Busy Day in the Midwest

At the end of another day on the road I'm resting my head in the place where Abraham Lincoln began his political career. I'm in Vandalia, Illinois with about 800 more miles to go before I'm arrive in Brooklyn, New York. I pulled over to the side of the highway in Springfield, Missouri to get this shot of the sunset. I once got a ticket for doing this - the cop actually wrote,"taking photos" on the ticket that I'm not sure I ever paid because I still have that ticket - I saw it last week while I was packing for this trip.

Earlier, upon arriving in Springfield, I went underground at Fantastic Caverns. Our tour guide, Karen gestures toward the Hall of Giants Stalagmite formation inside the caverns that were first explored by 12 women in 1867. This formation is thousands of years old. In the 1920's the place was a "Speak Easy" which included a dance floor and cock fights. In the 50's and 60's top name country music artists staged concerts in the caverns. It was about 85 degrees outside and in the upper 50's to low 60's inside.

Then it was on to Saint Louis and the famous Gateway Arch. I had to take this and some other pictures in a hurry because the park area surrounding the arch was closed at 11 p.m. which was about five minutes after I showed up. I wanted to include some other elements in the picture to make it stand out from the thousands of other pictures taken of this popular landmark.

And nearby, is the Cardinals new baseball stadium where this year's Major League Baseball All-Star game will be held. There's a statue garden of nine famous Cardinals players on one side of the stadium and St Louis icon, Stan Musial - who's in the garden array as well- has his own giant monument on the grounds of another part of the stadium.

I'll be in my new home tomorrow by 3 p.m.