8/30 and 8/31 - Clarksville, TN, and HOME!

Yesterday's drive from Springfield to Clarksville, TN, was uneventful (always welcome) and pleasant with one minor exception. The roads were much better than the previous travel days but Illinois had seen fit to close both of the rest areas we needed. We finally found a place to stop but a warning about the closures certainly would have been nice.

Central Illinois farmland

Central Illinois is beautiful but very flat farmland....all corn and soybeans as far as the eye can see. Approaching the southern end of Illinois the terrain becomes rolling and hilly down to the Ohio River which is the border between Illinois and Kentucky.

Ohio River, the Illinois/Kentucky border

We crossed the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers while going across the southwestern end of Kentucky. The pictures look just like the Ohio (although smaller) so we won't post them. 

Our campground was right off I-24 at Clarksville, one mile over the Kentucky/Tennessee line. We stayed at the same place going west last summer and it was fine, but this time our site was separated from the interstate by just one row of trees so it was extremely noisy. The weather forecast was for approaching heavy rain but we got lucky and had only light showers overnight and it stayed dry while we broke down this morning.

I-24 between Clarksville and Nashville

The terrain in Tennessee is interesting and beautiful. In fact, it's one of the most picturesque states to drive through. We've been lucky to see so much of it on our trips to and from the north and west.

 Mountains from I-40 west of Knoxville

Coming into Knoxville, first signs for Asheville

We dodged the rain from Harvey all the way to the mountains. Then it let loose.

The very welcome NC state line in the Pigeon River gorge

I-40 in the gorge

Visibility was really bad for the final hour and a half, from just west of the Smokies all the way home, but we made it unscathed. We got the RV about halfway unloaded and will tackle the rest tomorrow. Lovie and the cats are all very happy to be home. We are so fortunate to have such good little travelers.

This was a wonderful final trip. We'll miss traveling with the RV but it's time to stop. As soon as everything is serviced and repaired on both RV and truck they'll be for sale, in case anyone knows of someone looking for a rig. Most of our future traveling will be to Florida for winters, although we still have to get to Alaska. We did accomplish our goal of getting to all of the lower-48 states but our bucket list isn't finished yet.

8/29 - Springfield: Lincoln Museum

Our final day of sightseeing was a leisurely visit to the Lincoln Museum.....leisurely only after spending a lot of time circling blocks looking for a surface lot where we could park. There are lots of parking garages but they don't work for us. I finally called the museum and got directions to a nearly empty lot where we could park which was actually for buses. No one bothered the truck and we couldn't find anyone to pay so it worked out fine.

Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum

We didn't get into a position to get a good picture of the buildings so here's the one from their Facebook page. The museum is on the left, the library on the right.

Wax figures of Lincoln family in front of the White House

Replica of Lincoln's childhood home in a one-room log cabin

Lincoln's family was poor by today's standards but not so much for a frontier family. At one point there were his father, step-mother and seven children living in a one-room log cabin so Abe had little time and space for himself. He had a hard-working childhood helping his father provide for the family. The death of his mother when he was nine had a big effect on him, but he loved and totally accepted his new step-mother Sarah when his father remarried a year later. He had very little formal schooling, teaching himself to read and studying everything he could get his hands on. Sarah encouraged his reading and was extremely proud of him.

No flash photography is allowed in the museum and there are several areas where photography isn't allowed at all, so we have few interior pictures.

Gutzon Borglum sculpture of the President

This plaster cast was made by Gutzon Borglum, of Mount Rushmore fame, in preparation for a 1908 marble version now in the Rotunda at the U.S. Capitol. The piece has no left ear. Borglum told Congress that Lincoln's "right side was determined, developed, ancient. The left side was immature." 

Union Station, side away from tracks

Union Station's track side

Union Station is across the street from the museum and library. It has been beautifully preserved. It was the site of Lincoln's farewell speech when he left for his inauguration and the destination of his funeral train.

Tomorrow we head 325 miles south to Clarksville, TN, which is on the Kentucky line slightly northwest of Nashville. We are hoping to stay ahead of the remains of Harvey over the next two days.

8/28 - Springfield: Illinois State Capitol and Lincoln Home

No blog for the past two days due to having no pictures to post and no interesting information. Saturday was our last day in Madison and we didn't leave the campground. By the time we'd restrung a blind that broke and took forever to get back up and watered the plants (yes, we're traveling with ten orchids and a peace lily), we were halfway through the afternoon so didn't have enough time left to do anything. It was threatening rain anyway so driving 40 miles to a state park where hiking would have been required wasn't really an inviting prospect.


Yesterday (Sunday) we drove 280 miles south to Springfield, the capital of Illinois. The drive wasn't much better than the previous two in Wisconsin....awfully rough interstates but at least there were rest areas which were much appreciated. Lovie and the cats had their insides rattled for yet another day.


We had a lot to see today so got an earlier start than usual. Our first stop was the Illinois State Capitol which is called the Statehouse. It was started in 1868 and finally finished in 1888 after numerous problems including corruption (it is Illinois after all). It is the sixth Statehouse, the first five spread over three cities and taking up the years of 1818 through 1868. 


A bit of trivia....
The first capitol was in Kaskaskia, the site of which has now disappeared into the Mississippi. The second through fourth were in Vandalia....the first burned and the second was torn down by residents who built a nicer replacement in an unsuccessful effort to persuade legislators to choose Vandalia as the permanent capital. The fifth, in the new capital of Springfield, needed to be replaced with a much bigger building only 30 years after it was started.


The Statehouse combines three architectural styles....Renaissance Revival, Greek Revival and Second Empire. Maybe they couldn't make up their minds. Or they had too many cooks stirring the pot.

Rear....south and west wings

The Mansard roofs on the long north and south wings were a French touch by one of the designers who was born in France. The statue at lower right is hard to make out but it's to honor firefighters. The building looks top-heavy because the dome is so high in comparison to the length of the wings.

Front of the Capitol with Lincoln's statue

The building is impressive with a very high silver dome (361').....74' higher than the U.S. Capitol. The exterior is not as beautiful as the Minnesota and Wisconsin capitols, partly because the limestone has yellowed (or maybe started out that way) which gives it a slightly dirty tinge. The magnificence of the building is in its interior ceilings. 

Before the dome interior was renovated in 1986 it was black with grime from years of gaslight use. No one alive at the time had ever seen the beautiful stained glass and bronze-painted plaster frieze around the bottom (which looks gray in the picture).

Ceiling in the House Chamber with chandeliers weighing 700 lbs each

Ceiling in the Senate Chamber

Ceiling in Senate conference room, formerly the Supreme Court room

Grand Staircase Painting

Above is the third floor of the rotunda with the 40'x20' painting of George Rogers Clark negotiating with Native Americans in 1778. It has been criticized because the Indian culture it portrayed was never found in Illinois. It was painted by a German immigrant who probably didn't have much knowledge of the history of Illinois.

Second and third floors of the rotunda

One big difference between the Illinois Statehouse and the Minnesota and Wisconsin State Capitols was security.  Minnesota and Wisconsin are both very open, but Illinois has metal detectors which they're very serious about and armed guards walking around everywhere. I had to keep going through the metal detector and finally had to be wanded because something (never identified) kept setting it off. 

The visitor center across the street had an interesting elk statue made from pieces of chrome bumpers. It's mouth had a bird's nest in it.

Good use for busted bumpers

Our second stop was the Lincoln Home which is managed by the National Park Service. They've restored a four-block area to make it much like it was during Lincoln's years there. 

Lincoln Family Home

The house started out with just the first floor of the front section. As the family prospered and grew, the house was expanded. A second floor was added as well as the two story rear section.  The Lincolns knew their rambunctious boys would climb out the bedroom window onto the porch roof so installed a railing to prevent them from falling off.

Informal family living room

The house had two living areas. Children were not allowed in the front parlor which was more formally furnished and was where Mr. Lincoln met with associates and Mrs. Lincoln entertained her friends. The back living room was more of a family room with furniture appropriate for children. Mr. Lincoln sat or lay down on the floor in this room because the chairs were too small for his 6'4" frame. 

Mrs. Lincoln's prized kitchen stove

Mrs. Lincoln was born into a wealthy family so had to learn to do household chores when she married. The family had a servant to help with the house and children but Mrs. Lincoln loved cooking so did that all herself. She loved this stove so much she wanted to take it to Washington, but President Lincoln managed to convince her there would be a stove in the White House.


Our final stop was the Lincoln Tomb in Oak Ridge Cemetery. The citizens of Springfield wanted it to be in the middle of the city where the Statehouse now stands, but Mrs. Lincoln insisted on the cemetery which she and the President had admired when they attended its dedication a few years before. 

Tomb with the gravesites of President and Mrs. Lincoln and three of their four sons 

Inside the tomb the grave is ten feet below and just behind this monument

Miniature of the Lincoln Memorial statue in Washington, DC

We got back to the campground by 5:00 after a very full day. Tomorrow will be our last day of sightseeing for this trip....the Lincoln Museum and Presidential Library.

8/25 - Univ. of Wisconsin Arboretum

We got only one thing done today.....that is, if you don't count sightseeing in a grocery store this afternoon.  


The University of Wisconsin-Madison has a very nice arboretum which is free to the public. It has collections of shrubs and trees so people can see what might fit in their own gardens. Everything is supposed to be labeled but good intentions have not necessarily translated into action. It was a great place to visit in spite of missing labels.

UW-M Arboretum Visitor Center

The only shrubs in bloom were in the hydrangea collection and they were magnificent. As a result, hydrangeas make up most of today's pictures. None of them had labels so we have no idea what cultivars they are, but probably no one cares. Unless you're looking for plants for your own garden, it's not important.

They almost match Jim's shirt

After being awed by the hydrangeas, we continued wandering around the grounds enjoying all the beautiful trees until we started itching. We didn't see any mosquitoes or other flying insects but they were certainly doing a number on us. We headed back to the truck, passing the beautiful evergreen section on the way. We missed some sections we wanted to see but they weren't worth putting up with the bug bites.

 Evergreen section

After leaving the arboretum we went into Sun Prairie to get fuel. We were successful in beating the hurricane-inspired price increase but it will probably hit us before we get home. 


We also checked out a grocery store we'd read about called Woodman's Markets. The business started in 1919 as a produce stand and has grown to 16 stores in Wisconsin and northern Illinois. It was the biggest grocery we've ever seen and had a monumental selection of products and brands. It was also very well organized with signs that could easily be read from a long way off, unlike the signs in a lot of stores where you have to practically be under them to read the words. They reduce their expenses by not taking credit cards (debit cards or cash only) and pass along the savings to customers by having excellent prices. Other grocery chains could really learn something from them.

Sunset with Cheese

We've seen very few notable sunsets on this trip. Some of this has been caused by our locations which haven't been good for seeing them, but the rest has been our fault for neglecting to look out the window. We caught a moderately good one tonight. The picture is complete with a sign for a nearby cheese shop, although you can barely see "CHEESE" on the sign in the waning light. There's certainly no shortage of cheese in this state.

8/24 - Wisconsin Dells

Today's trip was to Wisconsin Dells, about 50 miles north of Madison. It's a small town that began with the name of Kilbourn City after the president of the railroad company which started the town. It was eventually renamed for the natural attraction that brought tourists to the area. The town grew to accommodate the tourists and now it's the Myrtle Beach of central Wisconsin with amusement parks, putt-putts, t-shirt shops, fudge shops, eateries and all manner of touristy things.

Entering the town of Wisconsin Dells

Early tourism completely spoiled the dells, but they've been returned to as close to their original condition as possible thanks to a man who saw them for the natural wonder they were. In the early 1900's up through the Depression, George Crandall bought up nearly all the land on both sides of the river, tore down the tourist hotels and businesses which had ruined the natural beauty, started a reforestation program and repaired the human-caused damage. His heirs donated it all to a Wisconsin organization which then gave it to the state. It is now managed as a Wisconsin State Natural Area with no development to ever be allowed.

 

Romance Rock (left) and High Rock (right), subjects of Indian legends

The dells were well known by loggers in the 19th century when lumber was moved all the way to New Orleans by river. The Narrows was a particularly dangerous section with rapids going through a nearly 90-degree turn through the rocks called Devil's Elbow which claimed the lives of many log drivers. Eventually a small number of local river pilots became real experts at negotiating the section and lumber companies then hired these pilots to get their log rafts through the Narrows.

When the railroads took over the transportation of lumber, the dells became a tourist attraction after an enterprising unemployed river pilot developed a tour boat business. That was in the 1850's and the tour boat business has been operating ever since.

Witches Gulch walkway

Witches Gulch with walkway over the streambed

Witches Gulch was one of two places on the tour where everyone got off the boat. It reminded us of Arizona's slot canyons....a much wetter and cooler version.

Stand Rock

The second stop was to see Stand Rock which is famous for having started the tourist interest in the dells. A professional photographer, well known at the time for his photos of the dells, invented the "snapper" to capture moving subjects. The pictures he took to prove the snapper worked weren't believed. People thought he'd faked the pictures. When he came across Stand Rock he realized he could prove his snapper worked by capturing a picture of his son jumping across the gap. It took 17 tries before he got the shot and people finally believed his device worked. His photo spurred tremendous interest in the dells. The rush was on to see them in person.

Now the tour company has a German shepherd jump over the gap to entertain their boatloads of tourists. It's only 5'3" across so not a problem for a big dog to jump. We saw the trainer working with a new dog by putting boards across the gap and having it go over gradually wider openings.

Sandstone rock formations on the Stand Rock trail

Sandstone cliffs across the widest part of the river

Wisconsin River several miles downstream from the dells

The boat tour was beautiful and the weather couldn't have been better. It was a very nice excursion. We'll figure out what we're doing tomorrow when the time comes.

8/23 - Wisconsin State Capitol and Olbrich Gardens

This morning we headed off for the Wisconsin State Capitol in downtown Madison. The Capitol is on the strip of land between two lakes so there's lots of open space bordering the downtown area. 

Madison skyline across Lake Monona

Madison and Lake Mendota from the Capitol's observation deck

Note in both pictures that there are no buildings taller than the observation deck around the Capitol's dome (about half way up the dome). It's obvious there's a city ordinance on height. A security guard told us builders have pushed to exceed the height limit but have not got away with it so far. 

The dome is higher than the Capitol in Washington DC

This Capitol is the third one, built from 1906 to 1917, taking longer than planned because of WWI. It replaced the 2nd Capitol, built in the 1860's, which burned down in 1904. The story of the fire is a perfect storm scenario. A small fire broke out when a gaslight ignited a recently varnished ceiling. The building had an advanced sprinkler system for its day, but because engineers had recently drained the water boilers to clean them, the sprinklers didn't work. When the fire department got there they had no water to fight the fire. They eventually switched to city water pumps but by then the fire was out of control. The governor called for assistance from the Milwaukee fire department, but by the time they got there 90 minutes later, subzero temperatures had frozen their water supply. To top it all off, the state had cancelled its insurance on the building the previous month to try to save money. Damage was estimated at $800,000 to $1,000,000 (about $21.6M to $27M today). 

The present Capitol underwent an extensive renovation and restoration project from 1988 to 2002 which cost $158.8 million.  So many layers of paint and smoke and grime had to be removed by specialists, then the first layer restored to its original colors and designs, it's no wonder it took so long and cost so much. The results are that everything looks like new now.

Rotunda dome

Rotunda from third down to first floor

The building is remarkably open. There are no metal detectors or guards at the doors. People are free to walk around everywhere. There was a receptionist and security guard in the entry area to the governor's suite but the tour group walked straight through to the conference room without any questions. A gaggle of protesters with signs chanted around the 2nd floor rotunda railing for about ten minutes and no one bothered them. They said their piece and left peacefully. It was nice to see everyone being so low-key.

After the Capitol we wandered around looking for lunch. We found a good one at Monty's Blue Plate Diner, a 1950's gas station converted into a restaurant. The acoustics left a lot to be desired (very noisy), but the food was great.

Historic Barrymore Theater 

The diner was in an interesting neighborhood, across the street from the old Barrymore Theater which is still in business. The houses were really cute, a mix of well-kept to not-kept, but it all had a great deal of character.

Our final stop was the Olbrich Botanical Gardens, a lovely (and free) place to visit. The most notable part of the gardens is the Thai Pavilion which was given to the University of Wisconsin-Madison by the government of Thailand and the Thai chapter of the Wisconsin Alumni Association in 2001. It's a really big deal because there are only three of them outside Thailand. This one is much more elaborate than most.

Thai Pavilion ceiling

Everything gold-colored is covered in 24-kt gold leaf. People are instructed not to touch it but it's still wearing off in a lot of places. However, it's in remarkably good shape after 16 years of Wisconsin's winters.

The pavilion was constructed by Thai artists in Thailand, then dismantled and shipped to Madison. The artists accompanied the shipment in order to put the pavilion back together. They were on one of the last planes allowed to land in Chicago on 9/11/2001. 

It turned into a longer day than we were anticipating so we scurried out of the gardens to try to avoid the rush hour traffic. It was 4:30 but the traffic was still quite manageable....unnervingly fast but no back-ups anywhere.  Unfortunately, we had to skip the conservatory in our haste.

Tomorrow we'll check out Wisconsin Dells.