A Tour to the West
Comment via blog
Prev
Next
|
Day 3: June 22, 2022 A Tour to the West Comment via blog |
Prev Next |
|
|
|
It was another bus tour day and this time we headed west from Joliet but,
just like yesterday, our first significant stop was at a theater. This is
the Egyptian
Theater in Dekalb, Illinois. My very first LHA Conference in 2010
included a stop
here. I thought it was cool then but it's even cooler -- literally --
now. Recent improvements means the theater now has air conditioning for
the first time ever. Air conditioning existed when the theater was built
in 1929 but it was among the many things eliminated from the project when
the stock market crashed.
|
|
|
I had no idea what to expect when we stopped at
Garfield Farm.
It is an ongoing restoration of an 1840s farm that once included a
stagecoach stop and inn. The concrete silo dates from 1913.
|
|
|
The conference includes several good meals but the best was probably our
lunch here at Aquaviva Winery. It also looks pretty good. I did not
try any of their wine but those who did pronounced it pretty good too.
|
|
|
I stopped at the Flagg Township Museum
in 2009 specifically
to see the 1915 Partin-Palmer automobile. Today I also checked out the
tri-level (humans, horses, hounds) fountain in front of the town hall
turned museum.
|
|
|
The original plans were for one bus to stop at the museum while the other
local soda fountain then swap. Construction somehow interfered with that
so every body hit the two places in synch. It made the museum kind of
crowded and the ice cream like kind of long but nobody really minded. Even
Steve and Deanna Bingham, the fountain owners who dished up the ice cream
without a break, seemed to be having a good time.
|
|
|
The bus tour's last stop was in Franklin Grove at the H. I. Lincoln
building. Although the sign still says "National Headquarters",
the name has been changed to "Lincoln Highway Interpretive
Center"
|
|
|
This is not part of the LHA Conference but the organizers did arrange
things to accommodate it. The route of the 2022
Great Race goes
from Warnick, RI, to Fargo, ND, with one of the overnight stops occurring
in Plainfield, IL. Plainfield is only about ten miles from where the LHA
conference was being held in Joliet. The evening of the stop was set up as
"on your own" for conference attendees so we could go see the
cars if desired.
Thinking that I might be able combine dinner with notching a new brewery, I sent a message to fellow brewery hunter Perry Huntoon to see if he had any suggestions. Not only did he have some suggestions, he had some free time and some interest in the cars. We met where the race participants were parked and started checking them out. There were some pretty phenomenal machines on display. The mid-point of the two blocks of cars happened to be very near one of the town's breweries and, thinking that the cars would be there all night, we decided to take a brewery break. Apparently the drivers started moving their cars to their hotel about the time we stepped into the tap room and the last picture shows what the second block of the car show looked like when we returned. |
|
|
| [Prev] [Site Home] [Trip Home] [Next] |