Springfield, Illinois is a nice town. I see why Abe Lincoln liked it. There’s really nothing spectacular about it; it just seems like a nice place to live as long as you’re willing to trade mountains or beach for corn fields. Really, though, the downtown was kinda cool in a not-overly-touristy-way and the suburb southeast of town surrounding Springfield Lake has some beautiful properties and homes.
I checked out the town’s historic sites:
Abe Lincoln Home 
Abe Lincoln Neighborhood Abe’s & Mary’s home in a renovated neighborhood in the center of town. The National Park Service has done a nice job making this look like life in the mid 1800s. Their house was bigger than I expected (not sure why).
- The old train station, now a special museum exhibit on the Hollywood movie about Abe, didn’t hold my interest. Would’ve been better just left as a simple historic place without the clutter.
- The Abraham Lincoln Museum, which did draw me in for a couple hours. The hologram presentation was especially good. The museum has several exhibits that are worth checking out; it’s a good place for a survey course on who was one of our best presidents. (They almost sold me a “I Miss Abe” t-shirt!)
- Finally, the Old Courthouse. Great architecture, good displays, very interesting first-person account of the winding down of the Civil War by General Grant. Was kinda cool to walk the hardwood floors and sit at the tables where Lincoln himself practiced law.
The following morning I steadied myself for the 300 mile Interstate slog to Fort Wayne. I’ve said before how I enjoy the old US and state highways more—and I’ll post about one of those soon. Anyway, the trip from Springfield to Bluffton, Indiana (south of Fort Wayne) was uneventful. I enjoyed a great time visiting friends in Ft. Wayne: good food+good friends=good times. I even scored a care package for the road! Glad we were able to visit! Next up: Michigan for the month of July!
