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!
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment