October 1st -- The Speedway, and the Land of Lincoln

Most of the motorhomes at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, probably 50+, were there for the dog show. That means that they had dogs. There were *lots* of dogs. Barking this morning. At 7am.

So I got up early. Found a car wash and washed the car. Stopped by Kinko's and uploaded yesterday's web site. Then headed down to the Speedway to see the museum. The museum had lots of great cars, but was really not a great museum. Even the track itself is kind of ugly.

I also did a track tour, which is a lap around the track in a bus. The track, with no one in the stands, and going 35mph, is nothing to write home about. It seems narrower than I expected. You can see some of the new interior road course they are building for Formula 1, and the new garages. Should be very neat.

So, then I headed back to the fairgrounds to pack up and hit the road. You've gotta love backup cameras. I managed to back up to the trailer in only one try. I've really got this whole thing down to a 1-man operation. I can hook up to the trailer alone, I can load and unload the car in no time flat, and I can hookup at campsites in even less time.

However, I dilly-dallied quite a bit through the whole thing, talking to people and all, and I didn't actually get on the road until after 11am. And, for you Californians: it turns out that our great state isn't the only one with annoying, dumb, towing laws. In Illinois, the speed limit is 55 with a trailer too, just like California. So I went 70 instead of 75.

With lots of construction traffic, and a lunch stop, I didn't get to Springfield, IL, until 4:15. I went straight downtown, knowing that some sights closed at 5:00. There are three things all right near each other that I wanted to see: the Lincoln home, his law offices, and the Oliver P. Parks Telephone Museum (unrelated to Lincoln). But, being right downtown, I couldn't find anywhere to park! I finally called the Lincoln Home, and they told me I could park at the Illinois State Museum, several blocks away. So, I did. I then walked over to the Lincoln Home, which took me straight through the state capitol building, which was very nice. It was 4:50 by the time I got there, and that was too late to go inside. So, I figured I'd spend the night.

At the Home, they told me that tonight was the one and only time during the year that they open Lincoln's New Salem at night. New Salem is a little log cabin village where Lincoln lived in the 1830s. He was the postmaster there. It's all fully reconstructed, with the houses on their original foundations. They have people in period constumes doing the things that they would have been doing back then. Pretty neat.

At night though, it's even neater. Outdoors it's very dark. They had candle-lanterns lighting the paths, but it was dark. All of the homes are candle-lit, and I was impressed with how much light just a few well-placed candles produced. I really enjoyed myself. But I didn't take any pictures. I saw one other person take a flash picture, and it absolutely blinded everyone. So, no pictures by me, though I had my camera.

The place was absolutely packed, too. I'll bet it doesn't normally get anywhere near that number of people. I got there right at 7:00, when they opened, but when I left at 8:30 or so, the parking lot was entirely full, people were parked in the woods, on the grass, everywhere. Clearly many more people than they are used to hosting.

Anyway, then back here, had some dinner, and started working on today's journal entry. Hope you enjoyed it.

Tomorrow: the Lincoln sites downtown (the telephone museum is closed weekends -- bummer), then off to St. Louis, then further south. I'll probably stop in Metropolis, IL, which has some Superman-related stuff, including a Daily Planet building. But I'm not sure how far I'll get tomorrow. Time will tell!

Thanks for reading!
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