MUSAP ~ Martha's United States of America Photos: Illinois ~ 0n the road

MUSAP Illinois ~ state # 6 and my first extended trip. I flew from Boston to Chicago, rented a car and headed south away from the city.

My first photo stop was Goose Lake Prairie State Natural Area in Morris, IL, about an hour from the airport. The weather was surprisingly summer like for September with temps in the upper 80’s and cloudy. The lady in the Visitor Center was very friendly, apparently they had had hundreds of 5th graders there earlier in the day and she was enjoying the tranquility that followed their departure. She went over the trail maps with me and off I went.

There were wildflowers everywhere - yellows, purples, and whites. MUSAP the butterfly would have looked lovely among the flowers ~ too bad I left him in the car!

There were trail markers with information about each of the stops. I was reading one about a pond and was confused. There were so many wildflowers and they were so tall that I couldn’t see the pond until I walked a little further down the trail. There was an egret on the shore who got spooked by incoming Canada geese.

Cragg Cabin was an interesting stop. Here's the information from their web page ~ “A reconstructed cabin at Goose Lake Prairie stands as a monument to the pioneer spirit. The original cabin was built by John and Agnes Cragg in the late 1830s near Mazon, 10 miles to the southwest. A predecessor to a truck stop, the Cragg cabin served as a stop on the old Chicago-Bloomington Teamster Trail. The second story - which was added to accommodate the Cragg’s six children, making it one of the first two-story homes in Grundy County - earned the cabin the nickname of “The Palace.”

The skies started to turn as I was going past Cragg Cabin - dark, dark clouds and then I started seeing lightning. I really wanted to keep going on the trail because there was so much to see.

Common sense finally won out and I headed back to the parking lots. I got to the car as the raindrops arrived. The temperature had dropped 15 degrees since I had arrived less than an hour earlier.

CLICK HERE to see the rest of the Day I Illinois photos posted on Flickr.

I kept going south on Route 55 to Pontiac, IL. I realized that I was on part of Historic Route 66 ~ driving the route is one of my future MUSAP possibilities.

After checking in to my motel I decided to go out with my camera. I didn't have a destination in mind but I had seen signs for the historic downtown district so I knew I’d find something that might catch my eye.

I saw a sign that said ‘Swinging Bridge’ so I made the turn and went to check it out. There was a pretty little park next to the Vermillion River so I parked and set out to explore.

The water was pretty low in the river - there were ducks and geese settling in for the night.

When I got back to the motel and googled it I found out there are three swinging pedestrian bridges that span the river. It felt a little strange when I first stepped onto the bridge and it was gently moving under my feet. Pontiac Swinging Bridges