Trip to Springfiled, Ill. Sept. 2026

 Tuesday, September 15, 2026

On the road by 8 a.m. stopped at McDonald's for sausage, egg, and cheese muffin breakfast. Then on to Interstate. Lots of semi traffic. One pee stop along I-39. Made it to Cozy Dog around noon. Two dogs, fries, and soda for $10. Big load of fries; couldn't finish them all. Couldn't find those socks I wanted, so I ordered them online. Loads of Tee shirts but none with pockets. Very hot in Springfield. Nearly 100 degrees. We brought Lily in to the Cozy Dog (in her cat carrier of course) because of the heat, no problem.

Made it to the Drury Inn just a couple miles from Cozy Dog and they let us check in early. Lily was a doll the whole trip and barely made a sound.  Got checked in and got into my swim suit for a relaxing swim and soak in the hot tub. Then back to room to change and down to lounge for kickback. Popcorn, chicken fajitas, two cocktails - margarita and vodka-cranberry. Nice relaxing time with Dawn. Back to room and crashed. Lily quiet for the most part, but not eating her wet food.

Wednesday 9/16

Up at 6:30 and took a giant shit. Down to lounge for breakfast. Scrambled eggs, potatoes, sausage patties, waffle, juice, coffee. All delicious. Dawn took off for Lincoln attractions. I stayed behind and enjoyed the hotel amenities. Dawn had lunch at one of the cafes. Had an Orange Crush to drink and joked it was one of Lincoln’s favorite drinks. So I created this image for her using ChatGTP:

Nap. Played with Lily. Went for swim and whirlpool. Played with Kindle and downloaded a basic word processor and typed some of my trip journal. Dawn back. She had a nice time, but really tired from all the walking and excessive heat. Down to lounge for Kickback. Pasta Alfredo with chicken and spinach salad. White wine and Margarita. Haagen Dazs dolce de leche ice cream in our room for dessert. Dawn showed me some of her photos. To bed around 8:30.

Thursday, September 17, 2026

Up at 6:30. Breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage patties, waffle, OJ and coffee. Got packed up and on the road by 10 a.m. First stop in El Paso, Ill., to gas up and lunch at McDonalds – two cheeseburgers, fries, and Coke. Back on road, home by 4:30.

Impressions

I thought Drury Inn was once again a bargain, as in past trips. Hotel bill was $400 ... $200 a night. But that included breakfast and cocktails/dinner for the two of us, plus they did not charge us extra for Lily. Breakfast has to be worth $10 apiece for $20 times two mornings for $40. Cocktails and dinner has to be worth $20 apiece for $40 times two nights for $80. So we got $120 worth of food and drinks. So when you take that off the $400 hotel bill, you're left with $280, or $140 a night. 

A whole lot of wind turbines generating electricity. More than I ever remember seeing before.

Gas $4.56 a gallon. Fill up with half tank full on the Camry ran $40.

Tons of semis on the road. Diesel fuel $6.29 gallon. Where will it end.

It's like there's any shortage. There's plenty to be had.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Update Nov. 28 - Dec. 6

Image
Today, we are meeting Karen and Craig, Dawn's friends, for an early lunch at B.J.'s Restaurant & Brewhouse out on Alico Road by the airport. I have five of their watches I got in running condition for them. Most were just batteries, but one was a stem and crown replacement on a lady Movado watch which ran me $40 all by itself to have my buddy down the street at Prestige Jewelers obtain the parts and install them. I'm doing very little watch repair work for people these days, because it's generally a pain in the ass. I'm trying to train all my relatives to simply tell people that I'm retired! But these are good friends, and I know how hard it is to obtain reliable and honest watch repair, especially around this part of the country. Looking forward to trying the new restaurant and catching up with Karen and Craig. A mixed bag this week, due in good part to a couple days of torrential rain that pre-empted our usual Friday outing to the Farmer's Market. Bu...
Read more

Update Nov. 14-21

Image
Greetings all. We see Wisconsin has had its first snowstorm of the season. We continue to deal with unseasonably hot temps down here, but it looks as though things here will cool off a bit and next week and be normal (mid to upper 70s). We are kind of tired of running the AC all day and night and having to keep the windows and lanai door closed all the time. Well, another busy and eventful week, so let's get started: Saturday Nov. 14 -- A Walk in the Park We did indeed get out to Lakes Park and walked a lap around the "inner track" ... about half mile. Fairly nice day. From there, we did a big grocery run to Publix for deli meat and cheese; and then the Walmart Neighborhood Market for the balance of the list to get the better prices. For dinner, I cooked in and made lemon-garlic shrimp over linguine, and an apple walnut salad from one of those Dole "salad kits" in the produce section. The salad was good, but the other salad kit we bought from them -- pear ...
Read more

October 19

Image
Thursday October 19 Home again, second full day, after arriving back in Janesville October 17 at 11:30 p.m. (Landlord) Gary picked up (sis-in-law) Julie and me from the Van Galder depot. Still recouping from jet lag from 27 hours on airplanes, in airports, and the final two-hour bus ride. Crossing the International Date Line and gaining a day also took its toll on messing up my internal clock! But to back up, let's pick up where we left off Sunday October 15 Picking up from where I left off on the last blog entry, we did indeed have later-night tapas from the Point Brisbane Hotel restaurant (Lambert's) following our museum outing. Julie and I shared an order of freshly roasted mixed nuts, a club sandwich, and freshly fried doughnut balls with chocolate and raspberry sauces. All delicious. Yeah, I can hear some of you chuckle: We had nuts and balls for dinner. OK, settle down. Monday October 16 Our final full day in Australia! Another rainy day in Brisbane. Except for the...
Read more