Day Four: St. Louis to West Branch, IO (334 mi)

I'm sorry, I realize some of you may do your best to avoid them, but there is just something especially comforting about the Golden Arches to the Sams Family when we are traveling.  My Veritas students get tired of the frequency of my stops under these symbols of American enterprise known worldwide, but I can't help myself.  This morning I am not only enjoying my McDonald's coffee (one of the best, in my humble opinion), but also availing myself of the free internet connection which all U.S. McD's now offer.  We did not have access at our campsite last night, which is why this entry, although for Day Four (Oct 4th), is actually being posted on Oct 5th.

We got away from St. Louis bright and early yesterday morning and made our way to Springfield, IL, the adult home for President Abraham Lincoln and his wife Mary.  Several blocks of the town are closed to naught but pedestrian traffic and the homes in this area are all circa mid-1800s, including the house Lincoln purchased as an aspiring lawyer in the 1840s.  He raised his children in it and still owned it at the time of his death.  We toured the home (no charge, as this is run by the National Park Service) before walking to the state-run Lincoln Museum and Library several blocks away.


The layout and means of imparting info for this museum was much different from the others we have visited thus far.  Everything was laid out around a central portico and many of the displays were life-sized figures showing various scenes from Abe's life, from his boyhood in the single-room log cabin of his birth, to an actual replica of Ford's Theatre and his death in 1865.  Of course, a lot of the space was devoted to the Civil War.  There was an interesting holographic exhibit that graphically depicted the various viewpoints regarding Lincoln's decision to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed slaves in the rebel states only, effective January 1, 1863.  There was another, very moving life-sized replica and diorama-like exhibit which showed Lincoln as he laid in state in the Illinois state capitol building in Springfield of 1865, playing popular ballads of the time in the background.

Later that day, in late afternoon, we recrossed the Mississippi River, this time at Davenport, IL.  No, we had not taken a wrong turn, but were intentionally heading back west to I35 (Des Moines, IO) where we will resume our northward progress to Minnesota.  In a few moments we're heading over to the Hoover Presidential Library here in West Branch, a booming town of 2,000 residents.  Hoover is certainly not known as one of our greatest presidents, but he was a life-long, faithful public servant and the library should have some great information about the early part of the 20th Century in America.

I don't have time to download and post any photos at the moment, but I'll be sure to include one or two of the Lincoln sites visited in Springfield (we also saw his gravesite -- hands down the most impressive of any of the presidential burial places we have visited to date) before adding any from today's events.

This is Veritas -- discovering our world, making a difference!