Bob Dobbs Day in Review - 8/13/10

You may say to yourself, what happened to 8/12? Well, I'll get to it sooner or later but some internet issues forbade me from posting yesterday about the Windy City. I promise to get to it in the next day or so.

Pretend that you've already read about a day of adventures in Chicago though, and check out some of Emily's pictures. As for today - we left town this morning, and after about 30 miles, found ourselves driving through rural Illinois - picture lots of corn and, at times, some wind farms.


About three hours into the trip, we stopped in the state capital of Springfield. Springfield is home to many Abe Lincoln sites including the presidential museum and library, one of his many homes (not the log cabin), his law office, and the old state house, where Lincoln delivered his "House Divided" speech in 1858 and where his body was viewed for the last time before burial. Being an avid history buff, I knew that we'd find a few gems here.


Inside the presidential museum, the material is split into two main wings - before his presidency and during (see the entrances to both below) . The exhibits try to recreate different times in Lincoln's life and, although corny at times, provide tons of interesting information.



One of the more interesting moments was when I saw this event on the timeline:


Can you imagine what would've happened if Abe died and never became president? Tough to do so...

After walking through the exhibit, we strolled through downtown Springfield - a very quaint and classic American town. In the heart of the city are the old and new state houses. It's a pretty cool sight when you can catch the domes of each building. Considering that it was a Friday afternoon in the summer, though, the streets were basically empty.


I stopped into the old state house to see where Lincoln built his stature as one of Illinois' finest politicians. Fittingly enough, the house room is also the last stop of Lincoln's funeral train tour after his assassination.


On the way out of town, I stopped by Lincoln's Springfield home, which was actually the only home he ever owned. No, it's not the log cabin where he grew up, but the museum store did sell Lincoln Logs!



Less than two hours later, we made it to St. Louis and stopped at the Gateway Arch. This truly massive structure is over 600 feet and symbollically represents the entrance to the West as we knew it when Thomas Jefferson was president of the United States. To the east, you can see the Great Mississippi, and the west, the open park land represents what many frontiersmen saw as they travelled towards new opportunities.



Driving through Missouri was quite uneventful, until we arrived in Kansas City earlier tonight. Both Road Food and close associate Kyle Zimmerman recommeded the barbecue at Arthur Bryant's and drove straight to the restaurant, which was located in an area equivalent of Tony Luke's in South Philly. At Arthur Bryant's, they serve cafeteria style and treat you with the same brashness (treating you like you've been here a thousand times before) as a cheesesteak shop back home. I ordered the open face pulled-pork sandwich with fries and, as you can see, was not disappointed. The meat was extremely juicy, but what really makes it special was the homemade barbecue sauce. Arthur Bryant's serves up the best BBQ in the midwest and is definitely worth visitng.


Tomorrow should bring a change of scenery after we travel the length of Kansas, and into the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. And yes, I will get to 8/12 sooner or later.