The main goal for today is to go to Springfield, Illinois and see the Lincoln historical sites. We are going to discover Lincoln. This is the bicentennial of his birth. We got off to a late start. We wanted to be on the road by 8:30 AM, and ended up leaving around 10 AM. This wasn’t all that bad, since it gave Lisa one last chance to see here cousins from Georgia, as they stopped by to say good-bye to Lisa’s Aunt Lil. I thought that I would feature Miles in this posting since he was funny. Samantha was grumpy and moody since we woke her up. On the way to Springfield, Samantha wanted to watch the movie Twilight… again. My dad then asked her if she knows the movie by heart, which she said “Yes”. My mom jumps in that she probably can recite the movie from memory, and again she said “Yes”. At this point, Miles jumped in and said “I know all the words to the movie, and that’s just sick.” I had to laugh at that because he said it as if he was totally disgusted. Everyone else laughed, except for, you guessed it, Samantha, who was insulted by the comment.
The first stop in Springfield was Lincoln’s tomb. This was very impressive and awe inspiring. Everyone there showed a lot of respect. Inside the tomb itself was decorated with marble and many statues of Lincoln at various stages of his life. The tomb had an ante chamber where the staff answered questions and the visitor log was kept. You take a hallway to where the burial chamber is located. The burial chamber is very plain with only a single headstone that sits in the middle of the room. He is actually buried to right of the stone. You then take a second hallway back to the ante chamber. 
Our second stop was the Lincoln house, which is the location of the only National Park in the state of Illinois. When we got in front of Lincoln’s house, Lisa asked which house is his. I pointed and said the one on the corner. She replies that’s not it. I asked her why she thought it wasn’t his house. She then asked where is the log cabin. It is then that my dad and I started to laugh. My dad stopped enough to inform her that he was born in a log cabin, but lived in a house in Springfield. It just shows you today that people still believed Lincoln lived in a log cabin when he was elected President. The house was amazing. They mentioned that the furniture was made of black horse hair. My dad has a piece of furniture that had horse hair, but it has long been replaced. He said his mother had reupholstered it. At the back of the yard was the outhouse that had three seats. The kids had never seen an outhouse and Miles thought it was cool and Samantha just went “eewwww!” I thought the three seats of different sizes was interesting; his, hers and theirs. The kids are into the junior ranger program. The National Park Services has a junior ranger program at every national park. The kids have to fill out a book, which is filled with activities. The program differs from park to park, but once you complete the requirement. You are sworn in as a junior ranger and given a badge. Miles is really into this. He was so excited that he can become a junior ranger for the Lincoln House that we had to wait for him to complete the required activities. Samantha started doing the junior ranger program after Miles got his first two or three badges.
Our last stop of the day was the Lincoln Presidential Museum and Library. This was a fantastic complex. My dad and I just loved it. We could have spent an entire day there. Lisa, my mom and the kids liked it, but they weren’t into reading everything. The museum has the log cabin that Lisa was expecting to see. The museum went through his entire life and had a lot of exhibits and movies. My dad and I spent time pouring over everything, since we enjoy history. We were told often that we need to move faster. It wasn’t said in those words but that is what was conveyed to us by Lisa and my mom. As my Dad says, my mom tries to take everything in by osmosis. The kids and my mom wanted to go into the museum store, so when my dad and I were through walking through the galleries. Lisa escorted us to the store. I think she thought we might try to go back into a gallery. Miles who likes to spend money if he has some in his pocket wanted to buy something. I expected this. He actually wanted to buy a couple of things, and I reminded him that we have a lot to see, so he may want to save some money. My mom tells him that we will see Mt. Rushmore. He then tells her that “Mt. Rushmore. Big deal. You just go see a mountain and leave. It’s not like this.” I said “like what?”. He said, “this is awesome and cool and Mt Rushmore is just a mountain.” My mom and I laughed. We will let you know what he thinks of Mt. Rushmore when he sees it. I did let him buy something. Samantha who didn’t want to buy anything at first decided to get something as well. She likes to save her money, but does spend freely on cloths. A girl who like to spend money on clothes… go figure.
When we got back to Lisa’s Aunt Lil’s house, Lisa’s cousin, Allen, was under our trailer welding the piece of metal that got a gap at the seam when the tire blew. He was just finishing up as we drove up. He also had a hydraulic jack, so we put the new tire that we bought on Wednesday. We figured that the other tire, which was as old as the one that blew, could blow at anytime, so we changed it. The old tire is our new spare. Allen then took out the riding mower. Miles who spotted an opportunity to try something new goes running into the house asking if he could
ride the mower. He was given the okay, and he spent the next half-an-hour driving the mower. Once he got the okay, Samantha thought she would ride it as well. We drove a total of 350 miles today. We have driven a total of 2459 miles for the entire trip. We purchased $58 in gas today.
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