After leaving Oklahoma City, we spent a couple of days of R&R on a rustic farm campground in Missouri. Shortly after we set up on arrival, gunfire commenced from the bush lot across the road. A bit of target practice by a dozen rednecks I suppose. After a few ricochets whizzed over the campground the cops were called and the peaceful calm returned. Now that's rustic. Scratch this place off our return list.
Even though we're on our final leg of the journey home, we still like to stop and see some local history along the way. We've traveled this road before so we decided to spend our days off at different stops than last time. So after leaving the firing range, we picked a lovely quiet campground just out of Vandalia Illinois.
Now one of the reasons we picked this area to stop was because we had heard that they had an arch just like St. Louis (you remember, the one Grammie went up in last year, if you don't, check out last years blog). And darned if they didn't have an arch as advertised. A good try.
The thing we didn't know about until we started snooping around was that this was where Abe Lincoln got his start. Vandalia was the capital of Illinois and it's here that he became a lawyer and then a politician. That's the capital building in the background. We're sitting with a young Abe as he reads the paper.
In this room, Abe started his political career and gave his first speech about slavery in 1837. The people of Vandalia are not big Lincoln fans because he was the one who pushed through the bill moving the capital from Vandalia to Springfield where it was moved to in 1838.
The building has been restored to what it looked like in the 1830's. So, guess what this is. No, not a kitty litter box, but close. A wooden spittoon. Everyone chewed and spit back then and the wooden ones were cheaper to make than the ornate metal ones; and easier to clean.
Around 1800, the colonies didn't have a mint to make coins and England stopped shipping them so Spanish doubloons were used as coins in the remote areas like Illinois. They were cut as needed to make smaller coins. Can you see the original quarters? How about the lower right corner? That's where pieces of eight came from. Cool, right?
We seem to be hitting the more primitive type of campground on this trip. By trying new areas, our choices are a bit more limited, but that's OK, we're only here for a couple days.
Anderson, Indiana was just down the road so a closer look was in order. It's a very typical midwest town. Excellent old architecture in the downtown area with a bit of boarded up and abandoned buildings as well. They are doing a great job of restoring the downtown with parks and broad sidewalks. I found these young ladies cavorting about; trying to attract tourists I guess. Attracted me!
Just out of the downtown area, they have a beautiful park with long hiking paths and terraced flower gardens. We spent a couple hours just walking around enjoying the flowers and gardens.
A lot of work has gone into making the paths interesting and fun to walk along. After our hike, we headed back to the hay meadow we call home to hook up and get ready for the final leg home.
After an overnight stay in Michigan, we made it home in the rain and wind. But in no time we were set up and welcoming visitors. McKenzie brought some friends out for us to meet.
After a long day of driving we all needed to relax a bit. Kyle and McKenzie were excited to have Grammie and I home and it was great to be back. Boy, have they grown over the winter! This will probably be the last blog for awhile. Hope you enjoyed them. TTFN.
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