Bertrams On the Road Again

The Bertrams meet the Lincolns

Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.

          ~Jack Kerouac, On the Road 

January is a tough month in the midwest. The holidays are over, and we must settle back into whatever "normal" life is, and do it in usually abysmal weather. Lanny's birthday falls at the end of January, and every year I struggle to do something special for him. This year especially-- we had had a fabulous trip to Italy in the fall followed by the best holiday season in a long time. The weather here had turned cold and gray, and we were pretty housebound. Lanny had devoured the book Team of Rivals, by Doris Kearns Goodwin, on which the movie Lincoln had been based. We had both really loved the movie too, so I decided we needed a road trip-- and my gift to Lanny was four days tracing Lincoln's life on The Lincoln Trail. Hopefully we'd learn something about Lincoln, but mostly I was eager to get out of the house and have another travel adventure. We were both looking forward to a reprieve from post-holiday dieting too.

So off we set, early on a Thursday morning, for Hodgenville, Kentucky. This is where Lincoln's birthplace was. The day was actually sunny, though cold. We only live a few hours away, so the trip got us there late morning. We pulled into the visitor's center parking lot and discovered only one other car there. We headed inside to get whatever information and maps they had for us. As we were about to open the big dark glass door, it opened on it's own and out walked... Abe Lincoln! Dressed in his finest suit and top hat, old Abe looked very good for somebody who had been dead for 147+ years! He welcomed us to his birthplace, asked where we were from. When we told him Indiana, he commented on his boyhood home there.  Then he walked to the parking lot and got in his car, the only other one there-- a Lincoln, of course-- and drove off. A rather odd beginning, but we joked that if we'd known he was going to be at home we would have called first!

Here we are on a bright, cold Kentucky morning visiting Lincoln's birthplace.

We toured the little museum in the visitor's center, then walked up the hill to the massive granite building that houses "a symbolic" birthplace log cabin (that means it is a replica, sort of... nobody knows what the original looked like exactly). We also walked a trail through the woods to find the site of the Boundary Oak tree, which no longer is there either. And the Sinking Spring, which is. It was hard to channel Abe at this site, despite the reenactor, because it was overly developed and very little of the original was there.

We moved on down the road to a second farm where Lincoln lived with his family until age 7. This site was not developed at all, just left as it was with the field that had been where crops were raised mowed. We walked down by Knob's Creek and felt a little closer, perhaps, to Abe here.

But it was cold and getting dark. We headed to our B&B in Bardstown. A lovely old mansion, now divided into guest rooms. Our room, a suite, was where the former servant's quarters had been. We were greeted by a friendly young woman who reviewed the rules of the establishment, gave us our key, and then took us outside to get to our room. It turns out we had to take the servants' stairs up to it, and that meant going outside... Lord knows, back in the early 1800's, letting servants (or perhaps, since we were in Kentucky, slaves?) use the same stairs was just unacceptable. We got a little taste of this separation when we attempted to climb the stairs carrying our luggage. Narrow, steep and twisted around a center post so that the left side of each stairs narrowed to a point, our old bones had quite the workout climbing them. Over and over... to sample the cookies and tea in the main house, out to dinner, to get some forgotten item from the car...

Once we climbed the stairs at the B&B, we found a delightfully bright bedroom suite

And enjoyed a tasty, filling breakfast in the formal dining room of this 200 year old mansion.

When we got up in the morning, the TV reported school closings all over the area. Looking out the window I snorted... there was but a dusting of snow on the ground... What weather wimps!! We discovered, however, on our walk to the mainhouse for breakfast, that paved surfaces were coated in ice. This did not bode well for our journey that day up into Indiana and finally to Illinois. We enjoyed an excellent breakfast though, chatting with the owner (who was from Chicago originally!). Then we set on our way. The owner told us to "have a safe trip" and I replied that we would, barring "the idiots in pickups who think 4 wheel drive means they can speed on ice..."

Lanny had heard the interstate closeby had been closed that morning, so we mapped a route on what I call "the red roads", snaking our way through northwest Kentucky. Lanny is a cautious driver, the car has all wheel drive, so we thought we were in good shape. And we were.... but we soon came upon a man waving frantically in the road to slow down. We saw flashing emergency lights on the road ahead, but just barely because the road curved and made a steep decline. Lanny stopped and asked the man in the road what had happened. He told us a truck had overturned on the ice.

I am a registered nurse, bound by law and conscience to offer assistance in emergencies. I am NOT a trauma nurse so I always dread these situations... but I had to offer. I got out of the car and threw on my winter coat, and attempted to walk down the road. The ice was thick here and I finally had to walk off the road to have any solid footing. Sure enough, there was a pickup truck on its side with about 6 men standing around it. "I'm a registered nurse! Is anyone hurt?" I called. One of the men replied that he and his wife were in the truck and she was still in there, refusing to remove her seatbelt because she would fall to the other side of the truck. He said, "I had no idea it was this icy!" and I thought for a moment of the conversation I had had with the B&B owner earlier that morning. They both seemed okay, but I asked "Has anyone called for help?" and was told the fire rescue team was on their way. With help on the way, there didn't seem to be anything else I could do. (The other guys standing around decided they needed to smash in the front windshield to help out the rescue team... It gave them all something to do while they waited?) I got back in the car and Lanny turned the car around. We plotted another route, this time heading back to the interstate.

The interstate appeared to be moving well. The thermometer indicated it was 30 degrees though so the rain falling was still freezing. But the roads seemed salted and so we merged and got started. We only needed to go two exits, get off and take another red road up into Indiana where the weather was reported to be much better. Halfway to the second exit, traffic in all 4 lanes came to a complete halt. While we had no idea of the exact cause, apparently the icy roads had forced a closure further south and this was part of the back up. With less than a mile to go for our exit, we sat still on the interstate for over 2 hours. Lanny surfed the web on his phone and I pulled out my knitting. We had full stomachs and only our own timetable, so we made a conscious decision to not freak out about this delay.

the view out our car window for over 2 hours stuck on the interstate...

Eventually traffic started to move and we were on our way. We crossed the Ohio river at a small bridge that was south of Corydon, Indiana, and got to our first destination about an hour before they closed. Lincoln's boyhood home in Indiana was very well done-- the parking and visitor center was far enough away from the sites that they were not intrusive on them. We saw Nancy Hanks Lincoln's grave, as well as the original foundation of the Lincoln cabin. Again, we were the only people there touring, so we could linger as long as we wanted and take some great photos.

Time to head to Springfield! Check in at the B&B there was only 2 hours away and the trip was 4 hours, but after a quick call alerting them to our late arrival we set on our way. The trip was easy and we arrived in good time, but our GPS system took us to the B&B straight through town, and some of the seedier parts of it. We were welcomed warmly, this time to a room that did not require athletic prowess to get to. We were also given directions to a local restaurant.

When we travel, we both enjoy trying local fare. It turns out Springfield is known for a sandwich called a Horseshoe, that is a concoction layered with bread, meat, fries and a sharp cheese sauce poured over the whole thing. Not exactly health food... but I had to try one. It was delicious!

We made it to Springfield and this awaited!

This is a Horseshoe... layers of bread, meat, fries and cheese sauce. Can you hear my coronary arteries objecting?

After a wonderful breakfast the next morning, we set off to see the Lincoln sites in Springfield. I can report to you that the museum is excellent, as are the Old State Capital and Lincoln's law office. The sun was low on the horizon when we arrived at the Lincoln Home. It was 3 pm. We were told the next tour available was at 3:40 pm. When I mentioned we had not yet visited the cemetery, the docent told us that exhibit closed at 4 pm and was closed the next day. The home closed at 5 pm, and was open the following morning. If we wanted to see Lincoln's tomb, we had to do it now... so we had to race (literally we half jogged back to our car, about 8 city blocks away-- a challenge for my coronary arteries after all that fat laden fabulous food we'd eaten) out to the cemetery, about a 5 mile trip. Traffic lights were in our favor, and we arrived at the tomb by 3:20. The tour was fast and uncrowded, so we paid our respects to the Lincoln family and headed back to their residence. We arrived back at the home at exactly 3:40. We were able to tour the home and the surrounding neighborhood by the time it closed at 5 pm. Talk about power tourists!

Power tourists that we are, we made it from the Lincoln Home to the tomb and back in 40 minutes... Worth the effort too!

This is the only home Lincoln owned. 3000 sq. ft on a 50 foot wide lot with a well and 3-seater privy out back. Considered extremely prosperous in that era, the Lincolns lived well, though Mary rarely had help from servants. She was born to wealth and grew up with slaves in her home, so this was considered a real sacrifice on her part (!)

Our B&B host had recommended a downtown restaurant so we went there next. It was early-- before 5:30, and again we found ourselves the only people in the place. Dinner was delicious, including cocktails and wine, and dessert for the Birthday Boy (Okay, I had some too, but only because it was Lanny's birthday...) Our conversation focused on the Lincolns and what we had seen and learned that day, and we headed back to our B&B and went to bed happy tourists.

The Birthday Boy with his Birthday Bread Pudding... pronounced it "delicious!"

We awoke to a freezing sleet. Our plans had been to head that morning to New Salem, which was a restored village where Lincoln had first set out as a young adult on his own. There he had tried his hand as a shop keeper, surveyor, laborer/handyman, postmaster and even soldier in the Black Hawk Indian war. He had finally settled on studying law, and set out for Springfield. We wanted to see this little town, which had been painstakingly restored in the 1930's from eyewitness accounts, drawings, photos and deeds. We had also heard that the weather would clear up later in the afternoon, so we felt like we needed to wait until then to head back to Indiana. We needed a delay!

We drove the rural roads to New Salem and pulled into the visitor center parking lot in an icy rain. Again, we found ourselves the only ones there... but this time conditions really were bad. We toured the museum inside and then went out to walk the grounds. The entire village is there, all the houses and stores, the schoolhouse and the mill. Usually the village is full of tourists and docents in character explaining life in the 1830's. But on this day, the village was closed up tight and empty. I remarked to Lanny that it felt a little like a ghost town, empty and raining. We toured till we were chilled to the bone, then headed back to the visitor center. One last "pit stop" where I made extra use of the hot air hand dryer in the ladies room!

The precipitation here is freezing rain... it gave the restored village of New Salem a ghost town appearance!

Our trip home was not too bad as the temperature had warmed up some. It rained the entire trip, but thankfully no ice. We managed to stop, unexpectedly, in a little pub in a small town in Illinois that we had stopped at once before. We found the food this time every bit as good as the time before.

Our trip was fun, we learned a lot, saw scenery, historic places, ate delicious food. Hitting the road, no matter what time of year or weather, keeps us from getting bored!

Sometimes I would think myself happy never to leave. Every trip must end.
          ~Charles Keralt