Northwestern Illinois

My 95-year-old mom still lives in my home town of Mount Carroll, Illinois (county seat of Carroll County). Because we came to visit her, she joined us for several days and nights at the ancestral farm. Otherwise she lives at the Caroline Mark home, a retirement home established by the founder (Caroline Mark) in 1906.

The amazing arrangement of that home is that  residents of Carroll and the adjoining counties (female residents, 60 or older) do not pay a thing to stay there, and their meals are provided free too. How much longer the home can afford to provide all of that for the ladies is a matter of some conjecture, but it’s a wonderful thing. http://cmarkhome.com/index.html

Friday we visited a nearby vineyard and winery (Massbach Ridge, one of several in the area), partly because their daffodil sweet white wine won a double gold medal at the Illinois State Fair only a few days ago. http://www.massbachridge.com/ Winemaker Peggy Harmston, in addition to her other work, cheerfully waits on customers in their small wine showroom. Behind the counter there are many award-bedecked bottles of wines produced in previous years.

A lifetime as a copyeditor has made me a bit critical of poor writing, and especially of inaccurate writing. The article I originally read about Massbach Ridge said that it is located in the “glacial hills of Northwestern Illinois.” Actually it’s located in the unglaciated hills of Northwestern Illinois. Known as the “driftless area,” this part of Illinois encompasses parts of Jo Daviess, Carroll, and Whiteside Counties, and also extends well into Southern Wisconsin. I make the point because glacial as an adjective has such meanings as really cold, hostile, produced by glaciers, and really slow, like a glacier. If you haven’t visited that part of Illinois, make it a point to do so. Some time in October, the tree-covered hills of the area are really spectacular, so that would be a great time for a visit. Nearby Galena is one of the best tourist traps I've ever visited.

We decided to drive farther north and visit some friends, but once we were in sight of their farmstead, we saw that a bridge had been damaged by the recent heavy rains and was closed to traffic. We called on the cell phone and left them a message, which they later returned (after we were out of signal range again).

Instead of visiting them just then, we drove north to the Woodbine Bend golf course and restaurant. The are has many cheese plants, wineries, golf courses, and fine restaurants. It's also become a Mecca for weekend motorcycle excursions and bicycling.

On Saturday morning at the top of a high hill, where I could get a phone signal, I discovered a number of voicemails that had accrued while we were in the big valley and out of signal range. Our Jo Daviess County friends had been home after all, but they had been outside. Thus we resolved to visit them later in the day, which we did.

Henry was out bailing hay, but Susie was home with the three kids. She’s a registered nurse, who home-schools her kids, Lillie, H.D., and Joey. They’ve chosen not to watch broadcast TV, but they do watch videos and read a lot. Susie asked me to go upstairs with the kids to where they have their world and U.S. maps on the wall to point out all the places in the world where we’ve travelled, so we did that.

The kids are bright, well-mannered, and thoughtful. They are absolutely expert in all matters agricultural. We had interrupted their physical education class, which was bike riding on that particular day. They were getting their bikes out as we left. The advantage of the nearby closed bridge is that there is virtually no traffic on their road right now, so biking is relatively safe.

I asked whether they all had bikes, and Susie said everybody except her, so Mary offered her bike, which she hasn’t ridden for some time. Maybe by our next trip to that part of Illinois we can get Mary's old bike into condition and take it along. We shall see.

Their big black dog Breezer, part lab and part pit bull terrier, is immense, but very friendly. He’s so big he can just reach up and lick Mary on the chin without lifting his front feet off the ground. He’s also a house dog, so he climbed up on the sofa with Mary and me, just to be friendly.

They have beef cows, dairy cows, pigs, chickens, cats, a horse, a pony, and Breezer, and they sent us away with a dozen eggs from their very free-range flock. A big barred rock rooster lorded it over the rest of the flock. Their elegant cat Puffball has black and white tuxedo markings, but with gray stripes (a Tabby swirl) in flattened, concentric circles on each side. What a beautiful cat. Puffball just showed up there one day and adopted the family, joining their 4 other cats on the farm.

Sunday we were off to Sunday school at Mother’s church at 8:30 (you heard right) with the worship service at 9:30, then on the road to return home to Champaign. About the last thing worrying me about the walk is my fast-improving (but still somewhat painful) left knee. It has to be in shape in just a couple more days.