Twenty three is the number of the day

I’d planned on going to see Pres. Benjamin Harrison’s home in Indianapolis today. Last night when I was doing my final research about our trip figuring out the directions, hours, etc I realized it would be his 178th birthday. Upon arrival we signed a huge birthday card for him and upon our departure we got to partake in cake and ice cream. It was yummy!

Benjamin Harrison was the 23rd president of the United States. He was also a Brigadier General and he preferred to be called General over President. The sign outside his house notes that “Brigadier General Harrison lived here blah blah blah and oh yeah, he was President also." Well, maybe not exactly those words. Click to enlarge the photo if you'd like.

His wife’s name was Caroline and their house was 10,000 sq feet and cost $29,000 when they purchased it in 1874. The ceilings are 12 feet high, most of the furniture inside was their actual furniture and the carpet, at least in the front room, was 137 years old!

The formal living room above, family room below. The kids are looking through 3D viewers.

Caroline was an accomplished pianist and she was an artist as well. She painted several things in the home and she created her own Presidential china pattern while in the White House!

Some interesting facts about Harrison-
He only served one term because his wife was ill and died two weeks before the election.
He remarried and had another daughter when he was 64. (He had a son and a daughter with Caroline also.)
He died when his youngest daughter was four.
He set aside 13 million acres that later became the national parks.
He added six states to the country-North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Washington, and Idaho.
Displaying the flag at schools and public buildings was instituted during his administration.
They were the first family to have a Christmas tree in the White House.
Electricity was installed in the White House during his term.
He was an attorney like Lincoln and campaigned for Lincoln.
His grandfather was our 9th President.

Our next stop was at the NCAA Hall of Champions. The National Collegiate Athletic Association started to form when Pres. Roosevelt responded to a negative article about college sports being evil and the injuries and deaths involved, specifically mentioned football’s Flying Wedge. Roosevelt brought together six football experts from Yale, Princeton, Harvard to come up with a statement to condemn brutal and unsportsmanlike play.

Jacob and Becca run from the Flying Wedge while Faith joins the fellas

How many NCAA sports are there? Twenty three- just like the 23rd President’s birthday today. We read a board on each sport- the history, great stories of athletes and accomplishments over the years. A cross country runner, Slafka- Univeristy of Pittsburg, Greenburg, had a brain tumor and four brain surgeries. Doctors told him he couldn’t run, but he told them that’s how he dealt with stress. “My foot tends to drag a lot and I would fall quite a few times during practice and in races; any race where I didn’t fall was a good race.”

Former NFL great Jim Brown saying he’d “..rather play lacrosse six days a week and football on the seventh”. He is the only person in College Football, Pro Football and Lacrosse Halls of Fame. His entry in the Lacrosse Hall of Fame reads “Considered by many to be the greatest player ever to play the game of lacrosse.”

Other celebrated tidbits- Pat Summit’s 1000 wins in basketball. Field hockey is one of the oldest sports, it’s even written in the tombs in Egypt. Western Washington University women’s rowing team won four consecutive rowing titles. Wrestler Cael Sanderson, an Iowa State 2002 graduate, amazing 159-0 record. He went on to win Olympic gold in 2004. Many of these students had high GPAs. “For every hour spent on the playing field, two should be spent with a book.” Arthur Ashe

The second floor was interactive! We shot hoops in their gym. To keep with the theme of the day I shot from a special spot on the floor. Number 23, Freshman Michael Jordan, sank a jumper with 17 seconds left to give U of North Carolina the championship, so I shot from the spot he shot on the floor. It took me several shots, but I finally made it.

These spots are other great shots taken from the floor

Flinching at a 70-80 mile an hour tennis ball coming straight at you. It's the blur on the left of the screen.

Virtual soccer and football- I want one of these for our next house!

Faith gets ready to fence

Becca measures her vertical jump

The rest of the afternoon we spent with re-enactors playing baseball, a broom maker and blacksmith. The broom maker was kind enough to give me a cake tester- a bunch of sorghum tied together. I just break one off when I need to test a cake. We spent a long time with the blacksmith. The kids helped him create a dinner triangle and several crosses that they personalized with their names.

Faith cranking up the heat

Jacob striking while the iron is hot

Becca showing some muscle- making a dinner triangle

Personalizing a cross

Springfield- the city of Lincoln in the Land of Lincoln

We left the Chicago area and headed south to Springfield. Along the way we came to Normal. I was hoping for a sign so I could have one child pose in a Y and the other two in a B for Y B Normal, but alas, we did not find a sign. Rick thinks we didn’t find the town. I thought we ate lunch there, but he thinks it was Bloomington so we are not sure you can even get to Normal;)

Springfield was another great town with lots of history. Maybe I’m just an optimist. Or maybe all the places we’ve been to are great. I guess it’s like one of my favorite Lincoln quotes “Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” We’re having a great adventure and learning everywhere we go.

In the little historical area where Lincoln’s home is located you can stroll down the streets, tour the only home he ever owned, play games from that era and watch videos in the visitor center. Two blocks away is the train depot where he gave his farewell address, his law office and the old state capitol where he served in the legislature and gave the "house divided" speech. The following night we went to his tomb where the 114th Infantry regiment performed the flag retreat. The group was dressed in period uniforms and it was very ceremonial with a 21 gun salute and a cannon that surprised many of us. Lincoln, his wife and his three young boys are all buried there. His eldest son lived to 83 and was buried at Arlington National cemetery at the request of his wife after serving as Secretary of War for Garfield and Minister to Britain for Harrision.

The only home Lincoln owned. Springfield, IL. He bought it as a one and a half story home for $1500 and added on to it as the family grew.

Becca and Jacob loved this game, but it was $26 in the gift shop.

The Old State Capitol where Lincoln served in the legislature, made his House Divided speech and laid in state

Flag retreat at the tomb of Lincoln

Rubbing Lincoln's nose for luck

At the Lincoln library we learned about the 256,000 soldiers from Illinois that fought in the civil war. Five thousand died in battle, another four thousand died from wounds and 22,000 died from illness/sickness. We saw the frightening surgery and amputation kits they used during the war. The north had the technology to survey the land in the south using hot air balloons and that helped them strategize.

Across the street the Lincoln museum was a wonderful representation of his life. You started out in a log cabin and walked through his life and into the white house. The country was literally and figuratively torn when he was president and it showed through walls and walls of editorial cartoons and quotes. There were state of the art movie theaters that made me feel like I was at Disneyland watching a 4D movie- the cannons firing during the war shook the room and even made smoke rings. They had a four minute civil war movie that displayed one week of the war per second with the north/south boundaries changing and the tally of the numbers lost going up.

Our family with the Lincolns in front of the White House

Faith playing house with the Lincoln dolls, Rick and the kids playing in the background. Rick enjoyed building with Lincoln logs also.

Things we learned that we didn’t know
Lincoln’s dog was named Fido

Mary dated his rival Stephen A Douglas

Douglas was known as the Little Giant standing at 5’4”

The plot to kill Lincoln involved also killing the Vice President and Sec of State the same night. The man that was supposed to kill the VP backed out and got drunk instead. The man to kill Seward stabbed him, but he couldn’t slit his throat because he was wearing a neck brace from an earlier injury.

They lost a son in Springfield just before he turned four, they lost another one in the White House. Mary then lost Abe and then a third child a few years later.

Neither Rick nor I learned this stuff in school. I think if they put this information in school kids would pay attention.

Faith brought us breakfast in bed to celebrate our 20th anniversary

We're on our way to Indiana and into the eastern time zone today.

Chicago- the Windy City, Second City

Chicago is beautiful. I didn’t expect it to be right on the water. I didn’t do any homework on the city so it was nice to be surprised by all the water. There’s even a beach right in town! There are parks everywhere and the city plants a million plants each year so even nooks and crannies looked pretty. It was clean and didn’t smell either so that made it even more pleasant.

Chicago got the nickname “The Windy City” not after the breeze, but after politics, according to our tour guide. It was quite windy near Soldier Field though right near Lake Michigan. The Second City nickname comes from building the city on top of itself after the fire in 1871.

Tuesday was rainy so we went to the Museum of Science and Industry. That place is cool! We stayed til it closed touring a coal mine, learning about the German sub U505 the US captured during WWII (only one ticket to tour was available so we missed that) and Jacob participated in a production about digestion holding the 22ft long small intestine. (It's considered small because of the 1" diameter instead of the 5ft long large intestine which is 2" in diameter.)

Jacob and Faith driving the sub

Wednesday we toured the city by bus seeing all the main sights. Then we headed to the Field museum to see Sue, the most complete T-rex ever found. Our afternoon was spent on a boat tour through the river looking at architecture. We had dinner with my aunt, uncle, cousin and his girlfriend at an iconic diner. It was great to see my cousin since I hadn’t seen him in about a decade.

If you click on the photo and look closely at the top of the Sears (Willis) building you can see the plastic rooms on the outside of the building for photo ops. We did not go up there.

We drove past the Federal Reserve building and found out much of our money is printed in Chicago. Rick pulled some money out and there it was - the G7- showing that it was made in Chicago.

Sue the T-Rex

Dinner with cousin Mike and the family


Thursday we drove through the city looking at Soldier Field, Wrigley field, Hull house (Faith learned about it in school last year). We’d planned on going to the Art Institute, but there were still more things to see and do at the museum of science and industry. Plus I figured the kids would have more fun there. I knew I would catch grief from my dad if we left Chicago without having some pizza or a hot dog so we grabbed some pie at Gino’s East. I feel the need to get a hot dog too, but I’m not sure if I’ll get one before we leave.

Learning about lightning and electricity at the Museum of Science and Industry

Jacob, Faith and Rick volunteered to be "skyscrapers" in the tornado demonstration to show how the big buildings break up the swirling wind, that's why tornados aren't in Chicago- they prefer wide open spaces.

We learned how combining different chemicals gives off different flame colors- that's how fireworks are made.

The girls inside a tube with 70-80mph winds

The kids could combine different chemicals from the periodic chart to "make" things. They made salt, water, explosions, etc. It was really neat.

Great exhibit- Body Works. Different models of different systems in the body.

Smoker's lungs compared to non smoker

Nervous system

Rick and I using our brain power (or lack thereof) to move the ball towards the other person. The bands on our heads sensed brainwaves- the more brainwaves, the more the ball moves to your side so the object is to think of nothing to move it to your partner's side. We did really well. There were people waiting to try it and I knew that so I didn't want to take forever. The man running the thing finally came over next to me and out of the corner of my eye I saw my brainwaves acting up. Game over. He said "Another thoughtless husband wins." ha!


We decided to have Friday be a stay at home day to catch up on school and laundry. Aunt Betsy wanted to come see the RV so she came out to visit. She also wanted to be a visiting professor so she made up a quiz of ten questions “Facts Aunt Betsy thinks YOU should know about the United States”. Luckily, we all passed the quiz. We ended the day having dinner with my aunt and uncle and finishing our laundry in their what-seems-large-to-us washer and dryer.

Feel free to take the test (ages 9 and up). Adults should go for the extra credit by listing all five states, all countries touching the US, all oceans, etc

Welcome to Illinois?

We arrived in Illinois Thursday evening. I had my camera in my hands ready to take a photo of the Welcome to Illinois sign as we crossed into the state, but no sign. The only sign we came to said “Welcome to the Illinois Tollway.” I wish I would’ve taken a photo of that! We paid our fee and continued on our way. The toll roads were were great, by the way.

We spent our fist night at Camping World to get the oil changed and have a dryer vent put in. When the pantry was stuck in Wisconsin and the guys were working on it there was a lot of lint coming from that area. Rick and I both thought it was strange until we realized that the dryer vent was not hooked up to the outside and was just venting behind the pantry. Oopsie! If the pantry wasn’t stuck I don’t know if we would’ve known it didn’t go out because it’s not supposed to have much lint. We are thankful for the stuck pantry to make us aware of that problem. 1Thess 5:18 In everything give thanks

My son spent part of his 12th birthday at Camping World and the other part playing video games at our campground once we were hooked up. He suggested we have a stay home day on Saturday. So his celebration continued through the next day- eating his favorite foods, playing video games and watching movies. I searched online to try to figure out how to get from A to B in Chicago the following day.

Sunday we had a bright, sunny day wandering around Chicago. First stop was Millennium Park to see Cloud Gate aka as The Bean and Crown fountain.

Then we wandered to Navy Pier and had some lunch. After that we hopped on a trolley, then the L train to take us to the theater to see the Blue Man Group. We had great seats and it was great fun. We were laughing before it even started. In the bathroom they played “bathroom, you’re in the Blue Man group bathroom”. We were in a downpour on the way back, but that makes for good memories.

Jacob suggested we have a stay at home day Monday. (He likes to be at home) We were soaked to the bone and I wasn’t sure our shoes would be dry the following day so I gave them the good news/bad news- we were staying home Monday, but we were starting school. We had received all our school supplies in May before we left Texas and they said we could start then- doing two school years at once!- or whenever we wanted. I figure it’s better to start early rather than late because I’m not sure how we’ll fit it all in each day. We completed day one on day one- yeah! Then we went to my aunt’s house for dinner.

My aunt and uncle have lived here for years. I know their address by heart, I’ve seen pictures of their house and now I was able to put it all together. We enjoyed good food and good conversation. And we were happy to pick up packages we’d sent there- including my computer we’d dropped off a week before in Wisconsin. I felt naked without all my documents and photos at my fingertips! So now I’m fully dressed and ready for more sightseeing!

World Famous Wisconsin

After spending 12 days with our friends, we are back on the road. We had a great time on the lake fishing, boating, swimming, playing games, etc. We also fixed the pantry. And when I say “we” I mean Rick and Ringo. Our sliding pantry right next to the frig became jammed on day one of our adventure! Waaaaaay back on May 17. Rick and I had tried many things over the past two months to dislodge whatever was stuck. Ringo removed something under the pantry area and was able to look up when Rick shined the flashlight and see the area where it was stuck. Then Ringo grabbed a variety of items that might be long enough and thin enough to slide in to dislodge it. Rick and I had done this as well, but to no avail. We had researched the problem online (many others have run into this) and called Winnebago. They told us to take out the frig and cut part of the wall so we decided to wait til we got to Wisconsin to deal with it. But with an old hand saw and some brute force the pantry became unstuck. Wondering what the item was that partially fell over causing the problem? Nutella. A Costco size two pack of Nutella. The bonus of having Ringo help? He’s a cabinet maker so he stained our shelves to hide the scars we created while trying to get into the pantry. So our next task was to figure out how this would not happen again. After considering many materials, we went with small sheets of thin plexiglass that fit in the shelves therefore making them a few inches higher and less prone to have items tip.

The other “fun” thing Rick and I did in Wisconsin was to take the van in for a brake recall. It took Honda and hour and a half to fix that and change the oil and we were on our way. We made a phone call in the parking lot and Rick commented about how tight the pedals were now. Then a warning light came on in the parking lot so we went back in to have them fix it. The fella tried to reset it several times and Rick asked “Could it be related to what you just fixed?” No, we were told. After if wouldn’t be reset Rick asked if maybe there was actually something wrong. There was and we ended up being there for another two and a half hours and having lunch from the bowling alley next door. Rick and I haven’t spent time alone since May when we went to pick up BBQ in Tyler for dinner (so much better than the bowling alley food, by the way), so we decided to enjoy this excruciating amount of time in the dealership watching back to back episodes of Walker Texas Ranger. We found out that out of the 600 brake recalls they had fixed ours was the only “fix it” pack that was faulty. I told Rick we needed to buy a lottery ticket.

On to the “world famous” part- in the tiny town of Minocqua there’s the world’s largest penny. Our kids were slightly interested, but not enough to leave the lake to drive half an hour and then watch Max scrimmage at hockey camp, so Michele and I went alone to explore. We learned about Dr. Kate NewComb wanting to build a hospital for the area in the 50’s. It was started, but not completed due to a lack of funds. Students in an area school wanted to see a million of something so their teacher suggested they collect pennies for the hospital. Dr. NewComb ended up on “This is Your Life” and people all over the world sent money and the $106,000 collected finished the project. So now a giant penny stands to commemerate it.

Michele and me. I drug the kids there the next day on our way out of the area.

Michele and I also went to a cranberry bog. I learned that five states are responsible for most of the nation's cranberry crop and Wisconsin, Oregon and Washington are in the group- I didn't know that! I'd love to come back and watch the harvest when they flood the fields. They freeze the fields during the winter as insulation, monitoring them to make sure they don't get too warm or too cold.

In Mt. Horeb, we visited the Troll capital of the world. Who wouldn't want to go there? We walked around the cute little town snapping pictures of various trolls. There are about 20 in town so I figure if you want to become the troll capital you'll need to have at least two dozen in your town to overtake Mt. Horeb.

The kids with Mayor Troll of Mt. Horeb

Jacob playing the accordian with his troll friend.

Jacob getting his teeth checked out by Dentist Troll and his assistant Faith.

Our next world famous stop was the Water Park capital of the world- Wisconsin Dells. This place is like Las Vegas for kids. There are themed amusement parks, water parks, hotels, etc. After careful consideration the kids chose Mt. Olympus, a greek themed water and theme park. They had indoor and outdoor water parks and amusement parks. This made it nice during the heat of the day to be inside playing until it cooled off a bit.

I wanted to tour a cheese factory, see the breweries in Milwaukee and Lambeau field in Green Bay, but we didn't make it this time. I don't drink beer and I'm not a Packers fan, but beer, cheese and the Packers are what I used to think of when I thought of Wisconsin. Now I'll have fond memories of playing with friends on the lake, cranberries, trolls, giant pennies and Culver's creamy custard!