Reporting from Coralville, IA
LAT 41.41 N LON 91.36 W
We’ve reached our third state so far. But to begin the day, we found a “weird in the wild” item—a giant macaroni in front of a Kraft-Heinz plant.
Moving to Springfield IL and a more somber item—Lincoln’s tomb. There was a helpful park associate answering questions.
You’re supposed to rub Lincoln’s nose for luck, but the pandemic overrides luck.
Slightly less morose was the crypt of “Mr. Accordion”, who got his revenge after the cemetery tried to reneg on his purchased plot. He would regularly go out and play his accordion on his plot, (just as you went into the park), had an elaborate crypt put in, while being buried elsewhere.
Nearby was our second state capitol for the trip, and a far site better than the first. We took a guided tour then did a little scouting.
We drove for a while after that, and started getting peckish. We picked a place in the middle of nowhere called Grandpa’s. Took us a while to track it down, and almost walked back out. Glad we didn’t. Mindy had a “horseshoe”—a local delicacy I would call an Illinois poutine. Biscuit, meat, fries, cheese sauce.
As we crossed the border into Iowa, we located “Snake Alley”, a twisty steep road named for it’s serpent-like shape. Ripley’s documented it for “Believe It or Not”. Dashcam video of the drive will be posted later.
We visited Riverside IA for a specific reason—James T. Kirk will be born here. His “monument” is in an alley next to City Hall. We also found his bronze likeness—are all celebrities short? Anyway, we timed the visit for #StarTrekDay.
After finding a hotel in Coralville, we were looking for a place to honor Queen Elizabeth II who passed today at 96, but the best we could do was a British-themed pizza pub. We shared fish and chips along with a salad. It was decent. #godsavetheking
That’ll do it for our second day. Tomorrow—some giant things and South Dakota. #gowestboomers