Dinner last night had been at a promising veggie friendly place called Cafe Brio. Besides the obvious benefit for Catherine, the hotel had also given us a 10% off voucher. We both had salads, washed down with some beers. Unfortunately, a 'mix up' over the bill tainted the evening a tad.
I fiddled with the air-con, so woke up in a really stuffy room. Note to self, make sure you know how it works before fiddling with it.
The Carpenter Street Hotel is pretty good. We have a nice large room. almost as big as the space allocated for breakfast! we got down about 8:00. Just in time to get the last table . Breakfast is included in the room rate, so isn't extensive. There's some cereals, pastries, biscuits and grits and a waffle maker, together with the usual juices, corfee, etc. Over breakfast we got talking to some folks in from Missouri. They had some advice for what to see in Springfield, though we already had our plans, it was interesting to hear their opinions.
We made our way straight to the Lincoln House complex. Free to enter and with a guided tour, this, besides the Lincoln's family home, also has the rest of the block's period properties, intact/restored. The house itself was really interesting, brought to life by our guide, who clearly knew his script off pat and delivered it well but was also able to answer any questions posed. It's refreshing to see that 80% of the furniture, etc, in the house is original and not reproduction. For me that always adds to the experience, being that more authentic.
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| The Lincoln House |
From the house, we ventured back out into the 95 degree heat, a couple of blocks East, to the railroad depot, from which, Lincoln left, on his way to the White House, after his election as President. The building now houses a law firm but the downstairs of the building is as or has been restored to how, it would have been in those days.
A mural on the wall outside is unfinished, because I presumed something had befallen the artist. Not so. Seems a political decision was taken to halt the project, as the mural wouldn't be finished in time to meet some funding criteria. Crazy!
From there, we made our way to the Old Capitol building. This is where Abe made some of his most important speeches in respect to the abolotion of slavery. It's also where his body was laid to rest on return to Springfield following his assasination in 1865. We just caught the end of a tour which meant we got into the main chamber. That was interesting even if the tour guide, was deadly boring. How many Tom Hanks films can you name to ensure people know it's Tom Hanks the actor your are talking about? He got to four and never mentioned Forrest Gump!
We left the Capitol for the last stop on this part of our Lincon tour, the Museum. The one pay attraction of the day, we both agreed it wasn't quite worth the $12 to get in, nor quite lived up to the gushing everyone was doing, "I just know you're gonna love it". It was interesting but no more and didn't really give us any more than we had already gleaned from the rest of the day. The plus point though, everyone is and has been, very friendly.
We came back to the hotel and Catherine typed up her Daily Diary, which you may already have read. We then took a drive out to the Lincoln Tomb, before stopping to fuel up the Escape. This went very smoothly, with no credit card hassles or pre-payment required. It took 11.5 gallons @ $2.29.9 per gallon. In UK terms, that's about £1.50 per gallon. We filled it for the equivalent of £17.50!
As we were out and about we decided to tick off some of tomorrow's itinerary, so we stopped by our third giant in 2 days, the Lauterbach Giant, the Route 66 Motel and then stopped for our tea at the Cozy Dog Drive In. The birthplace of the corn dog, a hotdog coated and deep fried in a corn bread batter, it is a popular haunt for locals and Route 66 enthusiasts alike. I had two Cozy Dogs and some greasy overcooked fries. Catherine had a medley of veggie friendly side dishes. Both washed down with root beer.
We drove home and before retiring for the night took a walk a couple of blocks up the road, where alerted by the 'whistle' of a freight train, managed to see one as it passed by one of the side streets. It must've taken a good 3-4 minutes to go past us, so we could only guess at how long that made it.
It's been another good day. The weather has been superb again and long may it continue.
Tomorrow we head to St Louis and the gateway to the west.
Make sure you come back to check out Day 5.
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