Interstate 70 goes directly to St. Louis from Indy and is 243 miles away. Aliens must be abducting me on all my drives because it never takes the allotted time. It should take only 3.5 hours to get to St. Lou at 70 miles an hour. I do understand why it takes twice as long - every time to get to my destination. I guess this is where not wearing a watch thing takes its toll on my travel time.
First stop St. Lou, er a Vandalia, IL. Saw a billboard along the way pointing out the that there is a Lincoln factor to Vandalia, IL. It just so happens that Vandalia was the second State Capital of Illinois during the time of Lincoln's first and second terms of the Legislature. I knew there was a good reason why it takes so long to get anywhere - there is a lot of cool places to stop and neat things to do everywhere I look.
Vandalia, IL is a sleepy town. The local populace at the time paid for a new State Building in hopes of keeping the Capital in their fine metropolis. No such luck. I guess Springfield had better lobbyists. :) The fair citizens replaced a leaky second Capitol building with a nice third Capitol Building to no avail. The Legislature quickly moved the arguments to Springfield. Maybe it was the moving companies that had the better lobby.
Slavery reared its ugly head in Lincoln's second term in Vandalia. The Illinois Legislature passed a resolution to tell the Federal Government to keep its votes out of the slavery question in the District of Columbia. It seems that the House started discussing removing slavery from the Nation's Capitol with out the consent of the people. Illinois did not like that. Their resolution included the provision that the Governor was to send the resolution to Mississippi, Virginia, Alabama, New Your and Connecticut. Interesting mix of States.
Since 2009 was the 200Th anniversary of Lincoln's birth, the current Illinois created a standard set of historical markers with disks that people can make a rubbing of to keep in a journal. A nice idea. They call the overall campaign "Looking for Lincoln" and the rubbing has a picture of something that matches the written sign boards. A nice idea. I wonder how many kids were dragged to these sites to make rubbings and learn about Lincoln and how many will find those journals 10 years later and profess to have liked the trips. :)
The Vandalia Capitol Building was built on the Cumberland Road. This is the same road that Lincoln lived on as a boy in Kentucky when he lived, and almost drowned, in Knob Creek. Small world. I wonder if he realized that or not.
Across the street from the Capitol Building is a park and was an area that Lincoln would sit and think and I am sure get into debates over one topic or another. The town has commissioned and placed a bronze statue of Lincoln reading the newspaper. One of the nicer statues of Lincoln that I have seen. I like it that it is not some frozen facial expression of him standing or sitting. This is a nice personal rendition of Abe, I especially like the hat. See Dave, I told you I should have bought the Stove Pipe hat in Springfield.
Off we go to St. Louis, Hannibal, MO really - forever behind schedule.
Going to Hannibal, Mo to see the boyhood home of Mark Twain. It was faster to go to St. Lou first as I70 goes directly at an angle across Illinois, across the thinnest part of the state. Then it is up to Hannibal on a state Highway. But first - a stop in Collinsville, IL for a quick picture of the World's Largest Catsup Bottle. Unfortunately it is on private property so I could not get very close and it was on a hill so it was difficult to find a safe place to get a view for the picture.
It was not so quick of a stop as that pesky Reinvest in America money was around tearing up roads and making detours. More on that later as well. But I found the bottle and have a wonderful memento of Southern Illinois.
Off to Hannibal, MO. Across the mighty Mississippi river and take a right to go up the river to Hannibal. I decided to pass up the scenic route along the river thinking if there was enough time after the visit to Mark's place, I would scenic it back to St. Lou.
The City Fathers, or maybe the City Parents, have kept the old part of Hannibal like it was when Mark Twain lived there under the alias of Samuel Langhorne Clemens. Sam only lived in Hannibal until he was 17 and never returned after that - but you can not tell that from the Hannibal of today.
Hannibal has an okay museum. They tell the story of the writings of Twain, but the only artifact is a desk that he once used and a dresser. They did have impersonator talk for about 45 minutes. He seemed to be answer the questions asked of him, but you could not tell which ones he made up. He tool Twain's humor to the max and made stuff up if he did not know. Kinda cute.
Twain's boyhood home does not have any written information to describe what you are seeing. I was not sure if the furniture and clothes were original family, reproductions or original period. Not put together very well. They should talk to the Spam Museum people to find out how a real museum is set-up.
They have a Lighthouse that was is on the location of a family that Twain wrote about. It has about 250 stairs to climb to get to the top. Thinking that there would be a great view from that high up, I walked every step sometimes two at a time thinking that it was hot and humid anyway, I might as well get up as quickly as possible. Great climb but no pay off. Someone forgot to schedule the tree trimming so you climb all the way up to get a view of - leaves. oooo, if looks could kill, the Director of Public Works for the City of Hannibal, MO would have dropped dead in his tracks.
The picture shows just the last flight of four to get from the town up to the light house. Maybe it was more like 400 stairs. I just know Tom Sawyer would have had some one else walk up and take the picture for him...
The best view of the Twain Hannibal, MO and the river turned out to be from Lover's Leap. Interesting story of how it got its name. An Indian Brave and Princess were forbidden to see each other. But just like today's youth, they did not mind their elders. They were discovered and the Brave was being attacked. They didn't want to be apart so they jumped to their deaths to be together. How Montague and Capulet of them. Do you think Shakespeare heard the story and copied it?
If you look near the top of the picture you can see the Lighthouse with the base behind the trees. So much for climbing the 500 stairs in such heat and humidity that it wilted the flowers as they bloomed.
Off to St. Lou via the scenic route. Except that a third of the way down it turns out there is a bridge that is out so you have to take a detour so I wound up back on the road I took to get to Hannibal. It just took and extra 30 minutes to go via the scenic route. Thanks to the Missouri Director of Transportation, I did not find out about the bridge until I was so close it was too late to take any other way. Good thing I do not have much of a time table. Who needs sleep.
Finally got to the Kampground before dark, signed in and took off for downtown to the Arch. I was hoping that the tickets were not sold out since they go up until 9 something every night. But alas, no such luck. This is one of the few problems I have - not being able to sign-up for tickets on the Internet because I am not sure what time I am going to get to a certain place. And, I do not want to be tied to a schedule. It has been way more fun to go and stop when it appears interesting to do so.
The Arch is cool up close. I have passed through St. Louis in the past and have seen it from a distance, but never up close. The picture in the daylight came out much better than the one after dark.
The arch was designed as part of a competition to develop some sort of marker for the start of the Lewis and Clark expedition. When the Arch design was selected, no one knew how to build it. Obviously they determined how to do it. The story of how it was built is interesting. It is built in triangle shaped pieces of aluminum over a graphite steel infrastructure. They have trains running up both legs of the arch. The reason I did not get a ticket is that only one leg was in operation, the other was closed due to a small crowd.
Underneath the plaza where you go to catch the train to the top is a museum to the Lewis and Clark expedition. They show 2 IMAX movies, one on the building of the Arch and the other on the Lewis and Clark expedition. Since I have seen many of the places where they stopped for dinner, I chose the Lewis and Clark expedition.
A couple of interesting points of the expedition. Lewis took his Newfoundland Hound on the expedition. The dog made it the whole way. I think that having the dog make it the whole way and back is amazing. Thinking of all the ways he could have been injured - or worse - I would have bet against the dog making it - snakes, bears, protecting his owner, freezing temperatures, etc. Just amazing.
Only 1 man lost his life and they think that was from a burst appendix and two Blackfeet Indians were killed in a skirmish on the return trip. The trip to the coast took 18 months, but due to Clark's maps, it only took 5 months to return to St. Louis. And finally, Lewis slipped and slid down the side of a mountain barely catching a tree to stop from falling a couple of hundred feet into the river. It was only the third day and the expedition would have been over before it started.
Two quotes are included from the museum. The first is Lewis' comments about the Great Falls that we saw in Montana. And the second is from Tecumseh, the Indian Chief which I think that many Indians still believe today.
Two blocks away from the Arch is the Federal Court House where the Dred Scout case began its process through the courts. This decision on Slavery and Freemen was one of the reasons for the Civil War. Not a great picture, but it was very dark and I was too tired to walk closer.
Sorry but the final two pictures are out of order. I had to include the Catsup bottle. Putting me that far behind schedule demands a place in the blog. Somehow the original desk of Mark Twain's was not included in the proper place. I guess I need to double check my picture insertion.
I wonder if Jen thinks any of the trips taken in her youth are memorable now. Interesting how Lewis and Clarke started their expedition with set backs. Reminds me of a trip starting out with engine lights and tipi disasters. Safe journeys'
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