This is another one of those days when I don’t have a clue as to what my theme will be. I’ll write until something comes to mind. This past week, I drove to the town of Galena, Illinois. That is the longest drive I have taken in a few years. I have something in mind for later in the month, and I was wondering if I was physically and mentally capable of driving so many hours. I made the driving part without too much fatigue and with a little more physical conditioning I think I can expand the drive to five hundred miles in a single day. One thing. that might hamper me is daylight. If I get caught short on light, I may have to pull off and sleep. My eyes are not the best for dark time driving.
This was my second visit to Galena, the home of Ulysses Grant, the eighteenth President of the United States and the General who finally ended the Civil War. Lovely is new to the USA; she has never been there and likes visiting places she has never been to. We left in the late morning and arrived four hours later, still in bright light. This left us with some time to cruise into town to browse the shops and to have a leisurely supper at the Green Street Tavern located in the Desoto Hotel building on Main Street. My memory of Galena is vague since my last visit was in the 1970’s and we camped. I do remember touring Main Street with Barb and the kIds. I especially liked the fact that the entire street was filled with buildings built in the early eighteen hundreds. I was totally impressed with the massiveness of the front doors that were easily three inches thick. Another thing that left an impression on me as a senior was that the floors in these places were wavy and irregular in levels. They were not easy to walk on if you have balance problems like me. They also had a lot of steps between rooms and floor height changes which made walking an adventure.
The stores are a blend that sell doodads, fancy coffee-pastry, and women’s clothing with a few antique shops mixed in. Tours are available for the historically interested. We ran out of time to visit the Grant home, and just as well, as the tour would have consisted of listening to a docent spew historical facts in the crowded rooms of what was once considered a considerable mansion but today might fall into the middle-class sector. If I want to see some old houses, I will revisit Colonial Williamsburg.
I thought Galena sits on the edge of the Mississippi River, but it doesn’t. It is a few miles east of the Mississippi and has no prominent tourist roads leading to an overview. One of my goals was to show Lovely the great Mississippi River. To do that, I had to drive north from Galena to Dubuque, Iowa. This was a good thing because Dubuque, being on the river, is loaded with businesses of hauling by barge. THe river is not very wide at that point but the bridge over is still impressive and offered a good view of the expanse of the waterway. As we left the bridge the road turned South and headed along the river toward the Quad cities of Davenport, and Bettendorf on the Iowa side, and Rock Island, and Moline on the Illinois side. My map reading skill has obviously diminished because I swear that the only bridge across was at the Quad cities. I was surprised to find out I am wrong.
We enjoyed rural views along the river in a relatively hilly section. When we came down from the high country to the river, we stopped at a quaint little roadside restaurant called Richman’s Cafe for coffee and a cookie in Bellevue. Lovely wanted pictures of the river to remember, so we crossed the road and walked to the water’s edge. There, we blindly photographed using our phones, blocked out by the bright sunlight. I blindly aimed the camera and touched the button to hear the camera take a shot.
Back on Highway 52, heading south, we were thrilled by some magnificent river views. The road eventually came to a tee near a town called Sabula, and I decided to continue eastward. That decision led us toward the city of Savannah, although I only realized it was in Illinois once we crossed the river on the bridge I didn’t know existed. I have read about and heard about Savannah all my life, but did not know where it was or how big it was; now I do. I can knock Savannah off my list of places to see. The drive through was enough for me.
The remainder of the drive took us through north central Illinois and eventually to Interstate 39 South. I have never been on 39, so we took it to I-80, which was the straight shot to Frankfort.
All in all, this was a very nice getaway and I thoroughly enjoyed the time away with Lovely
Filed under: Biography, family, Travel | Tagged: Dubuque, Galena, Travel |
Leave a Reply