We left the shifty motel for another wonderful day on the road. We hadn't driven too far when we came across an old drive-in movie theater was still in business. Rainy and I both wished that we could see a movie there! Of course the drive-in was right in the middle of farm land.
Our travel books highly recommended the Ariston Cafe in Litchfield, Illinois. We were disappointed to find out that they weren't open for lunch on Saturdays. Across th street from the Ariston Cafe was a wonderful old sign for "Vic Suhling" gas, but the station itself was no longer there.
Wecontinued on to Springfield, Illinois where we stopped at Cozy Dog, where the corn dog was said to have been invented. Yes, the corn dog was the best we had ever eaten! We had french fries and a root beer to accompany our dogs.Our next stop was another Route 66 attraction, Shea's, which is no longer a functioning gas station, but has been restored as a museum with tons of memorabilia. Shea's has been a family run business for 4 generations and the oldest family member still hangs around giving tours to the tourists.
Our single tourist destination in Springfield was the Dana-Thomas house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and completed in 1904. We toured the inside and outside of the house, but unfortunately were not allowed to take pictures inside.
Once we left Springfield we detoured off of Route 66 and headed northwest on Hwy 125 towards Rushville, Illinois and Briarwood Ranch where we lived when Rainy was little. We had permission to spend the night at the ranch and were both looking forward to see how things had changed (or were the same) from when we lived there. Of course, none of the roads looked the same and I was pretty confused as to exactly how to get to the ranch. We got directions from Chad, the current ranch manager. The water was out of the banks of the closest river, so the road we would normally have gone in on was flooded, so Chad gave us the alternative directions.
Once on the ranch, we parked our car close to the house we used to live in and went exploring! The first item on our agenda was to find the fort that Rainy had built in the woods out of tree branches. I thought it was in the closest branch of woods to the house, but Rainy insisted that it was out past the cornfield (that is no longer planted in corn) to the next branch of woods. I am not too suprised that Rainy walked right to her old fort. We could tell that the bases of the fort was there, but otherwise had deteriorated into almost nothing. After exploring around the fort, we simply explored the woods.
We continued exploring around the lake, catching fireflies, and talking until sunset. We then drove over to the main hunting lodge to settle in for the night. We were way overdue on laundry so were happy to have use of a washer and dryer! We slept in a room in the basement where it was cool and dark.....a nice reprieve from the heat and humidity.
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