The Rest of the Story! The National Road – on this trip we travel parts of the National Road. We have traveled parts of this historic road in other states along its path and we still have a lot of area to cover on it as we travel the history. These are other towns and sights we enjoyed on this road trip. Enjoy
Carlyle, IL – General Dean Suspension Bridge
This bridge spans a river and has a great park and walking trail associated wth it. It was built in 1859. Well, worth a stop and walk.
Salem, IL
Salem, IL is a great small town. It has a wonderful park, flower gardens, murals and history to share. Yep, it even has an I.O.O.F building! I love seeing these buildings scattered around the small towns that I visit.
Halfway Tavern State Historic Site, IL
Along our road trip drive we found the Halfway Tavern State Historic Site. Along the route we were taking was an old stage coach route and this was about the half way point. An old replica stagecoach building was built to replace it.
Olney City Park, IL – Home of the White Squirrels
When we saw a roadside sign proclaiming Olney, IL as the Home of the White Squirrels, we had to turn aside to go see them. We drove through the town to the local park and we were greeted by white squirrels while we were ‘parked’ in the middle of one of the roads. We sat for a bit in the car in the road and then I moved it to a parking spot and pulled my camera out to take a few pictures and ‘Poof’. They all ran away somewhere. I did happen to find one who was quite a distance away. I think they were allergic to the camera. There was one grey fellow who was very proud to let me take his picture! It is quite a story about how they came to be there.
Marshall, IL
Marshall is home to the World’s Largest Gavel! Now, we couldn’t be on a roadtrip to see roadside attractions and not go and see this. It is huge! But, Marshall has another roadside attraction that should not be missed.. It’s huge number of beautiful murals throughout the town. There has to be over 20 murals that we say in our short visit there.
Charleston, IL
Home of the Abraham Lincoln From a Log carving. This roadside attraction was carved from a single big tree. It’s circumference was 15.1 foot and was 82 foot tall. We enjoyed the knowledge of the history of the tree and that someone took the effort to make something from it. Also, while in town we ran across Jimmy John’s Original #00001 store! 🙂 Road trips, you never know what you will find.
Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site, IL
This is a 86 acre working history park. There is farming, animals, people dressed in period and working this history. It brings the past to life and the knowledge that is presented is amazing. Thomas Lincoln, father of Abraham Lincoln. The day we stop there was a bicycle long distance racing way station setup. As each cyclist reached this point, there was water, and food available and each was taking the time to enjoy this historic site. We got to visit with quite a few people from all around the central states.
