By 6 AM, the polls were opened, and the voters came forth in a steady stream, continuing all through the day. I spent almost all of the day stationed at an e-pollbook to check in voters, who included many Ascension Parishioners, two of my former students who had just turned 18 and were voting for the very first time, other voters I recognized from my previous two times as an election judge, and a woman who was voting for the first time after being recently naturalized a US citizen.
At 7 PM, the polls closed, and by 9 PM, we had packed everything up. I went with the equipment manager to the receiving station at Brooks Middle School to drop off ballots, result tapes, and other supplies. My work day concluded around 9:20 as I walked out the doors of the Brooks lunchroom.
Like the previous two times, serving as an election judge was an exhausting, but simultaneously exhilarating experience. It is inspiring to see the voters come out and participate in the democratic process of our republican government, particularly those who were voting for the first time. And it was wonderful to provide a service to people in my community, especially those I know well from Ascension Parish and elsewhere. And here they were, coming to participate in the important act of casting a ballot, a hallmark of our government.
It's interesting that 2018 is the election year for statewide offices in Illinois, as we mark the Bicentennial.
That coincidence makes it an especially meaningful time to explore the places related to the earlier years when Illinois's government was getting started.
And so as the sun set on the evening of Friday, September 21, 2018, I got in Avila and made my way south along the I-57 corridor to start a weekend excursion to see the previous state capital cities of Illinois.
At Effingham, where I passed by what is considered the largest outdoor cross in the United States (#178), I switched onto I-70 for a short jaunt to my lodgings in Vandalia (#179) for the night, the city that was the state capital before Springfield. I was in company with people who were participating in a Corvette show in Effingham.
The next morning, after breakfast and checking out, I headed into downtown Vandalia to see the Vandalia Statehouse Historic Site (#180), which is in the photo below.
This building was the third building that served as a state capitol in Vandalia, which served from 1836-1839.
As I walked in, I was pleased to notice an old wood smell in the building.
The first floor had rooms that served as offices for various state officials, as well as the State Supreme Court, complete with period furnishings.
The upper floor had the State Senate and House of Representatives chambers.
The woman staffing the building gave me a friendly greeting as I entered and shared about the history of the building. She even mentioned that the floorboards on the 2nd floor are original to the 1830's, which means I got the chance to walk on the same floorboards as Abraham Lincoln did when he served as a member of the Illinois House of Representatives. It was notable for me to hear that Mr. Lincoln started serving in this role when he was my age, at 27. He was elected along with a group of several others from Sangamon County, where Springfield is today.
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| Thanks to the fellow tourist who got this picture of me by the doorway of the House chamber, as I'm standing on the same floorboards where Abraham Lincoln walked when he served as a state legislator. |
Apparently, on the first day he came to serve as a state representative, the plaster in the building was still drying, which left a bad impression on him. One of his major goals as a state representative was to move the state capital to Springfield, which he was successful in doing. He was also successful in advocating for infrastructure enhancements.
I also couldn't help but note that the Illinois General Assembly would have approved the city charter for Chicago, effective March 4, 1837, while meeting in this building.
There were various displays in the building, including one that showed the checks Mr. Lincoln got for his service in the state legislature, as well as displays outside on the grounds of the building.
On the other side of Gallatin Street is a small park area with a Lincoln statue. While I was there, I met a woman who had been involved in the construction of this space, and as far as I remember, she took the photo of me below sitting by Abraham Lincoln.
Gallatin Street, I found out is named for the Secretary of the Treasury in the Jefferson administration, who was instrumental in the construction of the National Road, whose western terminus was in Vandalia, with its eastern terminus in Baltimore.
Vandalia has a museum, the National Road Interpretative Center (#181), with exhibits about the road. I took a short walk from the statehouse to see it, after stopping to take a look at the local Evans Public Library.
Inside the National Road Interpretative Center, a woman came out and started showing me around the exhibit and displays. She then told me about the Kaskaskia Dragon nearby, and offered me a coin so I could see it breathe fire. I thought it would be interesting to check out, so I did.
I got back in Avila and drove north toward I-70, and then a short distance west, almost back to the Ramada hotel where I stayed, where I got to the dragon. I slipped the coin in the slot on the box, and saw the dragon breathe out fire (as you can see in the photo below). It was actually kind of cool.
Then it was back onto I-70 to head west as I made my way toward my next destination of Illinois's first capital city of Kaskaskia. After enduring terrible construction traffic, which was slow and stop for about 5 miles, I was on my way again toward IL State Route 4, and then southward. This road took me through various small towns. As I neared Chester, the access point to Kaskaskia, I got on the Shawneetown Trail to see Fort Kaskaskia State Park (#182). There are remains of an earthen fort the French built, as you can see in the photo below.
I continued on toward Chester, driving along a road between the Mississippi River and hills rising up from the riverfront, with the Menard State Prison nestled there. After winding my way around Chester, I got to the Randolph County Courthouse to see a new monument dedicated back on August 26 marking the First Illinois State Constitution (#183).
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| Featured above is a monument by the Randolph County Courthouse in Chester, IL, that was recently dedicated on the Bicentennial of the Illinois State Constitution. |
From there, I got on IL State Route 150 to get on the Chester Bridge, which took me over the Mississippi River into Missouri, which I figured was my first visit there since I passed through onboard the Texas Eagle during my journey for the AMS Meeting in Austin, TX, in early January 2013.
After a short drive on Missouri Route 51, I reached Route H, with a sign pointing toward Kaskaskia. I continue along until I got to St. Mary, and then got on the bridge over a Mississippi River channel, with a sign on the side reading "Illinois State Line".
Mom had remarked about my going on an "adventure" when I bid her farewell. I expressed my preference for the word "excursion", but getting to Kaskaskia was probably one of the more adventurous parts of this trip. Kaskaskia used to be a prominent town on the Illinois side of the river, but was largely washed away by major flooding, which altered the course of the Mississippi, and put Kaskaskia on the Missouri side of the river. A court ruling dictated that the patch of land where Kaskaskia is would remain part of Illinois, though it can still only be accessed via road by first winding around through Missouri first.
And there was more winding around once I was back in Illinois. As I did so, I noticed a few other cars on the road, and figured they were headed were I was Massgoers, and that it would be suitable to follow them.
After a few more minutes of driving around farm fields, I finally saw the sign welcoming me to Historic Kaskaskia (#184). I arrived Kaskaskia a few minutes before the weekly Sunday Mass started at the Immaculate Conception Chapel (#185) at 3:30.
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| Immaculate Conception Chapel |
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| The Liberty Bell of the West |
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| Mural of Kaskaskia in its heyday, inside the Liberty Bell of the West structure |
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| The outside of the brick structure housing the Liberty Bell of the West |
The Church was filled with so much light, making for an uplifting mood as we celebrated together the presence of our Lord with us.
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| The interior of the Immaculate Conception Chapel |
Afterwards, I got talking with a woman who shared about Kaskaskia and some of the Bicentennial events that were going. She even gave me the opportunity to go inside the brick structure with the Liberty Bell. (I thank her for getting the photos of me inside, appearing below, and outside, appearing above.)
By 5 PM, I was on my way out of Kaskaskia, and was soon back in Missouri, and then on I-55. I drove north toward St. Louis. I stopped for gas in Herculaneum, and my jaw dropped at seeing the price of $2.39/gallon, which was especially delightful as I ended up having to pay $3.15/gallon the night before when Avila's tank got low. Further along, I stopped in the St. Louis suburb of Arnold, MO, to have dinner at Smokee Mo's. To add to the ambiance, I saw a screen showing shorts of The Three Stooges.
Back on I-55, I soon entered St. Louis itself, and got great views of the Mississippi River and the skyline, including the Gateway Arch, which I drove right past on I-70/I-44, albeit through a tunnel. I then crossed the Mississippi River on the McKinley Bridge back into Illinois, and then drove north on Illinois Route 3 to Alton, where I stopped for pictures at the life-size statue of Robert Wadlow (#187).
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| Thanks to the person who I asked to get this photo of me, while he was holding on to a dog with the other hand. |
The Guinness Book of World Records certifies him as the tallest person who has ever lived, at 8 feet, 11 inches. He was born in Alton during Illinois's Centennial year.
With that, I headed east to get on I-55 and drove north to Springfield, where I had booked lodgings for the night. As I neared my exit, I flicked the lights to celebrate the moment of the Autumnal Equinox at 8:54 PM CDT.
I pulled into the parking lot of the Wingate Hotel and noticed a large group having a tailgate. I found out they were in town for a Route 66 car festival in downtown Springfield. They were in the breakfast room in droves the next morning, making for a lively scene.
Once I finished and checked out, I made my way into central Springfield for the 10 o'clock tour of the current Illinois State Capitol (#188). We went into the House Chamber gallery to start. (We were unable to visit the Senate chamber because of work being done in there.) The guide showed us the artwork features in the rotunda area as we walked along. We went to see the Governor's office and then the hall of governors' portraits, and concluded down on the main level. I lingered a few more minutes and got some photos. (I got talking with a couple from Britain who stopped in Springfield while traveling Route 66 all the way from Chicago to Santa Monica.)
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| The Illinois House of Representatives Chamber |
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| The rotunda, with the Great Seal of the State of Illinois |
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| The bottom portrait is of Shadrach Bond, the first governor of Illinois. Above him is Edward Coles, the second Illinois governor. These are found in a hall with the potraits of other former governors, excluding one. |
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| Illinois Welcoming the World, the statue at the women's building at the 1893 World's Colubmian Exposition in Chicago. |
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| Above, I'm posing inside the capitol by the various flags, with the Bicentennial flag to the far right of the three. Below, I'm posing outside the capitol. I thank those visitors I stopped who got these pictures. |
Subsequently, I went to see a special exhibit at the historic Union Station building featuring sets, props, and costumes from the Steven Spielberg film Lincoln. including dresses Sally Field wore portraying Mary Todd Lincoln.
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| Near the center of this photo, you can see one of the dresses Sally Field wore in the movie. |
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| The case in the photo above shows props used in the Lincoln movie. Below is an almost exact reconstruction of a set used for the Cabinet Room in the White House. |
After looking around briefly at the Route 66 festival, I drove into the southwest side of Springfield, through a resplendent neighborhood, to Washington Park to look around at a lovely landscaped area and a conservatory greenhouse.
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| Flowerly landscaped area near the Washington Park conservatory greenhouse |
Then I made my way north and westward out of Springfield to Havana, about an hour's drive away. There, I made a visit to pre-Columbian Illinois history. There, at Rockwell Park, is a large mound (#189), which experts determined was constructed by pre-Columbian peoples, and is one of several of a cluster of mounds that are in nearby towns.
Nearby is the Illinois River. I went to a riverfront park there to eat the lunch I bought a grocery store on my way to Havana, while admiring the river scene.
Once I finished lunch, I started on my way back home. As it turned out, a wrong turn caused me to follow the Illinois River corridor to Pekin, at which point I headed east to reach I-55 in the Bloomington-Normal area.
Illinois has had quite a history for 200 years, and this excursion was a great time experiencing some of it, especially as it pertains to the government that has overseen Illinois, particularly in its earlier years. While changes have been made to the form, and government officials have come and gone, the major structure still persists, speaking to the strong nature of a democratic republican government.
Indeed, this excursion was a wonderful time getting to the roots of Illinois, to see the important places pertaining to where it got started, which allows me to see the bigger picture related to what Illinois has become over 200 years.
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