Abraham Lincoln

Last night soon after I shut down the computer we were treated to an awesome thunder storm - lightning, thunder and pouring rain. The rain lasted most of the night, but had stopped by the time we woke up this morning. However, by the time we were dressed and ready to leave, it was pouring again - with humongous drops! I think except for the few days when we were in the U.P. of Michigan, it has rained on us, sometimes a lot, sometimes just a little, almost every day. And those few days in the U.P. were freezing cold! At least today, even though it was raining, it wasn't cold - the temp was in the high 70's - which means it was very humid.

By the time we got to Springfield, we had driven out of the rain. It wasn't hard to find the capitol building - all you do is start looking for the dome and then drive towards it.

Illinois State House - Springfield, IL

This statue of Abraham Lincoln is in front of the State House

Dome inside State House

Firefighter Memorial behind State House

Next we went to the site of the home where Abraham Lincoln and his family lived in Springfield. It is now a National Historic Site and all the original homes in a four block radius have been purchased and preserved. Some have been restored to their original condition, some are still in the process. But Abe Lincoln's home has been completely restored and contains a lot of the actual furniture that he and his family used. Pretty cool!

This is the street that the Lincoln's lived on

Their house is on the corner of Jackson and Eighth

The Lincoln Home

Their main living area - what we would today call the Family Room
There was also a formal parlor and a second parlor that were used for company

Abe Lincoln's actual dresser and desk in his bedroom
Abe and Mary had adjoining bedrooms -

we were told they slept in the same bed

but each had their own separate spaces for relaxing, dressing, etc.

The actual stove that Mary Lincoln cooked on
She came from a well-to-do family and grew up with servants so she had to learn to cook

It is said she became an excellent cook, and while she had a girl to help with the children,

she did all the cooking for the family herself

I'm definitely not a history buff, but still, I think it's so neat to be up close and personal to places and things like this. To think that I walked on the same floor that Abraham Lincoln walked on, saw the table he ate at, the desk he worked at, and the room where he spent his leisure evenings reading and playing with his sons gives me goosebumps.

Next we drove to the cemetery where Lincoln's tomb is located . . .

The tomb sits up on a pretty green grassy knoll

at the rear of the cemetery, away from all the other graves

This is a closer view of the tomb with a bust of Lincoln in front of it

Notice how shiny his nose is?

It's shiny because it's considered good luck to touch Lincoln's nose

Where can I buy a lottery ticket?

A statue of Lincoln is high up on the tomb

along with 4 depictions of the troops that served under him

You can walk inside the tomb. The entry area has a reproduction of the statue of Lincoln from the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC.

Past the entry area, you walk down several hallways that look like this

leading to Abraham Lincoln's actual burial site

His wife, Mary, and three of his sons - Edward, William and Thomas "Tad" - are buried in the tomb as well. His oldest son, Robert, is buried in Arlington cemetery.

So now we have done just about everything related to Abraham Lincoln. On a prior vacation we saw the log cabin in Kentucky where he was born. Earlier on this trip we saw his boyhood home in Indiana, and now we have seen the home where he and his wife lived with their children until he was elected President and the family moved to Washington, DC. He was a very simple man with simple needs, and very much loved his home in Springfield and had planned to return there and live out the remainder of his life after his Presidency was over. Unfortunately, that was never to be. I have seen the box at Ford's Theatre in Washington where he was shot, we saw the actual chair he was sitting in at the time, now located in the Henry Ford Museum, and we saw the courthouse where he practiced law when we was on the Illinois Circuit Court, now located at Greenfield Village. And now we have seen his tomb. And it's given me a much deeper appreciation of this great man and all that he contributed to our country.

We left Springfield and drove West, across the rest of Illinois, over the Mississippi River and into Missouri, where we are spending the night in a little town called Macon. Tomorrow we will officially be on our way home, but I imagine we'll be making a few zig-zags along the way . . .