Last Thursday we got going about 8 a.m. and went to Springfield on the motorcycle, driving on old Rt. 66 from south Bloomington to Springfield. Parts of that road are really pretty and country-looking, even though mostly right beside I-55.
We went to the Lincoln Museum and it was fairly interesting. Some of it was irritating, such as the tiny signage and, though you might think it's better this way, the high-reading-level language used. It just took more time to read and also the signs were small and only one person could read at a time. And often a glare from spotlights on the shiny laminate surface of signs. There were too many dark places where I could barely see anything. And the gallery of political cartoons ridiculing and criticizing Lincoln included recordings of words spoken against him, low lights, highly hung pictures that were displayed in ever increasingly slanted frames which ended up making me dizzy. The idea was good to demonstrate the historical information, but the execution was not pleasant. Maybe that was the idea. Maybe I was just crabby.
I really liked the examples of ladies' dresses, though. Just thinking about how to make one would take a week, and making it would take a month!! The Civil War part was very good in portraying the effects of the war on individual lives and also the massive impact - it made me sad. Most of the exhibits were colorful and modern looking and very appealing and attractive and seemingly didn't "gloss over" the facts of history of the times.
I do wish I'd kept my fleece jacket on that I wore under my motorcycle jacket for extra layer because it was freezing! And I had on shoes, socks, jeans and a 3/4 sleeve tshirt, so not just skimpy summer-wear.
The two theater shows of about 15 min. each included hologram effects that were very well done. All in all, worth going to.
We stopped in the cafe and had some tea and split a muffin. We left there about 1:30 and walked about a mile to the Dana-Thomas house built in 1902-04 by Frank Lloyd Wright for Susan Lawrence Dana and took a tour of that. It was very interesting and SO cool. I thought drh would like it because of all the beautiful wood furnishings. He did, but wasn't WOWed like I was with the whole beauty of the design, etc. Anyway, I've always wanted to go there and I am glad we did. Here is a link : http://www.dana-thomas.org/
On the way back to the parking garage we stopped at a little cafe and had a sandwich. Got home about 6:00 and drh went for a bike ride and I ran. It was too late to go out to the lake group run, but a perfect day to ride the motorcycle AND exercise outside. Then we had nachos for supper. Simple and tasty.
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