Tuesday

"My friends, no one, not in my situation, can appreciate my feeling of sadness at this parting. To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a century, and have passed from a young to an old man. Here my children have been born, and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance of the Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain with you, and be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell." Lincoln's Farewell Address at the Great Western Depot in Springfield, Illinois, February 11, 1861.

We left the hotel in the pouring rain around 9:30 grabbing a breakfast sandwich from Hardees and headed back to Lincoln’s homestead. (We laughed as it was $2 to park for an hour yet the tour was free – later Brian would rant that if we parked on the street it would had only cost 50 cents for an hour!) There we first stepped foot inside the National Historic Site Visitors center and got our home tour tickets, looked at an miniature exhibit of Springfield and all the important places things happened at and looked around their shop until our ticket time drew near. We were allowed into 3 of the homes in the neighborhood. Thank goodness the rain had stopped and the weather was still cool enough to be enjoyed. We started in the Sheriff’s house that was across the street to the right. Our tour guide gave us some back ground history before heading over to the house. I encourage you to take a minute to click on the link and enjoy the home tour and learn the same the facts we did. The 2 other houses offer additional artifacts and displays. Very interesting facts and information. - I was curious to know more. Know more about their children and Mary Todd herself.

Oh my goodness if we didn't waste time looking for the cheapest parking around the museum either. Round and round the block again. But then I found myself suggesting to park at the hospital in the visitors section as I was getting car sick. (Brian is rubbing off!!!) - FYI, it's cheapest to park on the street.

Lincoln Museum - Invasion of the green people!!! We had to share the museum with a huge family wearing lime green t-shirts that read "Springfield 2008", so many of them they traveled by tour bus. This isn't like the Truman museum here in Independence. It's more like a wax museum telling the story of his life before and during his presidency. Union Theatre is a must, a very well told story of Lincoln. After watching the film, we headed off to the cabin where Lincoln grew up. Inside Ty asked me if he could take a picture. Because there wasn't any artifacts in the cabin he would disturb, I told him ok. AS SOON AS the flash went off - museum security was on us like white on rice! (Leave it to me!) Did we get the rashing! They do not own the rights to these exhibits and any pictures are prohibited!!! If it wasn't enough to hear that over for 15 mins the old people behind us reminded us that "Ignorance isn't any excuse". We lost each other from there since we all went at our own pace. I learned more about Mary Todd and what a ball of spitfire we was! I want to read the book BEHIND THE SCENES I understand its a very good book about Ms Lincoln. We all met up for the Ghost in the Library.

From there we toured the first capital building and Lincoln's law office, pretty neat history re: not only his law firm but the history of the building itself. (And did you know Lincoln let his boys run a muck in his law office creating horrible messes? And many time Lincoln would come to work distraught from a fight him and Mary had.) I tried to imagine what it was truly like back then. We also got a short history lesson in the post office and how mail was or was not delivered.

It used to be the receiver would have to pay for the letter and not the sender.

People wouldn't know they had mail unless they came in to inquire or the post office would list a column of people in the newspaper that had mail to pick up.

If a person came in they could look at the outside of the letter and yet could refuse it. - Thus creating a dead letter.

Dead letters would just accumulate in a pile at the post office as they wouldn't go anywhere.

And because it cost more when writing more than 1 page - people would get creative. They would write horizontal, then vertical, & then sometimes diagonal all on one sheet of paper. We saw an example of this and it was rather hard to read.

Others would draw codes on the outside of the letter so that the receiver could see what they were talking about without having to pay for the letter. For instance, if someone were having a baby. They would draw the sun for a boy.

Museum of Funeral Customs - Um not too much to report on this. Time and money wasted. The best part was the shirt for sale. Black with big white bold lettering, "Everybody has to go sometime." Ok, so it was a little interesting and a lot light headedness!

We ended the day with visiting Lincoln's tomb. We were trying to stretch the day since they retire the flag on Tuesday evenings and have a little Civil War show and gun salute. A storm was approaching in a fierce way. We were outside on the grounds of the tomb when the wind heavily picked up. Wicked like too. Brian and I were on the back side hauling ass to the car. Dad, Susan and Ty ahead of us. A big gush of wind came and I kid you not the temperature dipped 20 degrees! We made it in the nick of time before the rains came. - So much for the flag ceremony...

As we drove through town we could tell the storm had been big. We decided we were just on the edge of it as the more south we went the more damage we saw. Street lights, and signals were out. Large limbs were down. Brian even pointed at some that were CUT down! ; ) Upon arriving to the hotel we noticed it too was a little dark. They had lost power for 4 hours. It was early for dinner yet so we sat in the bar and decided what to do and talk about our thoughts of the days activities.

We wanted to eat at Chesapeake House - a 150 year old farm house. We tried calling - no answer. So we drove over there and because they too lost power were not open for the evening. Crap - so we ate at The Pasta House. Because half the city lost power the other half was hopping. An hour later we got our food. - Poor service but good food.