Today I drove 278 miles traveling from Mooresville, Indiana to East Peoria, Illinois.
The video below is 28 minutes long of my visit to the state's capitol city. |
The 29 minute video includes my activities both tonight and tomorrow morning. |
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Hello folks, I have hit the road again. I am going to attempt to make it to the west coast and back. I have tried to do this trip three times before and failed every time. It has been over two years since my last trip. To say I was anxious to get out of the house would be a severe understatement. I began my day as I left home shortly after 6:30 this morning. I spent a fortune on a new SUV to have room to haul around my mobility scooter. The scooter will be necessary on all but very short stops as I can only walk very short distances. There was on and off light rain as I started my drive, but by the time I got to Champaign, Illinois for breakfast it had stopped. After breakfast I drove to Springfield. I fired up the ole scooter and took a spin around the downtown streets. My first stop was at the State Capitol Building.  As you can see from the picture above the weather had cleared quite nicely. But it was very hot and humid. My next stop was at the Lincoln Home National Historic Site. Lincoln lived here between 1844-1861 before he became president.  Me and my scooter continued through the city over to Abe's old law office. Lincoln and his law partner Stephen T. Logan moved into a third floor office in this building in 1843.  Across the street from the law office was the state capitol building at that time. This building served as the capitol from 1840 to 1876.  Next I passed by Union Station.  Next I stopped at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum. The huge Abraham Lincoln statue was just put up on Wednesday. He is standing next to a modern man holding the Gettysburg Address.  Next I drove over to Oak Ridge Cemetery. I stopped at the Illinois Korean War Memorial, an appropriate stop on this Memorial Day weekend.  Below is my new Toyota Highlander across from the Illinois Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Although I bought it four months ago I haven't driven it much. It only had 1300 miles on it when I left home this morning.  Below is a peek at the interior of the car. It is very comfortable and roomy. I got the Limited Platinum model with all the bells and whistles.  The cemetery is most known for being the final resting place of our 16th president.  Through the iron door you see above is Lincoln's Tomb.  After leaving Lincoln's Tomb the clouds rolled back in with a vengeance. It was a 70 mile drive to Peoria where I am spending the night. During the first part of the drive lightning was crashing down all around me. You could see sheriff cars parked on the overpasses starring at the sky looking for tornadoes. Then during the second half of the drive the heavens opened up and it came down in buckets. I was worried that it was going to hail and pelt my new car. I don't think it did. Below is a screen grab from the dash cam of the stormy drive. I tried to grab it just as lightning bolts were crashing down, but I never managed to do it.  When I got to Peoria the weather cleared up again. I checked into the Par-A-Dice Casino Hotel.  I have a nice room on the eighth floor overlooking the Illinois River. After getting settled in my room I had dinner at the casino buffet. It was ok but kind of generic and overpriced. I then visited the casino. It didn't take long for me to lose $50 so I left. I returned to my room where I tuned into Marty Brennaman on SiriusXM and listened to the Reds beat the Cubs 6-5 as I was preparing this email. More to come, hopefully. Tim |
It is all the dash cam footage from today. It is 5¼ hours long. There is no audio track due to the microphone being accidentally turned off. Background music used instead. |
Click on the arrow above for tomorrow's adventures.
| TIM'S HOME PAGE SITE INDEX | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Areas | Description | # of Pages | |
| About Me | Current Picture of me and my home. Information about myself. | 2 | |
| Biography | Pictorial biography of myself. Pictures range from birth to adulthood. | 4 | |
| Family File | Pictures of my family and a little information about them. | 12 | |
| Local Spotlight | Pictures, Links, and Information for Indianapolis, Richmond, Plainfield, and Mooresville, Indiana. | 5 | |
| Tim's Travels | Pictures, videos and travelogs from my travels around the world. | 409 | |
| Vacation Videos | Over 1500 videos from my travels around the world. | 1 | |
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