Sightseeing Today:
- Illinois State Capitol Building
Gas Price: $4.01 -- Springfield, IL
Well, we awoke to the birds "yelling" at us again this morning. They start in before dawn and so at 5:30 AM, I'm about ready to load the rifle. Not sure what's more annoying: birds continually singing or a train whistle that lasts only a few seconds.
Anyway, we did manage to go back to sleep and finally got out of the RV at 8:45 AM to head off for downtown. We wanted to see both the old and the new capitol buildings before the rains and storms came in this afternoon.
When we went outside, we were in for quite a surprise when we saw our car. Both the driver's door and the door behind it were wide open. The glove compartment contents and console contents were strewn in the front seat. The contents in the rear of the car were all topsy-turvey, and Dave's precious genealogy case was outside the car. A few things were under the car. Yes, our car was broken into during the night. We tried not to touch anything because we weren't sure if anything of value was taken; it was like being in CSI--don't contaminate the crime scene.
We called the police and we called the campground office and left a message for them because they hadn't opened yet. We waited about 40 minutes for the police to arrive. By that time, we had pretty much scoped out that nothing was really missing. We even had a bit of change in the ashtray that was still there. We thought they might be looking for money or drugs. It's a good thing I had taken my stash of $100 dollars out of the glove compartment a few days after we started our trip and put it elsewhere.
The perpetrators could have done a lot of damage and destroyed things. They could have taken Dave's tools, my handicapped scooter, the air compressor, and other items were of value. But, nonthing (as far as we can tell) is missing. The police said that when cars are rifled through like that and nothing is taken, they are usually looking for guns.
I was a bit disappointed in the management of the campground because there was no real concern from what I could tell. I say this because they didn't send someone to our site to check on us after listening to the voice mail message I left for them. And, when I mentioned it to one of the official workers who was walking around in the campground, he just shrugged his shoulders.
After the police left, I went to the office to pay for another night and relayed the event to the manager. The only thing I heard her say was that this had never happened before. I thought she might offer to compensate us for the inconvenience--remember, we had to pay $5 for arriving early--but no offer was made. I suggested (twice) that she watch their surveillance video, as the police suggested they do, but that seemed to fall on deaf ears. I think that it was not turned on as they state that it is, because she had a blank stare on her face.
There happened to be another women in the office who was checking out and she overheard me telling the manager what had happened. The woman said she was woken up by her daughter last night at around 3:30 AM and heard a car driving around. She thought it might be security. When she looked out, she saw people going through our car. But, she thought it was us. She wondered what we were doing out there at 3:30 AM. I mentioned again to the manager that she should check the the security camera, but again, the suggestion was ignored.
Nevertheless, we are grateful that nothing was taken or vandalized and that when the police ran a check on our car tags, we had no outstanding warrants! HA HA.
Needless to say, this put us behind schedule for our sojourn this morning. We did manage to get to the state capitol building, which is extraordinarily beautiful. The attached pictures do not do it justice.
We were able to sit in on a debate in the House of Representatives. They were voting on a bill that would allow absentee voters who were hospitalized to receive a ballot up to 14 days in advance instead of the 5 days currently allowed. Dave and I were surprised at how much talking by the representatives was going on, and certainly not about this bill. It seemed very disrespectful to us. Yet, a man who was seated in the gallery, as we were, had a baseball cap on his head which the page made him remove. I guess respect is a matter of who's who.
By the time we walked a good distance to get inside the capitol and walked around for about an hour inside, we'd had enough walking and the storm was coming and the wind was picking up, our footsies were tired, and our tummies were hungry.
Therefore, we just drove by the original capitol (where Lincoln had lain in state), took pics, and then left downtown.
Before we leave Springfield, I thought some of you might like to see a few pictures of the residential neighborhoods. The houses are so different from those in Atlanta. So, here's a sample of a few.
We ate at Cracker Barrel and came back to camp. Dave took a nap. I will do some RV cleaning tonight. We plan to head toward Chicago tomorrow. There are no campgrounds close to Chicago. There are only two that have WiFi that seem to be acceptble; one is very far southwest and the other is very far northwest.
So, stay tuned and we'll see where we end up tomorrow.
In the meantime, as we learned at Lincoln's bedside, sleep tight (tighten those ropes under the bed) and don't let those bed-bugs bite (that are hiding in the straw mattress)!
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