Route Survey, August 24

At 7:30 p.m. Monday, I left the Lincoln College Library, after spending some time looking at the enormous woolly mammoth tusk on display in the college library lobby. A Lincoln College student found it, along with a molar, on college property during an unusually dry summer (2005). The beast must have been enormous. He is thought to have lived between 12,000 and 25,000 years ago.

A Lincoln College professor found a second molar at the same site. The mammoth is believed to have been about 50 years old.

The area we now call Illinois was also home to the mammoth bison, which looked like the bison we know, but incredibly larger. Their skeletons have also been found in Illinois.

In the interest of keeping this walk on a low budget, and following the advice of many friends, I sought out the local Walmart parking lot as a potential place to park and sleep. As I parked, a very full moon was rising. Some teenagers were talking and messing around near an old pickup truck, and shoppers were still coming and going.

It got down pretty cold in the night (if the 50s can be called cold), and numerous nighthawks plied the sky and landed nearby from time to time. After less sleep than I would have liked, I got up at about 6:45 a.m. After a hearty breakfast of yogurt, milk, and an apple, I set off toward the west on Route 10.

078 Burton View
A grain elevator is the business most in evidence. It's the Burton View Coop, right next to Brandt Professional Agriculture, a seed company.

083 New Holland, establiished in 1875
This town, as is typical out here on the Central Illinois Prairie, also has an elevator, The Taloma Farmers Grain Company.

090 Mason City
This town is a bit bigger than those I'd been driving through.It has a Horizon Seeds plant and a Monsanto Soybean plant.

096.7 Teheran
The Farmers Grain and Coal Company is undergoing some equipment updating, and new components are scattered around the grounds. All these little towns had people already at work early in the morning 

098.5 Easton
An American flag was flying from every utility pole on both sides of the highway. I spoke to two men who were cleaning the bricks left from a demolished building. A man driving by slowed to tease them, rural style, about being idle because they had paused in their work  to talk to me.

103 U.S. Route 136, with lots of road construction in progress
Yesterday I was interested to see a fair amount of corn being picked. Though the stalks and leaves in those fields were dry enough that some leaves were shattering, I don't see how the moisture content of the corn could have been very low yet. It's a good bet the farmer had sold some corn futures and decided to deliver the real deal.

Driving west on Route 136, one sees what look like sand dunes on both sides of the road. There are also lots of center-pivot irrigation systems in use, though some of them describe only a half circle because they are interrupted by the highway. The end sprinkler on one unit was spraying water high up into some nearby trees as I drove past. Down in a low area, there's Valley brand irrigation system dealership, which has been there for many years.

107 The Evening Star Camping Resort has been spruced up since I last came this way. It's on the south side of the highway.

114 Havana
This small city is the county seat of Mason County, Il, linois. Havana has a historic water tower, which I photographed. It's next to a lovely Lutthern Church building.


Just west of Havana is a creek called "Lazy Ditch." In that area is also Dickson Mounds, with a museum that is open to the public.


120 Illinois Route 100


130 Otter Creek, with some turtles crossing the creek on the bridge, a very hazardous thing to do with all the big grain trucks rolling.


126.4 Marbletown
After studying the history of the area, I decided to spend some time in Marbletown. There are two houses there, so that might not be the best plan after all.


129.2 Anderson Lake
There's an Illinois recreational area right on the lake that might serve as a reasonable substitute for an overnight spot.


131.2 Bluff City
These towns were important river ports in their day, but there's not very much there now. The entire area boasts dozens of purple martin homes, raised up on poles.


135 Sheldon's Grove, home to the Hickory Township town hall


138.5 entrance to the Sanganois Conservation Area.


139.6 Browning


145 Frederick


I departed from my planned route and crossed the bridge over the Illinois River to Beardstown, where I found a Hardees that offers a 10% discount to veterans. I took advantage of that courtesy to observe a custom hobbits call "second breakfast" with an egg sandwich.


I drove to U.S. Route 24 and on through Ripley, Mt. Sterling, Timewell (Mound Station), which I somehow didn't see as I went through, and Clayton, home of an Illinois Department of Corrections work camp.


188.8 On to Camp Point, originally known as Indian Camp Point.

194.7 Coatsburg
At the Casey's station I borrowed a phone book and looked up the number and address of some old friends. They had a new address (different from the one I'd known 30 years ago. I drove south to their new place, but no one was home. I hope to renew acquaintance on the walk.


205 I-172
It was 11:50 a.m., and it was already more miles from home than I thought it was going to be. At 6:00 Mary I and were to be at the home of a young married couple we are meeting with every week for some marriage mentoring.


Though the GPS predicted a 200-mile trip home along the Interstate system, it turned out to be about the same distance back to Champaign as I had already driven. An now to bed, perchance to sleep, and maybe to dream.