Adventures with Liz

What Should I Do if I Find an Explosive Device?; or, Of Bunkers and Burial Grounds

Road trip day two: Chicago, Illinois to Hanover, Illinois.

Note: The internet here won't let me upload photos, so the awesome ones I took today will have to come later.

Advice: if you ever have to drive in Chicago, do it on Sunday morning. We left the city with relatively little trouble from traffic. Today was our easy day; a short three hour drive put us in Hanover, Illinois at Danny's aunt's house. Northwest Illinois is gorgeous, hilly and full of woods and farms, and today the sky was especially blue with big cottony clouds, making the winding drive through country roads highly enjoyable. On the way, we passed through a town called Elizabeth, so naturally we had to take advantage of the photo opportunity. I have to say, I am more proud to share my name with this quaint, clean Illinois town than with the dirty, polluted, factory-filled city of Elizabeth, New Jersey.

We ate lunch in Galena, an adorable town constructed almost entire of red brick and built into a hillside on the banks of the Galena river. Trivia for the day: Galena means "lead" in Latin, which is an appropriate name for the town, as it used to be based around lead mines. Danny's aunt then led us on a tour of some of the best hiking spots in the area. We first visited a nature reserve based around Native American burial grounds from 700 A.D. It was a simple but beautiful park, with a variety of scattered trees and a view of the Mississippi River. From there, we drove to the Mississippi Palisades and hiked a heavily wooded trail to an overlook of the river. Danny's aunt was practically a guidebook of the plant and bird life of the area. She pointed out many different flowering plants by name, and identified several birds for us just by their call. The trail was breathtaking; the image of the molten gold rays of sun flowing through gaps in the canopy and illuminating the violently vibrant green of the flowering plants carpeting the ground will be seared in my memory forever. It was one of the most naturally beautiful places I have ever been.

Our last stop was a decommissioned army depot. Driving through the base was emotionally the most difficult moment of my trip thus far, for obvious reasons. But it was well worth it. We stopped at a point overlooking the river and Danny's aunt set up a telescope, through which we saw a bald eagle sitting proudly in its nest. It was the first time I'd ever seen a bald eagle, and could very well be the last, although I certainly hope not. We ended with a visit to one last overlook, constructed by Boy Scouts as an Eagle project. Next to the overlook was a typical-looking information sign, like one might find in any park. The sign had three panels, one entitled "Phenomena of the Wind," which discussed the effect of wind on the water, one entitled "Living in a Sea of Sand," which discussed the habits and habitats of a native insect, and the final entitled "What Should I Do if I Find an Explosive Device?" which described... well... what to do if you found an explosive device. Which apparently is a real concern, because directly behind the overlook across the road was a series of abandoned bunkers once used to store explosives.

The evening ended with a delicious dinner at a local restaurant in Galena and a perfect sunset from the porch of Danny's aunt's house. We followed the sunset with a trip down memory lane celebrating the 4 year anniversary of our high school government video project. Seeing myself dressed up as Willie Nelson and watching Patches jump out of the microwave just never gets old. ;-)

In reflection, today was the first time I have seen the Mississippi River in 17 years. The last time I was this close, we were leaving our home in St. Louis to move to New Jersey and my mom pulled the car over and made me get out and touch the water because she knew I would not be back this way for a long time. I'm just glad I made it back.

posted by Liz @ 10:58 PM