2009 Lincoln Pilgrimage

Every year at the end of April boy scouts from all over the United States come to Springfield, Illinois to parade from Lincoln's tomb to the Old State Capitol where Lincoln often worked when he lived here. The day before, many scouts participate in a trek from New Salem to Springfield, a walk of nearly 30 kilometers (almost 20 miles).

Here is Johnny Smith carrying the American flag at the end of the pilgrimage, near the corner of Jefferson and 6th.

Here is a view of the scouts marching through the streets of Springfield on their way between the tomb and the historic center of the city.

Here are the scouts leaving the cemetery where they assembled at Lincoln's tomb. One boy or girl from each troop or pack carries an American flag at the head of the parade.

Here is Sebastian marching in the parade.

This is Sebastian the night before the parade, when he was cleaning up dishes after dinner out at the campground in New Salem.

Here I am, one of the assistant scoutmasters.

Springfield, where the wind is always in your face

What is it with the wind in Springfield? Twice this week I head out to ride to my office in the morning (it's nearly seven miles, going south, then east, then south, then east, then south, then east). Each morning there is strong wind out of the south. Today it was so bad people were telling me they couldn't hardly stand up in it. But I think to myself, "ah, but this afternoon this wind will be at my back and I'll just coast home). Then, twice this week, when it's time for me to ride home, around 6:30 or 5:30, the wind has shifted, and I get wind out of the south or west.

There are two really bad places on the commute between my home and the campus. These are in the area where a bike must cross Sixth street near the new Walmart near Eleventh Street. There is a stretch of about 300 meters with no sidewalk nor bike lane, so you must ride your bike either on the right, in a right-turn only lane, or else on the left, in a "go straight" lane. I usually ride on the white line between the two lanes and then make a choice about which traffic lane to use based on where the cars are going. If a car is coming up behind me in the "turn right" lane I head over into the "go straight" lane so I'm not blocking it. Today cars came up behind me in both lanes, so I moved to the middle of the "go straight" lane. After all, a bike is a vehicle and has a right to the road, and the traffic light ahead was red, so although I was slowing traffic, the cars would need to stop anyway. But the two cars behind me start honking. I assume these are friendly horn blasts from friends or students saying hello to me, but then when we get to the red light (it didn't turn green until about three seconds after I arrived at the intersection and moved out of the way of the cars that were following me to go straight), the cars behind me pull up and the drivers (of two cars) each swear at me, insult me, and honk their horns again in anger. Huh? Where did they want me to go? There was no sidewalk, no bike lane, and for that short 300 meter length of road the whole time they were behind me the light ahead of us was red anyway. I could have saved them some gas mileage by forcing them to drive slowly as they approached the red light so they didn't have to come to a complete stop and then accelerate from a dead stop to continue when the light turned green, except that they tail-gated me to get the honor of stopping for two seconds before the traffic light changed color.

This problem of a section of road with no sidewalk or bike lane is really crazy at Sixth street near the Walmart because once you get to that traffic light I mentioned there is a wide sidewalk for another 300 meters, and then there is a suddenly a bike lane that you can follow all the way to the UIS campus. Also, if you like to ride on the south outer road of the Interstate until you reach the bike trail that connects Chatham to Springfield, and then take the bike trail into Jerome and Springfield, then the only way to get from this bike trail to the campus is to cross 6th street at this point near the Walmart where there is no bike trail or sidewalk. The same problem exists as you return from campus in the other direction. So, the city of Springfield has these two bike trails, one connecting the UIS campus to... a Walmart, and then ending, and the other a nice interurban trail that connects a road with light traffic to an area just a few hundred meters from the Walmart, but for those few hundred meters that could connect the two systems there is nothing but this very dangerous stretch of road where, as I demonstrated today (for the second time, actually) a cyclist can be verbally abused by car drivers for daring to use traffic lanes.

Anyway, betwen having to ride into the wind in both directions on my two days of bike commuting (with rain in my face on the way home today) and having these car drivers shout at me, I'm really upset at the traffic engineers or planners from the city who created this hazardous road situation. I'll talk to someone in city government about this and see what can be done.

- Eric

Lincoln turns 200

Last week marked the completion of the 200th year since baby Abraham Lincoln was born in a cabin in Kentucky. Here in the town where he settled as a young adult and lived most of his life we had a fairly large celebration. Our family went to join in an effort to have thousands of people read the Gettysburg Address all together at the same time. While there, we met our new governor, Pat Quinn. Here are a couple photographs of the event.

Route 66 Festival Cars

After the Critical Mass bike ride we remained around the Old State Capitol for a few minutes to watch some of the old cars arrive for the Route 66 Festival here in Springfield. Here are a few of the cars that we saw. There is also a nice view of the state capitol building seen from the south just as the sun set.

State Fair Entertainment

Arthur and I had a great time at the State Fair. Arthur is 9-years-old, and about 56 inches tall, so he was able to go on rides like bumper cars and the octopus ride all by himself. He prefers to ride with friends or family, but even without someone he knew, he was willing to ride alone on some of the rides. The sun was setting as we were choosing rides, and the air was cool, it dropped from about 24 degrees Celsius in the afternoon to perhaps 20 in the evening.

When we had used up all the tickets, we went to the Ethnic Village to hear a reggae band. This was Keith Eric and the Waterhouse Band, and they were great. We tried a delicious snow cone and watched the impressive fireworks show at 10:15. This was a much better firework show than we had in Springfield for Independence Day. When the fireworks were over, around 10:40, we had a funnel cake from the Dutch ethnic cuisine booth. Arthur loved that. The music just kept getting better. The band played a Harry Belafonte medley, and played a couple covers of good Bob Marley songs. They had several good songs I didn't recognize, and those might be original numbers, but at any rate, they jammed and improvised and had many people dancing. While they were performing, an artist worked on a big canvas behind them, painting a picture of a woman in a night sky background. We watched the artist start with a blank canvass, and for the first few songs, I had no idea what he was painting. Also, his canvas was on a wheel mount, so that he kept spinning the canvas around and painting on it as the canvas moved. The artist moved his brushes in time with the music as if he was another artist, so his creation of the painting really seemed like an extension of the music made by the band. Arthur was very interested in that, and I've shared a photo of the final image here.

After the concert and funnel cake it was nearly 11:00 p.m., so we bought one last snow cone (Godzilla flavor, which wasn't as nice as the grape we had earlier, but was still pretty good). We stopped and looked at some rabbits and donkeys and goats on the way back to the main gate, where we quickly boarded a bus without any waiting, and then rode the bus back to the state capitol to get our car and drive home.

It was a perfect evening. The music and fireworks were fantastic, and all the food we bought was delicious. The weather was perfect, the things we saw were interesting, and we took breaks and rested when we were tired or our legs started to get sore. I bought a great new hat, and Arthur had a wild time in the Midway riding fun rides. I'm looking forward to next year.

State Fair

Arthur and I went to the state fair today. This is the third year in a row I've gone to the fair, and I've had a great time with each visit. Today Arthur and I left home around 3:00 and drove to the state capitol complex, where we caught a bus to the fair. The $4 round-trip bus fare for the two of us was cheaper than parking near the fair, and I enjoy riding the bus. The person working at the state information center for visitors to the capitol complex gave us incorrect directions about where to catch the bus, but we ignored her directions and went to the place where we eventually caught the bus.

As soon as we entered, we got ourselves an elephant ear and sat down in the Ethnic Village area to enjoy it. When we had finished that, we asked about where we might go to see rabbits, but the rabbit show ended on Friday (this was Saturday), so the rabbits had probably all gone home. Instead of rabbits, we watched dogs. The Purina dog show was going on, so we watched dogs catch Frisbees. We had seen a show like this before, at the Indiana state fair, about five years ago, but Arthur probably didn't remember. We then went to see the exhibition of artists, which I had missed the past couple years. I enjoyed the photography and painting, and there were some interesting sculptures on display. Arthur's favorite work was a computer art image of a dragon attacking an old World War I fighter airplane, I think a Sopwith Camel.

We looked at some livestock and the 4-H building before making it over to the conservation area. We missed the chance to ride in the big voyager canoe, but Arthur did find a nice monarch butterfly caterpillar (Danaus plexippus). After looking at all the exhibits in the large conservation and natural resources area we stopped at the pork patio to enjoy a pork chop on a stick. This was dinner for us. I reflected that this was the first time in about three weeks I had purchased any meat, and aside from finishing hamburgers when Arthur has been too full to eat them, this was also my first meal of meat in about three weeks. But my, it was tasty. Next to the dining area was the Corona tent, and a band was playing a cover of a good Dave Matthews Band song.

Looking through exhibits, I found a place selling good hats at fairly low prices, and found a good-looking black hat that fit me (I'm a 7-and-3/4, which is huge for hat sizes, and usually 7-and-5/8 are too small for me). I'd been looking for a hat that fit me well and wasn't too expensive for years (not looking very diligently, of course). I was so delighted, I bought it, and got a new belt as well. I've lost about 20 pounds since May, and I intend to lose another 20 pounds by the end of the year, so my belts are starting to be a bit big for me.

Finally, we made it to the midway, where I spent the rest of our cash (gee, $50 went pretty quick!) on 22 ride tickets for Arthur. Arthur went on the hang glider ride twice, the frog hopper twice, the bumper cars once, the octopus once, and the two of us went together on a crazy type of fast Ferris wheel.