Slam, and I paid for the coffee.    

For lunch I headed to a place I frequent, but although they had a very thoughtful display for the veterans, they were not staffed for the crowd that was there at 12:30.    I checked my list and went to the Lazy Dog on the old Texas Instruments campus in Stafford.    I was told I could have ANYTHING on their extensive menu, to include a bottomless glass of iced tea.    I went for the fish and chips.    I had never been there before, but I will definitely return.    The interior is quite beautiful and the service was top-drawer.

For Dinner, I met my family at the Pluckers in Stafford.   This time I had a chicken salad and more iced tea.   

These locations were well attended by veterans, and I felt very respected.   The offerings ranged from free donuts to a free haircut (my own barber would object) to a full meal, and all were within a short drive from the house.