It just
didn’t seem right to leave Illinois without getting in touch with some Lincoln
lore. That’s why we stopped in Vandalia, IL to see the old Capital State House,
where a young Abe Lincoln served as a representative. It’s open every day
except Monday, so we could not get in for a tour. However, we walked around the
area and got a feel for the place. We also learned a little about poor Abe’s
early love life (you can google it for more details) and the disappointments it
caused for the rising young frontier politician.
On the way
out of Vandalia, we stopped at the visitor center to see what else we could
learn. The sign on the door said, ‘Closed’. As I walked away to look for some
photo opportunities, Karen started up a conversation with a little old lady who
was standing at the entrance to the visitor center. It turns out she runs the
center and she was there on her day off checking things out. She let us into
the closed visitor center. She was very gracious, and even seemed excited to
tell us about her town.
The most
curious thing she pointed out to us was something called the ‘Kaskaskia Dragon’,
located just down the road on Highway 40. She gave us two tokens and said that
if we made a wish when we drop the tokens into the dragon’s coin box, our wish
would surely come true. This was too good to pass up, so off we went.
The dragon is
a big metal contraption sitting just off the highway at the entrance to some
kind of RV park. The coin box is about 20 feet away from the dragon, and this
is for a good reason. Once you drop in your token (and, of course make your
wish), the dragon belches out copious amounts of propane-fed fire. It’s not
exactly a Game of Thrones experience, but with an Abe Lincoln stovepipe hat
perched on its head, the flame-throwing dragon makes quite a surreal and
fantastical scene.
We found
Vandalia to be a treasure trove of roadside entertainment. On the way to the
dragon, we stopped to view the ‘economy’ version of the St. Louis Arch sitting
in the parking lot of a motel. It’s hard to settle down again and get back into
the car after so much excitement.
The rest of
the day we continued west. We stopped for a picnic lunch in St. Charles, MO on
the banks of the Missouri River, where Lewis and Clark began their famous
expedition. After many miles of rolling hills and cornfields, we ended up in
Higginsville, MO for the night.
Next: Kansas
I like your dragon!
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