If you've been following along, you'll see that we have had several themes along our trip. Pony Express, Wild West, Little House on the Prairie, the Mississippi River, cheese and sausage, boyhood homes, and presidents. We began the Abraham Lincoln leg of our journey in Springfield, Illinois.
Our original plan was to spend Friday, May 24th, in Springfield, Illinois, to see the Abraham Lincoln Presidential LIbrary and Museum and the Lincoln Home National Historic Site. But when I was purchasing our tickets for the Museum, I remembered that I hadn't bought our tickets for St. Louis, Missouri, for the Arch and riverboat tour we wanted to do. As it turned out, there were no tickets for the Arch available for Saturday, and very limited time selections for Sunday afternoon. Sunday afternoon would have been fine as we were planning to be in St. Louis from Saturday midday until Monday morning. Of course it was Memorial Day, so I knew I should have bought our tickets earlier, but just forgot to do it.
We had altered our plans earlier in the week due to weather which put us in Hannibal for four nights instead of two, so I thought we should at least check the weather for Sunday. Well, that Sunday was predicted to be (and turned out to be) severe weather, so we figured even if we had tickets, it was likely that the activities would be canceled, and if not, we didn't really want to be in a super-crowd in the rain.
So we decided we would take an extra night in Springfield if we could extend our hotel reservation. Turned out we could! And just the day before, I had converted our one-night reservation from cash to points (accumulated along the way), so when we added the extra night, I expected to have to pay cash for it, but the front desk clerk said the extension went through their system and the points covered it. I'm not really sure how it all works, but that was a nice bonus for us! Then all we needed to do was figure out Sunday for church (Pana, Illinois - hi to my new friends Judy and Bev!) and overnight (Mount Vernon, Illinois). Once that was settled, we cancelled St. Louis.
Because we had bought tickets for the Lincoln Museum, we had to do that on Friday. The National Historic Site didn't require tickets (except for the tour of the Lincoln house, but you get those first come, first served at the Visitor Center there). We decided to save the Lincoln historic site for the next day so we didn't have to rush through the Museum. (We had to rush through the Eisenhower one in Abilene, Kansas, so we learned a lesson there - always give more time to the museums than you think you'll need).
When we got to Springfield, we found parking, and then walked up a block to the museum and Presidential Library buildings. It was overcast and we thought it might rain, so we were glad we had to do the indoor activities on this day. (Pro tip: Take a picture of the parking lot building in case you get turned around on the way back. We didn't, but it's happened before.)
It was a short walk to the Presidential Library and Museum from the parking garage.
Once you have gone into the museum, you get a wristband to indicate you've bought a ticket. Then after security checks your bags, you enter a rotunda area where the Lincoln family greets you in front of the White House facade. Tad, Robert, Mrs. Mary, Mr. Abraham, and Willie. The volunteers will take your picture with "the family."
Like most museums dedicated to historical people, places, and events, this one had a film. It was titled Lincoln's Eyes. It was done by the artist of a painting they have hanging outside the theater that I have included at the end of this set of photos. Outside the theater they have a series of pictures of Lincoln at various stages of life. It's interesting to see how he changed. You know, he was only 56 years old when he was assassinated. I don't think I ever knew that before this trip.
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