Exploring Springfield Illinois

We had two reasons be be up and at um early they are Koda and Kenai.

We walked The Boys and had coffee while we waited for the sun to come up. Then it was breakfast burritos on the grill.

When I was much much younger our family would travel from the Chicago area to Bucklin, MO for family visits. We would drive Rt 66 to Springfield before turning onto Rt 36 to into Missouri. I also remember going to the Illinois State Fair as a youngster, seeing Red Skelton and the 3 Stooges perform.

So today was an exercise in “WOW things have changed”. Our first stop was the Lincoln Home. I remember just pulling up to the home for a visit. Now it is a very nice historical district run by the National Park Service. Free tours are offered thus controlling the number of visitors in the home at any given time. The tours are very well done and last about 20 minutes.

The Lincoln’s bought this home in 1844 and over time as their family grew, so did the house, with several additions. For the time, this would have been considered a house where a wealthy person lived given the number of rooms. It was in the parlor of this house where Lincoln was asked to run for president. Given the state of our Union, he did not answer right away, but took his time in saying yes after some lengthy thought.

The Lincoln’s lived in this home until 1861 when they made the move to Washington D.C. Lincoln would not return to Springfield mainly because of the Civil War and threats on his life. 

On Saturday there is a Farmers Market held near the Old State Capital. Since we were close, we took The Boys for a walk. It is a nice Farmers Market and we found a berry pie to have for dessert this evening, along with some Ted Drewes custard. Interestingly, the Donner Party started it’s journey West from Springfield, right at the Old State Capital. 

Since it was close to lunch time, we went to the Cozy Dog Drive-In, home of the hotdog on a stick. While serving in the Air Force Ed Waldmire  invented the corn dog. After WWII he started serving his creation and initially wanted to call it the “Crusty Cur”. The original Drive-In was started in 1949 and has been moved to a location just to the north on the original Rt 66. Yes, this establishment is still run by members of the Waldmire family. 

We each had a Cozy Dog and I got a pork tenderloin. The crust on the cozy dog is great. The tenderloin was bigger than the bun, we washed these down with a Cozy Dog cola and root beer.

This place is a must stop for many reasons. First, it is part of the America I think we often forget about. A person taking an idea and making to work, is exemplified here. The interior has a lot of great Rt 66 memorabilia, and the food is good. The Ed Waldmire library can be found in a large case and the eclectic selection of books surprised me. 
I cleaned up our table and went to toss out our refuse and went in search of a trash can. Soon a gentleman said he would take my tray and toss out our trash. We struck up a conversation and had a rather nice chat about how Springfield had changed and all the history of Rt 66. As the conversation progressed I sensed this gentleman had a bit of history here with Cozy Dog. He introduced himself as Buzz Waldmire one of Ed Waldmire’s sons who at one time owned the Cozy Dog. He shared bits about his brother who was an artist who traveled the country creating posters. He showed me the collection of Cozy Dog holders his father had experimented with in the dipping process for creating the Cosy Dog. I feel really blessed to have met him and to have had the chance to learn about his family.

Our next Lincoln experience was Lincoln’s tomb. This is a rather impressive monument which pays homage to Lincoln and his amazing role as president during the Civil War. 

Next we were off to find the Lincoln Statute at the Illinois State Fair Grounds. Not only was there a cat show in progress there was also a Dog Agility and Open Dog Show. Neither Koda nor Kenai were very impressed. But Koda did show interest in the dogs we saw. 

This ends our Rt 66 Journey as we head to my parents house for a visit.

Thanks for joining us on this journey and  we have another journey that should be colorful and quite interesting planned for January.