Day eighteen – Thursday

“It’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” Abe Lincoln

I feel as though we’re improving the life in our years with this trip.

After a leisurely morning in the campground we headed off to Springfield. We left the coach at about 11:00 a.m. and parked in the Lincoln Library and Museum parking lot at 11:30. We went to the museum first, paid our $7.00 each to enter, and spent the next four hours walking among a reminder of our country’s turbulent history.

Abe Lincoln was the president during one of our country’s turning points. The abolition of slavery and the civil war were the earmarks of the Lincoln era. He was elected and went to war, abolished slavery near the end of his presidency and was assassinated just after the end of the civil war. During his life he lost three of his four children and after his death, his wife, Mary, was committed to a mental institution after her only surviving son, Robert, petitioned for an insanity hearing.

We made a quick visit to the Lincoln Library and then headed off to the Lincoln Tomb at the nearby cemetery. The tomb itself is a grand structure and fitting of a president. Inside we listened to a short talk about the tomb and then took the five-minute walk through. Inside we saw the burial place of Lincoln, his wife and three of his four sons. The longest living son, Robert, is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. However, there is a marker in the tomb for Robert.

We drove back to the coach and joined our neighbors, Bud, Lloyd, Angie and Kathy for dinner at a nearby restaurant. Our neighbors are from Springfield and here for a short getaway for the weekend. They invited us to a restaurant across the street from the campground and introduced us to “Horseshoes.” On this particular menu, we had our choice of the Clydesdale Shoe ($9.95) or the Shetland Pony Shoe ($6.95). The former is twice the portion of the latter. A Horseshoe is a slice, or two, of Texas bread covered with your choice of meat and then piled high with French fries and, finally, covered with white cheese sauce. Our choice of meats included a hamburger patty; fried chicken; fried buffalo chicken; ham; BBQ pork; breaded tenderloin or Philly beef. Ann had the fried buffalo chicken (spicy) and I had the breaded tenderloin. Obviously, this is a healthy, low-cal meal since bread is made with flour, French fries are made with potatoes and cheese is a dairy product. I can hear my arteries crackling as I type! Thanks to our neighbors for an entertaining evening, even if they are Tony Stewart fans! :)

We finished another game of Scrabble just as 10:00 p.m. rolled around and it’s time to hit the sack. Tomorrow we check out the Lincoln’s New Salem Historic Site and then we’re off for Dayton Ohio.

Regarding the photograph above, notice John Wilkes Booth lurking in the background!