Illinois - Outside of Chicago

In my last post, we discussed Chicago, Illinois.  Despite there being a lot to do in Chicago and that city having the largest population in the state, that’s not all there is to do in Illinois.

Illinois claims to be the home of four US presidents: Abraham Lincoln (16^th US President), Ulysses Grant (18th), Ronald Regan (40th), and Barrack Obama (44th).  You can go see various sites that show how they lived in Illinois prior to them moving into the White House in Washington, DC to serve as the US President.



Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln, born in Kentucky, chose to make Illinois home and it was where he raised his family from 1837 until 1861.  Abraham Lincoln’s Presidential Museum in Springfield holds the original signed Emancipation Proclamation, a hand-written copy of his Gettysburg Address, and the evening gloves that he tucked in his pocket the night of his assassination.  His home in Springfield is the only house he ever owned.  A visitors’ center next door to the home tells the story of Lincoln’s time spent with his wife, children and friends in Springfield.  Also, in Springfield, is the Lincoln-Herndon Law Office where Lincoln launched his legal career.  It includes a visitors’ center, federal courtrooms and attorney offices.  In Petersburg, there is a village of timber shops and homes Lincoln worked at doing various jobs called Lincoln’s New Salem.  There you’ll find interpreters portraying pioneers and a theater in the park.  You can also find Abraham Lincoln’s tomb in Springfield.

Ulysses Grant

Ulysses Grant, born in Ohio, moved to Galena, Illinois in 1860.  He lived there till his presidency in 1869.  You can visit his home which was given to Grant by the townspeople of Galena in honor of his Civil War heroics upon his return in 1865.

Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan was born in Tampico in 1911 and moved to Dixon for school and church.  You can visit both places to learn more about his childhood.

Barack Obama

Although born and raised in Hawaii, Barrack Obama did most of his work getting to the presidency in Illinois.  This is where he taught law, at the University of Chicago, met and married his wife, and they had two daughters here.  If looking for sites that Obama has visited, the state of Illinois has published their own Obama Trail to the Presidency that has all kinds of locations he’s been to.  

Not only did presidents journey through Illinois in their trail to the presidency, but other Americans journey through Illinois on two old historic highways.  As I stated in my last post, one of the original US highways, the famous Route 66 starts at the Buckingham Fountain in Chicago, and ends 2,448 miles later in Los Angeles, California.

Along Route 66 within Illinois, I found such cool places as the Route 66 Drive-In that has two drive-in screens playing at once, the town of Atlanta (in Illinois) that has a 19 ft tall statue of a man with a hot dog plus a Route 66 walking tour, and the World’s Largest Catsup Bottle with it’s own festival in Collinsville. 

The other major historic highway is the Lincoln Highway which was established in the early 1900s and was the country’s first coast-to-coast automobile highway.  It begins in New York City and ends in San Francisco (The Lincoln Highway Association, and The Illinois Lincoln Highway Association). 

Along both of these highways, you really come to find the true hometowns of the U.S. of A that might have been forgotten over the years due to the building of the major interstates.

Three other great places to check out in Illinois are:

1. Starved Rock State Park - bring your cameras so that you can capture the waterfalls and the bald eagles that nest in this area which is along the Illinois River.  There is also a cute lodge at the state park so you don’t have to stay far away.

Starved Rock State Park

2. John Deere Factory - John Deere has their world headquarters, a factory, and a pavilion museum in the town of Moline.  Also, an hour northeast of Moline is the John Deere Historic Site in the town of Grand Detour where you can see what it was like when John Deere worked in his blacksmith shop here and you can stroll through his home and the grounds.

John Deere Headquarters

3. Popeye and Friends Character Trail - the town of Chester is full of characters, Popeye character statues that is.

Popeye

Bluto

Other Great Informative Links:

http://www.chicagotraveler.com/

http://explorechicago.org/city/en.html

http://www.visitcentralillinois.com/

http://www.bwcvb.com/

These are just the places I’d like to go to in Illinois.  If you know of anywhere else in Illinois we should check out, please leave a comment below.  See you next week when we’ll explore what’s just round the corner in Indiana.

*All photos were found online*

Arizona

Being an east coast girl, I’m not used to such “young” states like Arizona who will celebrate 100 years of statehood this year http://www.az100years.org/.  Wow!

I visited Arizona during a road trip with my friends Lori and Lauren in May 2009.  We had a blast visiting Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado (in that order) over the course of a long weekend.

We crossed into Arizona from Nevada on the Hoover Dam - http://www.usbr.gov/lc/hooverdam/.  It is in the middle of nowhere, but there were so many cars.  They have alleviated congestion by building a bridge across the dam area that was being built when we were there.  It’s really cool to see the marvel of this man-made wonder in person.

View from on top of the Hoover Dam

New Bridge - looks a little scary

From Hoover Dam, we drove to the Grand Canyon.  It was raining, foggy, and cold in MAY!  After spending the previous day in Vegas in a tank top and some capris, I was so surprised that I was freezing at the Grand Canyon - http://www.nps.gov/grca/index.htm.  Because of the rain and fog, we couldn’t see much.  We drove to the various viewpoints hoping for better site seeing, but, none of them were as clear as the pictures I’ve seen on the internet.

  

Here are two that my friend, Chris, took (much better day and photos):

There is so much to do in the Grand Canyon that you can spend 24 hrs there like we did, or a week.  You can take rafting trips or mule trips down into the canyon.  We only viewed the south rim; however there is the north rim as well.  One major piece of advice is to research and research early because there is so much to do but depending on the time of year, things book up fast.  You’ll need to decide what time of year you want to go, how much time you want to spend there, and how you’ll get to the canyon area, etc.

To spend the night, you either have to stay in a park lodge or about an hour away in the nearest town.  We chose to stay at the Yavapai Lodge in the park- http://www.grandcanyonlodges.com/lodging-413.html.  It’s one of the cheaper ones in the park.  If you don’t mind spending more, you can stay at a lodge with a view of the canyon.

That night for dinner, we weren’t really interested in the limited options in the park.  Luckily, Lauren’s dad had been to this area and told us about the Cameron Trading Post outside of the park about 45 minutes away from where we were staying.  http://www.camerontradingpost.com/.  Talk about AMAZING FOOD!!  You got to try their fried bread.  We went back the next morning for breakfast!!  As the name implied it was a trading post, so we were able to buy some souvenirs there in the general store area. Also, they have a great view out back.

I’d like to note that when you see a gas station in Arizona, you should fill up the tank and go to the bathroom.  They were few and far between.  Thankfully, we heeded that lesson from others and got gas so we were never stranded.

While at the Grand Canyon, I would have loved to have checked out the Havasupai Tribe’s waterfalls - http://www.havasupaitribe.com/waterfalls.html.  It’s right outside of the Grand Canyon and they are beautiful!  It takes a 10 mile effort to get there though.  There wasn’t enough time and I wasn’t physically fit enough to go.  Maybe next time.

From the Grand Canyon we headed to the Four Corners - http://www.navajonationparks.org/htm/fourcorners.htm.  You can touch Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado all at the same time.  But, it’s IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE.  A few Native Americans had shops around where you could pick up some souvenirs but be sure to have cash on hand.  There wasn’t a gas station there (and not one nearby), but they did have port-a-potties if my memory serves me well. 

Photo taken of us by a nice military guy we met while we were there.

Lori and Lauren backbending into four states!

From there, it was onto Albuquerque, New Mexico.

I would have liked to have checked out the big cities of Tucson, Flagstaff, and Sedona if we had time on this trip.  One of my friends got engaged at the Chapel of the Holy Cross in Sedona about 5 years ago - https://www.chapeloftheholycross.com/store/ .  Ever since I saw her pictures I have wanted to visit that area some day.  It’s so beautiful!

Picture off of their website

If you’re looking for a road trip, Arizona has a piece of one of the oldest American road trips – Route 66 http://www.historic66.com/arizona/.  It’s a two lane road that takes you over 2,000 miles from Chicago, Illinois to Los Angeles, California.

In between the sites we saw in Arizona, it was just dessert, and rock formations but it was all so ah inspiring.  We didn’t take many interstates, if any.  Mostly we were going 75 mph on a two lane road with no one around.

These are just a few of the things I’ve done or I’d like to do in Arizona if I get back there; it’s not a complete list.  If you know of anywhere else in Arizona we should check out, please leave a comment below.  See you next week when we explore what’s just round the corner in Arkansas.

**Unless noted, all pictures came from Lori, Lauren, or myself from our trip to Arizona.**