Outside the New Glarus Hotel ready to eat lunch at their wonderful restaurant.
We ate here with a friend two years ago and it is worthy of a second visit.
Lena, Illinois is a small town in northwestern Illinois about 30 miles east of Galena, Illinois and the Mississippi River. We had read about Galena being one of the 18 best small towns in America to visit so we spent a few days traveling around the area and taking in some of the local history, a bulk of which involves U.S. Grant or the lead mines.
There were three or four routes into Galena from the KOA in Lena. One route was an old stagecoach trail from Chicago to the Mississippi River near the Quad Cities area. We enjoyed some beautiful scenery much of which included crops of corn and soybeans almost ready for harvest. We’ve always thought of fall as being a time for beautiful leaves, but fall in the midwest took on a new beauty for us.
A photo just can’t do justice to the majesty and glory of the rolling hills
and valleys of the farmland in northwestern section of Illinois. But, it’s worth a try.
Northwestern Illinois is rather hilly but still in the heart of corn and soybean country. There were several times we would top a hill and, lying before us, come upon a view of a large valley with fields of brown corn shimmering in the sun and golden soybeans interspersed with swaths of dark green grass. Many corn fields have a swath of grass separating the different corn varieties being grown so there is no cross pollination in the test plots. Also interspersed amongst the crops were homes and grain silos/storage bins, all adding to the beauty of fall in the midwest.
A view down the main street that runs parallel to the northern edge of the Galena River.
Again, a photo doesn’t quite reveal the difference between the low and high lands
along the river in Galena.
We drove into Galena, which is built along the Galena river and on the side of a hill, with small winding streets and many homes built in the Federal style of architecture. It was late in the day, so most of the shops were closed when we happened upon the Market House Restaurant started by three sisters in 1982. The Monday night special was chicken pot pie topped with a puff pastry, a salad, and a basket of liver pate and parmesan spread all for the great price of $10. We didn’t pass up this opportunity served on the second floor above Main Street or the main floor off Bench Street.
We spent the next few days enjoying the area which included a trip to Edwards Orchard for apple cider donuts and a stop in Fremont, Illinois where we visited the site of the Lincoln/Douglas debate.
Debate Square in Freeport marks the location of one of the Lincoln/Douglass debates.
On our third day ini the area we took a one-hour trolley tour of Galena where we learned that nine of the civil war generals called the town of Galena home. Four of the generals were held that military rank during the Civil War and the other 5 were awarded the rank after the war. The most famous of these was General Ulysses S. Grant who also served as the 18th President of the United States. Grant was born in Ohio but moved to Galena to work with his brothers in a leather goods shop. He lived on the hill above town. His daily walk to and from work consisted of traversing a total of 400 steps up and down the hill, 200 steps each way. After the war, Grant returned to Galena and lived there until he was elected President. When he left the presidency, he was given a home in Galena but spent most of his remaining years in New York, near his children.
| The U.S. Grant Historic Home is on the hillside district on the southern bank of the Galena River. The house was a gift from grateful citizens of Galena. It is now a state historic site for Illinois. |
Leaving the Danville are we headed out for another jaunt of less than 200 miles into Southern Illinois to Rend Lake, an Army Corps of Engineers park. The lake, near Benton, Illinois was completed in the early 1970’s to help with flood control and drought for the region. One thing we like about state parks and COE campgrounds are the spacious sites. Rend Lake had full hookups and beautiful views of the sprawling Lake. COE and state parks typically don’t have full hookups (water and sewer connections) but that’s okay for a couple of days as they all have electricity at the camping sites and our holding tanks have adequate capacity for up to four days.
From Rend Lake we headed to Lone Oak, Kentucky to visit Byron’s brother Danny, sister-in-law Lynda, and nieces Martha and Amy. Fortunately they live on a large lot and there’s more than enough room for us and our 40-foot motorhome to park in their driveway for the duration of our visit.
After a couple of days we headed back into Illinois to Fairfield, Illinois and Byron’s 50th class reunion. Our home there was the campground at Sam Dale Lake State and Fish Wildlife Area in Wayne County. The campground overlooks the lake and, surprisingly, was almost full for the weekend. We must say this was the first time we have seen campers show up with a basketball goal on the back of a trailer that they set up so their kids could play basketball.
Byron had been a part of the committee planning for the class reunion and spent many hours using his technology skills to contact and inform class members about the weekend as well as collect up-to-date data and narratives from them. He enjoyed visiting with many of his classmates. The weekend included the class riding on a float in the homecoming parade, a reunion dinner on Friday night at which he and a friend sang a duet, and then an alumni dinner for all former high school graduates on Saturday night.
We also got to visit with family, June Gray, Joyce and Gaylord Taylor, and Michael and Marjorie Simpson and their family.
Byron (on right) with relatives at “Middle of Nowhere”
Martha (center) and the “girls.” Claudia (on left) owns the cafe.
From Fairfield, we headed to Louisville where we set up camp at the Shepherdsville KOA about 20 miles south of Louisville. We enjoyed visiting with Jeremy and Jody and Candice, and Martha spent time taking care of things that needed to be done for Candice. We also spent some time with friends Roger and Cheryl Basham, and got to see our adopted Hispanic family, Hilario, Sandra, Naomi, Ana, Miguel, and Antonio. We enjoyed a visit from them at the campground where the kids had a good time roasting hotdogs and marshmallows over a campfire and devouring a pot of Martha's chili.
From Louisville, we drove to Henry Horton State Park, southwest of Nashville, where we spent time visiting with Byron's sister-in-law Jacque and niece Kim. Martha had the chance to spend the afternoon playing cards with Jacque, which is something she has missed from our time in Florida. Out trek south took us through a one night stop at the Cartersville/Cassville-White KOA in an effort to miss Atlanta traffic before traveling on to Victoria Bryant State Park in Royston, GA and a visit with Martha's siblings and aunt and uncle.
Martha and sister Beth watch over the ribs being smoked over a low fire.
Our large campsite at Victoria Bryant State Park.
We had two more one night stays, one at Martha's brother Jimmy's house in Maxeys, GA and one at Lake City RV Resort in Lake City, FL before arriving at Horseshoe Cove RV Resort in Bradenton, FL for an RV rally sponsored by the Living the RV Dream organization.
Attendees of the “Living the RV Dream Gathering”
