Rochelle Railroad Park and Ronald Reagan Boyhood Home

The folks enjoy visiting places that they find on Roadside America.  Some of the places are really different and some are odd,.  There are a lot of places in the Chicago area that are listed on the Roadside America website, so they decided they would visit as many of them as possible.  Saturday, the plan was to visit the McDonald's Museum.  Mama decided to call first to make sure of their hours since it is about an hour from us. She was quite disappointed to learn that they are closed due to a flood. They are renovating.  Their operating hours are Memorial Day to Labor Day, so it doesn't sound like they will be open this year.  They decided to switch gears and visit Rochelle Railroad Park and Ronald Reagan's Boyhood Home.

The Rochelle Railroad Park is located in Rochelle, IL.  From the Roadside America website: "Rochelle, IL is the home of the Rochelle Railroad Park. The Park sits in front of the country's only Quad Diamond rail intersection where the Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Sante Fe Rail Lines intersect. On any given day over 150 trains cross this intersection. The park is open 24 hours a day 7 days a week and features a pavilion with radio traffic of both lines pumped in on speakers so you can hear what train is next to come flying through this busy intersection. The pavilion is elevated so that when sitting on the picnic tables in the pavilion you are at eye level with the engineers running the trains as they go by. The park also features a Hobo Fire Pit that you can build fires in at night and watch trains go by."

The platform.

 

This is what makes the tracks unique. See how trains can come in any direction?

 The platform had many train enthusiasts. They had scanners and schedules of the trains.  Some of the people were there for the day with lawn chairs and coolers full of food and drinks.

The folks then headed to Dixon, IL to see Ronald Reagan's boyhood home.  He lived in Dixon from the age of 9 to 18.  He lived in this house from the age of 9 to age 12, but these were his formative years or that is what they claim.  Ronald Reagan did consider Dixon his hometown.

The house was completely restored for President Reagan's birthday in 1984.  He visited the house with Nancy and his brother Neil.  He commented that if the house had looked that good when he lived there, he would have never left.  The furniture in the house was not original as that furniture is said to have been burned in a fire at a storage facility.  The President and his brother had looked through a catalog before their visit and picked out items that they remembered from the house and those items are now in the house.

Ronald Reagan's boyhood home.

This is where Ronald Reagan hid his pennies. It is a loose tile by the fireplace.  When he saved 5, he would take them and go to the movies.

The top photo shows Mr. Reagan putting pennies in his hiding place when he visited in 1984.  Those pennies are in the frame with his photo.

Sitting area

The popcorn on the table is real.  Mama thought it was fake, but the guide said they change it out.  It was a favorite of the Reagan boys.  When Mr. Reagan visited, he grabbed a handful to the horror of the staff.  Luckily, it had been freshly popped.  He said it needed more salt. 

 

Curling irons were heated with lanterns.

Neil and Ronald's room.

Ronald, Nancy and Neil sitting on bed in the boys' room.

Kitchen

Kitchen

 Apparently, Mama did not take photos of the dining room.  The Reagan's actually sat at that table and had lunch there twice during their return visits to the home.  How could Mama forget to take photos?

Statue of Mr. Reagan

Does it look like him?

 When they arrived to the house, there were bikers there holding a benefit for breast cancer. They had put a pink bandana on Mr. Reagan's head.  Mama did not get a photo of it.  She should have, but at first she thought it was a little disrespectful.  Was it?  We still don't know.  It was funny to see and maybe since it was for a breast cancer fundraiser, Mr. Reagan might have thought it was okay. The tour guide commented on it and said she had mixed feelings about it.

After leaving the house, visitors are encouraged to drive by the church and high school that Mr. Reagan attended.  At the riverfront, there is a nice statue of Mr. Reagan.  He rode a horse in a parade when he visited Dixon once and that is where the idea for this sculpture came from.

The folks said they enjoyed visiting the President's home even though he only lived there for three years.  (He lived in 4 or 5 homes while in Dixon.)  A video with the President talking about visiting his boyhood home made it even more interesting.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Thinks This Post Is Way Too Long

Near The Windy City

We were disappointed when we heard we were being sent back to the Chicago area.  We had been hoping to be sent to Kansas City.  We really did not enjoy our last stay here.  We stayed at a campground where the manager is extremely rude to the guests.  The latest reviews show he is still being his rude self. Mama called him the "Pigman" because soon after we arrived she saw him getting dressed in a pig suit for a pig roast they were having at the campground.  He drove a tractor around in his pig suit.  We really thought we might end up there again because the selection of campgrounds in the Chicago area is not very good.  There are just not a lot to choose from and some of them close on October 15th.  We needed a place to stay through most of November. We debated on staying at "Pigman's Park" and a place that would add more time to Dad's drive.  We decided to try the park that is further away since that is how much we dislike the Pigman.

We arrived here Wednesday afternoon. We are located in a small, historic town.  Mama says it reminds her of Union, MO, but it probably a little bigger and the houses are much older.  There is a town that is larger that is about three miles away and it has about anything you could want.

Our campground has two lakes. There are trails going around the lakes.  Scout and I have walked them both a few times already.  The owners are very nice. They said we can walk anywhere, but we are not allowed in the water or on the beach.  Mama went to the office/store last night hoping to buy some paper towels.  They didn't have any in the store, but went to their private stash and sold us a roll for $1.  Mama thought that was nice of them. We can receive mail here and that always makes Mama happy. She ordered us bully sticks today!

 The sites themselves are not pretty. We are basically in a gravel parking lot.  We knew that before we got here.  Dad decided to rent us a premium site because we would be closer to the grass and wouldn't have to walk on the gravel as much. We have a lake view which is nice, but we are not next the lake. There is a field of grass between us and the lake.  We are in full sun, but we figure that will be good when the weather turns colder.  We like our site.

Our site.  We do have a small tree on one side of us.  Our mat makes our place look nicer.

The walkway to the office.  It is very close to our site.

Our view.  Yes, the lakes is there.  We see it better in person than the picture shows.

A pond.

A swan in the lake.  We have several swans here.

 

 

 

We are definitely in farming country here.  Corn is huge here.

We are across the lake.

We really like it here so far.  Scout is even happy. She happily walked the trails yesterday. Today, she was not as excited, but Mama made her walk this morning since there weren't any bugs and it was cool out. I'm sure we will bored here after a month or so, but for now, it is a fun place to explore.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Thinks His New Place Has Interesting Smells

Giant City State Park

We spent arrived at Giant City State Park on Monday afternoon.  As soon as we arrived, the skies opened up and rained on us.  The folks got really wet because we didn't have full hook ups and Dad had to fill the water tank up. It took a while.  He went inside while it was filling, but he still got wet.  Mama got wet because she needed to direct Dad out of a tight spot with the motor home.

Our trip on Monday was a little stressful.  We couldn't get one of the jacks to come up all the way on the motor home.  It came up enough that we could drive with it, but it gave out a warning beep, beep, beep the entire trip.  It is kind of like the warning signal you get for not wearing your seat belt. Can you imagine that sound for 200 miles?  Dad said that if it didn't come down at our site and if our site was not level, we would not be able to put the sides out.  YIKES!  The jack didn't come down, but we are level enough to put the sides out.  The next day he did some research on the problem and found that a fuse might be the problem.  He replaced the fuse and the jack started working again. It seems to be working fine now.

Scout was completely miserable at Giant City.  She didn't want to go outside at all because of the horseflies.  The folks wanted to take us on a trail, but they knew Scout wouldn't be happy. I wanted to go, but I stayed behind with Scout so she wouldn't be lonely.

The folks visited the visitors center and watched two movies on the park. The guide suggested they take a trail that is one mile long and really shows why the park is called Giant City.  Mama bought a walking stick at the gift shop and she said it gave her more confidence when they had to walk on the rocks.  She is pretty clumsy.

 

This is why it is called Giant City.

There were a lot of old carvings.

Cool!

One of the places that a walk stick helps a clumsy person.

Balancing rock.

The folks decided to eat lunch at the lodge. They ate dinner there the night before and they were not impressed.  They decided to give it a second chance because they really didn't feel like going into town.

The lodge was built by the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corp) in the 1930's.  The folks watched a film about the CCC  at the visitors' center which made their visit to the lodge even more interesting.

These guys are at the entrance to the lodge.

The dining area.

The lodge.

The lodge is a very popular place for the locals to eat.  Mama decided to try the chicken which is served family style if more than one person orders it.  It is all you can eat.  It is $8.99 for lunch and $10.99 for dinner.

It comes with chicken dumplings, corn, green beans, mashed potatoes and gravy, coleslaw and biscuits. 

Mama says the chicken was delicious. They forgot to bring her coleslaw and biscuits.  She said she had enough food without those anyway.

Horseshoe Sandwich - turkey covered in cheese and bacon.

Dad said his sandwich was really good. 

Water tower near the state park.

We really liked Giant City State Park, but the horseflies and mosquitoes were really bad.  We are glad we stayed there though.  I hope we go again so that I can hike some of the trails.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Bites Back At Horseflies

The Snood

Mama loves knitting on her loom. She has made dishcloths and two "scarves" for the dash of the motor home.  The "scarves" are to protect the dash from picture frames on the dash.  We have way too many dishcloths now, so she decided to make a snood.  She couldn't find a pattern for a snood using a knitting loom, so she has been experimenting.

The first snood was, well, a little tight and very long.  She apparently thinks our necks are really long.

"I can't breathe!"

"I look like an old lady."

"What the heck?" 

  This is actually the same snood, but the lighting is different so the color looks totally different.

"Why do I need a snood?  Has my neck ever been cold?"

"I would rather have cold ears than wear this thing?"

"I am not going to look happy wearing this!"

"Okay, this one fits better, but I still look like an old lady."

"Seriously, I don't think a snood is necessary."

"You know, I am never going to wear this thing out in public."

"I am not amused!"

"Turn the camera off!"

Mama really needs to find something else to knit.  We are not happy about the snood.

In other news, we have left the Memphis area.  We are now near Carbondale, IL at Giant City State Park.  We leave here tomorrow and will continue our journey north.  Any guesses on our destination?  Scout is not happy here. There are horseflies. She says she is never going outside again, but I think she will have to eventually.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Doesn't Look Manly In A Snood