Rt. 66 at Springfield Ill.

Rt. 66 passes through Springfield, the Capitol of Illinois. This the land of Lincoln. It's good to see that they have not forgotten him here. For example, they have the Lincoln Savings and Loan, Lincoln Middle School, Lincoln Grill, Lincoln Tanning Salon, Abe's alteration's, Lincoln's Lavatories and the list goes on. A touch of overkill.

We visited the 16th President's home and Burial Monument at Oak Ridge Cemetary. Lincoln lived in what is now the downtown of Springfield. He left here in 1861 never to return. He was emotional about Springfield saying," to this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything..."

The house was close to everything for Mr. Lincoln his office and the old Capitol Building. To the left is his office with hs partner Herndon.

The old Capitol is where Lincoln gave his house divided speech. The insides are open to the public and are beautifully preserved right down to the seat that Licoln occupied with his stove pipe hat resting there waiting his return.

Downtown Springfield is a mix of building styles that reflect its growth. At present the old houses are being restored and they are doing a beautiful job. One house restored by the state is the Dana-Thomas house. The house was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1901.

It is a three bedroom house with 12,000 square feet of living space. It was the first house in Springfield to be wired for electricity.

The dining room seats up to forty comfortably. Every window and glass door is bejeweled with stain glass that change the color of the interior rooms as the sun passes. The house also has 16 levels, a bowling alley, and a rain water channel system to spread the rain water out to the various flower boxes.

We ate at the Cozy Dog Cafe. It was my first corn dog and pretty tasty. It is an icon on Rt. 66. We left Springfield knowing we would have to return and see all the other historical sites, but now it was time to get lost again and go to St. Louis.

By the way, did you know that Illinois has some pretty good lawyers, you can call Lawyers.com and find out, they use Lincoln as their logo too?