“The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.”
― Abraham Lincoln
Springfield , IL was a trove of historical treasures where we had the thrill of crossing Historic route 66 as it passes right through this city. We travelled a little tiny bit of it and visited some iconic features with the intention of completing the Route end to end in the future.
The city has both Abraham Lincoln’s House and his Tomb, and beautiful example of Frank Lloyd Wrights’ work in the Dana Thomas house.
This was our first stay at a KOA....to be honest we had been avoiding them….we had heard that they are expensive, crowded and corporate ‘cookie cutter’. Springfield was a logical stop for a few days, and it was the best option……and one can’t truly be critical of something never tried….!!
It was the best option in Springfield……and it was waaaay out of the way. We drove down back country roads onto smaller and smaller roads before we got there.
The owner and his family had taken possession of the campground just three weeks prior. Super family….the campground itself had been a KOA since the 70’s and it was in need of some updating…(!!!) but the bones were great…..easy level …long pull through sites with beautiful big old shade trees. It was a good choice..and we were very happy there.!!!
Scott did the searching on the iconic things to see locally…so we hit Motorheads,
…….. and the Cozy Dog Diner….
A Cozy Dog was consumed, and a thumbs up verdict delivered…!!
Springfield has its very own Frank Lloyd Wright building…the Dana-Thomas house and because it’s owned by the state of Illinois the tour is no-fee. The whole story of they house involves most of its original furniture and fixtures being intact… it’s an amazing FLW house to visit. It was a 1903 build hence it has a lot of similar characteristics to the Darwin Martin house in Buffalo NY.
The website has a wonderful gallery of pictures of the inside which you can check out at the link since visitors are not allowed to photograph inside.
After our tour we took a wander…we could see Lincolns house on the map not far away so it seemed like a good idea to saunter in that direction….this included a fortuitous lunch stop at the Springfield Carriage Restaurant …another good choice and conveniently across the road from the National Historic site, which provided a very impressive view as we fueled up.
What a treat. The whole area around the house has been preserved as a National Historic site with the gravel streets and the boardwalk sidewalks all maintained as original. Some of the houses on the street are offices for the National Parks, but others have become a series of small museums that you can wander in and out of, which we did..!!!..
I have to say we were a bit taken aback by the firearm policy signs tho….!!
I really liked this quote from Mary Lincoln.
Wandering back up to the truck took us past some other historic buildings……
The day rounded out with a drive out to Oak Ridge Cemetery and a visit to The Lincoln Tomb. It’s a beautiful old cemetery.
We took a wander over to the Korean, Vietnam and World War monuments while we were there. It is a very serene setting. This cemetery also has some Revolutionary War graves.
They are always sobering places to visit and like our trip to Little Big Horn, a time for reflection.
Springfield is wrapped around a lake…..a man made lake. The reservoir was dammed in 1935 and it creates a multitude of very beautiful waterfront properties in the southern part of the city….and a longish, winding pretty drive to get anywhere. I think we were also seeing it at an ideal time as we have been following the spring season eastward across the country.
It was a fun packed stop……time to move on for a rest…!!!
(All pictures are clickable for clearer view. All clickable links are underlined )
Extra pix
OsteoPraxis on the road 
So many things to see in some unexpected places. We missed this on our travels, but so interesting.
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