Musings From the Road

Well Bozo fans, he's making his way through Illinois. On Saturday he got to go to Grandview Drive Park in Peoria, overlooking the Illinois river valley and Upper Peoria Lake, known by the local tribes as Lake Pimiteoui. I always thought it meant "stinking lake" not "fat lake. He actually got to get down next to the river out by Chillicothe, and there it was stinking water, from the mud and vegetation in the heat. Tap the photos to see them all. Sorry for the poor photo editing. I'll fix them later.

On Sunday we headed out to St. Louis, stopping in Springfield to take him to Lincoln's home. The tours are free and he got to check out Abe's 3-holer too.

We stopped in Litchfield at Jublets Bakery & Restaurant on Old US 66. Good food and great cookies. AND a chance to capture a Rte 66 shot to go w/ the one he had in Kingman, AZ a couple months ago, before the blog.

Headed south we spotted a sign for Mother Jones's Memorial, just outside Mt. Olive, IL. It's in the Union Miners Cemetery on old Rte 66. There is the main memorial and Mother Jones's grave site and another memorial to miners killed in the Virden labor action massacre. The large memorial also commemorates several miners killed in 1932 & 1933, apparently due to their attempts for free miner unions.

There's an old saying in the Midwest regarding the health of the corn crop. It's supposed to be knee-high by the 4th of July. Well, next to the cemetery it's almost as tall as Cathy and it's early June. We've been noting how well it's growing on our way across the country and as we moved south from Wisconsin it's gone from ankle-high to knee-high outside of Peoria, to head-high south of Springfield. It looks like a good year, as long as late storms and other bad weather don't impact it.

I close w/ a shot of the Gateway Arch as we entered St. Louis. Now, it's time to catch an Uber down to the Arch park and a trip to the top.

Ciao for now.