Day 10 - USA Tour - Springfield, IL

Overnight: Springfield, IL
Sightseeing Day:
- Frank Lloyd Wright's Dana-Thomas House
- Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum

Today Dave was up before I was, which is quite unusual. He made our coffee, which was yummy on this cold morning. Our electric mattress was cozy.

We ate breakfast at Cracker Barrel this morning. Then, we were off to find the Dana-Thomas House designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. He's such a fascinating designer. He was so ahead of his time. When you see the neighborhoods where he built homes, you realize just how unique he really was. Most of his houses are surrounded by Victorian homes. Then, you see one of his, and you can imagine just how odd and ugly these homes were to the neighbors. Of course, he didn't stop with home design, his windows are extraordinary with iridescent colors and they are not laid out in lead, but in zinc. These homes are over a hundred years old and look as if they were designed and built today.



In these pictures, you can see the faux copper panels on the sides of the house and eaves. You get a glimpse of the glass panels (on the left side of the picture) in the close-up of the house.





These pictures show the hanging "Butterfly" lamp and the Sumac design (glass panel)is only used in this Dana-Thomas House. The little lamp and sconces are used throughout the house.

Our next stop was at the Lincoln Museum and Presidential Library.

This picture shows the Lincoln family and a friend in the background.



I was quite surprised at what an elaborate facility this was. I understand it's only 3 years old. The multi-media presentations were superb. There were presentations of Lincoln's rise to the presidency as well presentations about the Civil War. The presentations not only included video, but special effects as well. When the presentation was a war battle, there were smoke rings, and the seats vibrated and shook when cannons were set off. The kids in the audience really got a kick out of that!

The screens were holographic and the presenters seemed to be live persons on the stage. Quite extraordinary. An interesting presentation was the Civil War in 4 minutes. The video content scrolled the number of casualties (over a million) while you saw a US map of the battles being named and "exploding" when they took place during this timeline. Also, you could see the ebb and flow on the map of the conquests and advances.

One of the displays was a room of gowns that Mrs. Lincoln wore. They were not just hanging on hooks or in display cases, the gowns were displayed on wax figures, which seemed quite realistic.

Many of the displays had wax figures of Lincoln, family members, and other political figures.

Another presentation was set up as if you were sitting in a present-day news studio. The newscaster presented the positions of each of the four politicians that ran for president when Mr. Lincoln did. Quite a different slant on learning their history.

I purchased a book called "The Civil War for Dummies." So, I hope to read this and get a better handle on this complicated war. As we travel around, it's so hard to remember which cities were crucial to the Civil War and which ones were crucial in the Revolutionary War. So, I hope this will help me figure it out.

This is a really nice campground. The manager has a yellow Labrador retriever that sits in the golf cart all day. He just rides around and loves it. He's so cute. Makes me miss my "babies."

Dave is repairing a vent that goes on the outside of the RV. It covers the stove vent. We lost it on our travels. So, he's purchased a new one that has to be adjusted somewhat to fit. He'll finish it up tomorrow. There is an RV repair facility here at the campground, so they are very helpful. Hopefully, when the vent is repaired, we won't have the breeze inside the RV. I covered the vent last night with Glad Wrap Press'n Seal--hey, you do what you can with bubble gum and plastic wrap!