Events of Wednesday, August 25, 2010

 

          Today, we first went to the Lincoln Home National Historic Site. We got a great guided tour of the home, which is furnished as it would look like in 1860, from Ranger Jason. He showed us all the rooms of their 10-room, two story house. Most people think that, since Lincoln was born in a log cabin (in Kentucky, not Illinois), he lived in a cabin until his presidency. However, since he married a dignified Southern lady, Mary Todd, he needed a dignified home. Interestingly, the Lincoln family still owned the home through Abraham’s presidential years but rented it out. After President Lincoln’s assassination, Robert Lincoln, their oldest son, owned the house and rented it out as well. After a few years, he sold it to the state government for a dollar. Apparently, the dollar was insurance that the home would be maintained as it was in the mid-1800s and stipulated that it would always be free for visitors to view. For this reason, the tours of Lincoln’s home while he was in Springfield are free of charge to visitors.

          Next came the exhausting drive to Chicago. Five hours through traffic, construction, and reckless driving. The most interesting experience occurred when the driver of an 18-wheeler decided he wanted to make our drive on I-55N a memorable one. As he cut violently in front of us, causing Mommy to stop and yell, he was so close we could see his Maine license plate—at last! A Maine license plate‼ Now, the day before our two month travel birthday, we have finally seen the last of the license plates of the 50 states! Too bad it was in such a nerve-wracking circumstance. Otherwise, it would be properly photographed and proclaimed. Finally! All fifty! Now for our Maine-iac: he then decided to try to change lanes into us! Luckily, we had a fantastically alert driver (Mom) who dodged the violent driver and saved the six of us. Thank you Mom! (And no, I didn’t get paid for saying that.) Sadly, there was no “How’s my driving?” phone number on the back of the truck. The company was lucky they didn’t receive that phone call!

                We left Springfield at 12:30, stopped for lunch on the way, and then arrived in Oak Park at 6:30. We were greeted eagerly by the Knickelbein family – Jim’s Uncle Mark and Aunt Lori and our cousins (once removed) Daniel and Alex. We spent some time catching up and found that poor Alex had just started back to school for his junior year of high school and that Daniel and Lori had just returned from a 2 week trip to Mexico. Daniel leaves on Monday to attend Macalester College in Minnesota, so he is busy packing and saying his final good-byes. Then we settled down for a delicious dinner of chicken, root veggies, and fruit salad. It was rather late when we headed for bed and a much-needed night of sleep, ready to explore the Chicago area tomorrow.