Springfield, Illinois

Some of you have asked about Neal, our surviving Scottie. Neal's best friend Bailey crossed over the Rainbow Bridge in April due to heart failure. Neal has not been the same since Bailey died. We have gone through not eating, anxiety attacks, and various other problems. He would no longer eat the food he and Bailey ate for several years, so we changed kibble only to have him refuse that. So now he eats a combination of the new kibble, boiled rice and boiled hamburger. Whenever we can, we encourage visits from neighbor dogs. He seems to enjoy the companionship and he also likes our grandson Ronan. When visitors are present, he will actually stay awake and alert, but once they are gone, he goes back to his cushion or hut and sleeps a lot.


While we were at Summit Lake, we were camped next to Dave and Mark and they brought Baxter, their little black Scottie over. Dave put him in the pen so Neal would have a friend close to him. Both dogs seemed to enjoy it and they got along very well. Baxter seemed to sense that Neal was older and needed a friend close by.


During our drive in blustery winds through Indiana the other day we passed a windmill farm. Amazingly we saw hundreds of these majestic wind turbines. How disheartening that in the windy air we were experiencing, none of them were turning. . . well I did see two turning. Hmmmm. Wonder why. Guess the price of electricity is down right now. . . ?????
We are now in Springfield, Illinois, having driven over from Crawfordsville, Indiana, yesterday. We got camped and drove into town to visit the Lincoln Tomb. We both thought we had been there before, but now we are not so sure. I know we took the kids to Kentucky and Indiana Lincoln sites, but after seeing this tomb, I don't think we were ever here. The tomb itself is quite impressive and Lincoln, his wife and three sons are buried here. The longest surviving son is buried in Arlington. The cemetery itself is very large and you almost need a map to get around. We found the "old vault" which is where Lincoln's body was kept until he was relocated to the tomb. There are also memorials to the various wars at the entrance. We were lucky when we got there because we were at Lincoln's tomb BETWEEN tour busses. Afterwards, we drove around the town a little through downtown which is on the original Route 66. There are several landmarks from that era which we may go back to explore.
Today we intend to do the Lincoln Museum. The camphost says it is well worth it and to plan on spending 4-5 hours, so I better get moving so we can do that.


Till next time. . .


Dale