Homestead mailing list

["Marie McHarry" <mmcharry AT dtnspeed.net>]

Don writes:

<<It is pouring rain here today so I am playing with routes.  The mapping 
program likes to keep the route to Interstates but I like the back 
roads.  My most recent idea takes me along 136 just north of Lincoln>>

136 is about 15 miles north of me. It's not an interstate but it's not all
that exciting. I know. I grew up in Havana (on the Illinois River) and went
to boarding school in Nauvoo (just north of Keokuk) and university at the U
of I in Urbana-Champaign. Consequently, I've spent many hours commuting on
136, both 100 miles west and 100 miles east. The only spot of interest close
to 136 is Dickson Mounds where, in the old days before the Indians objected,
one could view an excavated grave mound. I went there many times beginning
about 1955 and found it awesome -- family groups are buried together
indicating that there must have been an epidemic. The burial site is now
closed to the public, but the museum built around it generally has some fine
display of Native American stuff.

If you're going through Keokuk, you ought to nip over to Nauvoo. The
Benedictine nuns who educated me sold the school and priory to the Mormons;
in the last 40 years since I graduated, most of the original village *and*
the original temple have been restored. It's well worth the trip; the
proselytizing isn't bad (or wasn't the last time I was there). Visit the
Nauvoo Cheese Plant and get a round of Nauvoo bleu -- it's much better than
Maytag's product (they actually age it for the necessary time in their
limestone caves); you can also pick up some Maytag bleu when you cross Iowa
(it's good if you wrap it tightly and put it in the back of your fridge for
a few months). BTW, Nauvoo cheese is not a Mormon product.

<<A further tweak takes the route across the river at Keokuk.  The route 
takes me right by the Dadant & Sons beekeeping supply in Hamilton.  I no 
longer have bees but will one of there days again and I can always look at 
the stuff..>>

I get bee keeping supplies from Dadant. Every spring, one of my neighbors
drives over and picks up orders for the rest of us.

And one other thing: it would be a pity for you to come so close to
Springfield, Illinois, home of the new Lincoln presidential library and not
give it a shot (and you really should see New Salem and Lincoln's home too).
I have not yet visited the museum, although many of my friends have (and
have given great reviews), because I have a friend driving up from Arkansas
the weekend after next to do the Lincoln sites. We're going early on Sunday
morning -- the museum opens at 8:30 every day -- because the word is that
that's the only time the lines aren't long.

Marie, sounding like a booster for central Illinois tourism