Also, as we drove along, we listened to music on our speaker that connects via Bluetooth to our phone. We would start with our themesong "on the road again", and go from there...listening and singing and laughing together. There was always much of Willie Nelson, Loretta Lynn and other country favourites.
The other thing we enjoyed each day was a time of reading. Latona read to me aloud the Memory Board by Jane Rule, Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, and now we are enjoying Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey by Lillian Schlissel. It has added thoughtful and reflective moments while we enjoy the beautiful sights of our country.
**********
Back to Indiana, number 45 and the famous Passport Book. When one visits any part of the National Park System, it is possible to get a postmark from that sight. I had collected many postmarks throughout our visits in every state. Now, I needed to find one for Indiana as we traveled through the state. So, when we left Indianapolis, we traveled to Vincennes to visit the George Rogers Clark National Historic Park on the Wabash River. ( Filling in The Passport Book creates a secondary purpose that gets us to some very inspiring spots.)
We did get my Indiana postmark here, learned about this revolutionary general, and found out that he was the brother of William Clark of Lewis and Clark fame. (Many individuals that I will mention are worth a google. It would be impossible to share every story that we hear and the many we forget along the way.)
By the way, we are also still finding hearts everywhere!
Happy with my postmark, and the new information about George Rogers Clark, we cross the river and head into Illinois.
Our route, thanks to AAA, suggested visiting the state capitals, so our first major stop in Illinois was Springfield and a visit to the Lincoln Home National Historic Park.
We visited his home after listening to the documentary presented in the visitor centre. We have found it so helpful to make sure we see these presentations whenever we visit a sight, because we learn so much and get a quick refresher course on some things we heard in history classes many moons ago.
The staff of the National Park brought the house to life, room by room. Here is the spot where he heard he had been elected President of the United States.
So much of the countryside of the states we visited was covered by farms. We loved taking pictures of the rural life and share a few here. We saw many farmers at work, large grain elevators and reminders that we were in the "Bible Belt".
Across the miles, from Springfield to Quincy, Illinois, we headed to another home that was used as part of the Underground Railroad - the home of abolitionist Dr. Richard Eells.
At this point, our frustration was building because we found each site we tried to visit on the UGRR closed and very difficult to find. We would ask at visitor centres and often the persons we talked to didn't even know how to direct us. Thank goodness for Google and our GPS. The homes were always modest within the neighbourhoods of today and would never stand out. We learned that the secret nature of the UGRR even at the peak of its effectiveness (1850-1860), has remained today and much of the stations are still hidden or unknown.
Leaving Quincy, we chose to follow the Illinois Great River Road along the Mississippi. I love rivers!
The wind throttled us most of that day and we pushed along to the town of Gulfport, Illinois where we crossed the river. Illinois was number 46 and now we entered number 47, Iowa.
We have been looking forward to this special part of our trip because we were on our way to visit our friend Rusty in Clarinda Iowa! We had met Rusty in Alaska and had been work campers with him there. He became a good friend to both of us. His wave goodbye when we left Klondike RV park had made quite an impression and we were anxious to see him again!
Part 3 coming tomorrow and states 48 and 49!
No comments:
Post a Comment