The kids had a 3 day weekend due to school conferences. After having 4 successful conferences on Thursday afternoon, we packed up the van and headed south for 3 days. In the 17 years that Matt & I have known each other, we have always wanted to visit Shawnee National Forest in Southern IL - especially the Garden of the Gods. With the 3 day weekend coming up, we realized that it would be a perfect time to visit that area and find the southern
Looking for Lincolns while there.
We checked the weather on Wednesday and again on Thursday - both days showed a promise of rain on Saturday, which was our Park day. Ugh. We looked into a few other options for traveling but it seemed the Midwest was in for a rainy weekend. We opted to stick with our original plan and "go with the flow". We woke up to overcast skies on Friday. It sprinkled off and on as we headed south but nothing more than that, thankfully.
While Looking for Lincoln over the past few years, we have seen many beautiful buildings, admired county squares and courthouses and seen many statues (some unique and some just plain weird!). This one was unique in that it had Lincoln with a PIG! From the Chicago Tribune:
A statue of Lincoln in Taylorville — billed as the world's only statue of Lincoln with a pig — was inspired by a story about Lincoln as a lawyer, who, while arguing a case at the Christian County Courthouse, was distracted by pigs squealing in the floor below. He asked the judge for a "writ of quietus" to shut them up.
We stopped in Pana to play at this fun park/playground. We saw the slide from the road and turned around to explore!
I think this picture is what the kids will remember the most about the park (possibly the whole trip). Becki got them going so fast that their legs were straight out in the air! So much laughing!!
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| Kaitee regaining balance after falling off...smile says it all! |
We drove through Vandalia (second state capital of IL, Kaskaskia, IL was the original state capital but was moved to Vandalia due to constant flooding) to find some more Looking for Lincolns as well as find some lunch. While driving, we saw this
cool dragon (called Kaskaskia Dragon) and stopped for a picture. We didn't know this until we stopped, but the dragon breathes fire!! We drove over to the hardware store and got some tokens so each of the kids could give it a try!
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| Will trying his hand at rubbing the medallion |
There was a quaint courtyard park across from the statehouse. It included a fountain, gazebo, statue of Lincoln on a bench, a mural of Lincoln's silhouette and a Looking for Lincoln plaque.
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| Countryside Red Covered Bridge |
We left Vandalia and headed southwest for a bit - it was totally out of our way, but we introduced our kids to Popeye the Sailorman while visiting Chester, IL. The creator or Popeye was from Chester and all of his characters were based on people from Chester. The town has embraced this claim to fame and we had fun tracking down the statues and seeing the murals throughout town.
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| Looking across the Mighty Mississippi into Missouri |
After crossing the bridge and "visiting" Missouri (no fun sign to pull off and take a picture), we stopped back at the IL Welcome Center to take this picture.
We hit Jonesboro as the sun was setting. There were 3 Looking for Lincoln signs to find (we are given coordinates for these). We found the first one right off but couldn't believe how high up the medallion was! Alex has to climb the sign to reach it! Most other signs have one at the bottom as well...not this one!
The kids had fun following the footsteps...
We assumed that the next Storyboard was at the debate center...so we drove there with no luck (it was an outdoor park but the gate was looked for the night). We looked at our GPS coordinates and it showed that it was further up the road. We drove and looked and looked. Again, no luck. We drove back to the debate center and Matt got out and looked around. He found the storyboard as well as statues of Lincoln and Douglas! We headed down towards the train station to find the last of the Looking for Lincoln storyboards in Jonesboro. It was also no where to be found. With over 150 Looking for Lincolns found over the past few years, we have come to realize that the coordinates are spot on. We have very little trouble finding them. Jonesboro frustrated the heck out of us. It didn't help that the kids were tired of being in the van and everyone was hungry. We hated to give up on the last Jonesboro storyboard, but after driving around for 15 minutes and not finding it...we gave up. We found some dinner than headed towards our hotel for the night.
We woke up to more clouds and the promise of rain on Saturday. This was supposed to be our "park" day so we had some decisions to make. We discussed our other option of driving into Kentucky, stopping in Metropolis to visit Superman along the way and then heading north to our second hotel...we decided to head to the parks and see if the weather would hold out.
Our first stop was
Giant City State Park. After looking at pictures online (Matt found it while doing a Google search!), we knew that this was a park we needed to visit.
Upon arriving, we visited the Visitor's Center. Kaitee found the otter!
We drove to one of the trail heads and decided to give it a try - even if it was raining a bit. We grabbed umbrellas and prayed for canopy cover!
We weren't disappointed in our decision!! It continued to rain, but the canopy cover of the trees protected us! Because of the rain, we pretty much had the trail to ourselves! It was a warm day (high 60s) and the trees were beautiful. Since it was a weekend, the park should've been packed!
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| Check out that crazy rock!! |
As we finished the loop hike, we ran into 4 or 5 families coming onto the trail. We had great timing as the skies opened up as we were getting to the van!
We headed to Harrisburg for lunch and a letterbox at a quaint little shop. We decided to continue to head towards
Garden of the Gods to do a bit more hiking. It was still very overcast and dreary (raining off and on) but this was our only opportunity to see the area and we wanted to take advantage of it!
We pulled into the park entrance and stopped to take a few pictures...We found Big Foot again! He seems to be following us (we found him at Pike's Peak in Colorado as well). he doesn't look very happy that Will is trying to steal his candy.
It was raining when we arrived at the park. We grabbed our umbrellas and headed for the Observation Trail. Even with the rain and cloudy/dreary skies, it was a beautiful sight!
A little Singing in the Rain, conducted by Will
I love the mist rising up from the trees - this rock formation is Camel Rock (in the distance)
We really wished it hadn't been raining but at the same time, we knew that if it hadn't been raining the park would've been packed with visitors. As it was, we were surprised by how many people WERE there. We left the park and headed to Effingham to spend the night. The kids enjoyed a quiet time in the pool and then a movie in the room with popcorn.
We were so excited to wake up the next morning and enjoy the SUN! We loaded up and headed out towards home. We had lots of stops along the way including letterboxes and Looking for Lincolns.
We drove out of our way to find this Looking for Lincoln - outside of Decatur.
On to Decatur - what beautiful, stately homes!
There were quite a few storyboards downtown Decatur so we parked and walked a few blocks to find them all.
We were amazed at the storyboards - many of them were in sad shape. This storyboard is missing all of its plaques! That was a first for us! Luckily the medallion was still there so we could get a rubbing.
Our last Looking for Lincoln for the trip. What a great trip it was. We did a lot of driving/sitting the in car with all of the Looking for Lincolns...but the history lessons we are receiving through these adventures are priceless. The small towns we are seeing are amazing! Because of Lincoln's vast amount of traveling for his surveying jobs as well as his legal and political travels, he made a name for himself in most county seats in central and southern IL. We have thoroughly enjoyed following him throughout IL.
Our L4L adventure is coming to an end - after 4 years! There are over 225 storyboards throughout IL and we have found almost 200 after this trip. We have 2 more journeys. We look forward to putting them together into a digital photo book (rather overwhelming to think about that at this point) to enjoy the stories and our memories for years to come.
