Willie Nelson's in my head

“On the road again, just can’t wait to get on the road again…”

Today was a longer day on the road, but it was much more pleasant. I sometimes like to take the backroads instead of stretches of interstate I’ve already traveled, so before I left on this trip I plotted my course. I had to change it a bit on the fly yesterday because of my late start, but it still provided for some leisurely, scenic, calm driving today. No tractor-trailer rigs about to blow my poor, wee Sentra off the road. No boring stretches of mindless interstate. Instead, I left the interestate at Salem, Illinois and for the most part stuck to state and local highways the rest of the day. I drove through Springfield, the heart of Abraham Lincoln country (as far as Illinois is concerned; I’m a Kentuckian by birth, and Abe will always be a Kentuckian to me), Peoria and countless charming little towns. I particularly liked the northwestern corner of Illinois. It’s not flat like the vast majority of Illinois. It’s full of big, rolling hills covered in beautiful, deep green grass, dotted with picturesque dairy farms. From the top of some of these hills, you can see for miles amd miles in all directions. The landscape stayed pretty much the same as I passed into Wisconsin. It was almost enough to make me want to become a dairy farmer.

Other highlights of the day:

*In one of the small towns in Illinois, I noticed something that harkened back to the “Read all about it!” newspaper days. Outside a newspaper office, there stood a sign with that day’s top local headline on it and the time when papers would be available for sale. By the way, today’s top story was about three locals facing meth charges. Sad. That scourge is everywhere.
*I crossed Route 66. I know it’s just a road, but I thought it was cool.
*East of Galesburg, Illinois, I crossed the railroad tracks I’d taken last summer on my Amtrak trip back to Chicago from Reno. I can’t remember what the name of the little town was at the moment, and my atlas is down in the car and I’m too tired to go get it.
*I stopped for a while in New Glarus, Wisconsin, an adorable little town filled with Swiss heritage. The Swiss Historical Village is located there, but unfortunately I arrived too late in the day to visit. I did walk around the downtown area filled with shops and restaurants with alpine architecture and filled with products from Switzerland and famous Wisconsin cheese.

Thankfully, I don’t have to spend my day in the car tomorrow. I plan to spend the morning writing, then get out and see a few sights tomorrow afternoon.

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