Collections!

Today, about a month and a half after I returned home from my Lincoln Trek, I finally got out a note to those kind individuals who offered to make contributions to the Abraham Lincoln Institute (ALI) based on how many miles I walked. The note reported my total mileage, walking and otherwise, and provided the address to which contributions can be sent. The text of my note appears at the end of this post; I am hoping that it might prompt others who stumble across it to make their own contribution to the ALI.

The ALI is a volunteer-run educational organization that presents programs dealing with the latest in Lincoln scholarship. I am the current president. Our next major event will be the 9th Annual Symposium on March 25, 2006 at the National Archives facility in College Park, MD. Speakers are Elizabeth Smith Brownstein, Daniel Farber, Barry Schwartz, Joshua Wolf Shenk, and Richard Striner. Registration information for this free event will soon be available at the ALI web site, www.lincoln-institute.org.

I realize that other demands on my time are making it increasingly unlikely that I will be able to post more details on my trek any time soon (although "hope springs eternal").

Herewith, the text of my note:

At long last, I am replying to you and others who so generously agreed to sponsor my efforts on my Lincoln Trek with a pledge to the Abraham Lincoln Institute (ALI). I dragged my feet, so to speak, on getting this note out because I had hoped to write a comprehensive article on the full journey and share it with you. There just hasn't been the time, and I don't want to delay any longer. Contributions to ALI are fully tax deductible and it may be your wish to make the contribution before the current year ends.

I walked 187 miles. This distance was less than my original expectation of 500 miles, but if you checked my blog you know that I early on changed my approach. Twenty miles a day with a 25+ pound backpack (affectionately known as Millstone) was more than I had the stamina to accomplish. It also was a plan that prevented me from going to any Lincoln site that wasn't on the most direct route. With a combination of walking, accepted rides and rented cars, I did in fact cover almost 1000 miles. I met many interesting people, saw firsthand numerous sites that were part of Lincoln's early life, and took more than 1200 digital photos. Four or five local newspapers reported on my journey through their region and an Illinois television station produced a two-minute segment for their local news program.

There were so many highlights and I still harbor some hope that I will find the time and inspiration to write about my journey. Spending a night in a Kentucky log cabin scant steps away from Lincoln's birthplace; crossing the rivers that separated Kentucky from Indiana and Indiana from Illinois; paying respects at the gravesites of Lincoln's parents and at Lincoln's tomb itself; meeting with the historical society in Greenup, IL; visiting the little known museum in Athens, IL that celebrates Lincoln's accomplishments in the state legislature; walking the Boy Scout trail from New Salem to Springfield on a brilliant fall day with the only sound that of the wind blowing through the dried corn stalks - these and many more memories of my four weeks on the road have enriched me far beyond anything I anticipated.

I am grateful for your willingness to support the ALI. You can fulfill your pledge by mailing a check to Dr. Donald Kennon, ALI Treasurer (c/o USCHS, 200 Maryland Avenue, NE, Washington, DC 20002-5796). Thank you.

It's over

Sorry for the long delay in posting. I have returned home and the Lincoln Trek is history. It was a great success. I have loads of notes and many photos, so I will continue to put up descriptions of my activities during the last week of trekking as soon as I can. I am grateful for all the expressions of interest and support I received along the way. Watch this space. -Bob

Day 21 (Friday, 9/30) - Summary

I admit with some embarrassment, I did not even walk to the U of I Library today; I accepted a ride! I returned to perusing a set of 26 scrapbooks that were put together by a member of the Class of 1901, an extraordinary collection of news clips from the 1920s through the 50s dealing with Abraham Lincoln; I only made it through 10 of them. I was so engaged that lunch hour came and went without my noticing. In the afternoon, I spent a little time looking at just a microscopic example of the materials that comprise the Library's extraordinary collection of Carl Sandburg's papers. In March, 1961, I met Sandburg when he spoke at a reenactment of Lincoln's First Inaugural. Today, I held in my hand an interim typed draft of that speech with numerous editorial changes in Sandburg's hand. The day concluded back at the Estabrooks, where the foremost activity was the Red Sox-Yankees game. To demonstrate the Estabrooks' loyalties the food featured a lot of red and white items and all tasted great.

Day 20 (Thursday, 9/29) - Summary

An early rise gave me time to do the laundry and catch up on some backlog before I headed off to the University of Illinois library. I had an early lunch with some history enthusiasts who get together every month or so, and then I started reviewing some unique Lincoln material in the library's special collections. I also met some volunteers who are helping the library organize its extensive collection of Carl Sandburg's papers. My hosts for the next two days are Leigh and Carl Estabrook (I first met Leigh when we were both volunteers at the first White House Conference on libraries in 1979), so I headed to Leigh's office in the library school for a lift back to their house. Carl had plans to attend an informal presentation by a history professor from another institution who is visiting Champaign, so I asked if I could tag along. The topic involved British history, unfamiliar to me, and the discussion took place in a rarefied intellectual atmosphere, equally unfamiliar, but I enjoyed watching the unbridled enthusiasm of the various history graduate students in attendance.

Day 19 (Wednesday, 9/28) - Summary

I walked to Charleston from Mattoon on a bike trail and was joined on the walk by my host of the prior weekend, Chuck Hand. Charleston, site of one of the seven Lincoln Douglas Debates and home to a museum about the debates, was the place I chose to mail a letter to the Presidential Debates commission; I proposed that the 2008 election, occurring during the 150th anniversary of the Lincoln Douglas debates, should have one of the presidential debates at one of the Lincoln-Douglas sites and follow the format they used. I also was interviewed by a local reporter who wrote a good story about my Lincoln Trek. Because I had cut back on the amount of walking, I have time to take in additional Lincoln sites. As a result, Chuck drove me to Champaign where I plan to spend some time perusing the excellent Lincoln collection in the library of the University of Illinois.

Day 18 (Tuesday, 9/27) - Summary

I drove to Mattoon where I turned in the car. I walked five miles for exercise and to see the town, and then prepared for tomorrow's walk to Charleston and the museum that celebrates the 1858 Lincoln Douglas debates.

Day 17 (Monday, 9/26) - Summary

I leave Chuck Hand's home in Paris, IL and head to Greenup. Here the Historical Society has arranged a pot-luck supper in my honor and I am pleased to spend a couple of hours touring the town and talking with the members - a extraordinary experience.

Day 16 (Sunday, 9/25) - Summary

Wandering through Chuck Hand's storage facilities is like living in an Abraham Lincoln archive. I'm a pig in mud for the day!

Day 15 (Saturday, 9/24) - Summary

Back in a rented car, I am able to see a number of sites, most significantly, the farm where Lincoln's parents lived out their final days, south of Charleston. I then head to Paris, where I will spend two nights at the home of Chuck Hand, prominent dealer in Lincoln books and pamphlets and a long-time friend.

Day 14 (Friday, 9/23) - Summary

I head out on foot to Robinson, but after five or six miles I am picked up by a former concrete worker who has recently worked as a civilian for the US government in Afghanistan. He is going all the way to Charleston, and I instantly change my plans and go there with him.

Day 13 (Thursday, 9/22) - Summary

Back on foot, I cross the Lincoln Memorial Bridge at the approximate site of the Lincoln family's ferry crossing of 1830; there's a fine memorial on the Illinois side. I walk to Lawrenceville instead of my original planned goal of Robinson, and enjoy an excellent meal at a Chinese restaurant on the town square.

Day 12 (Wednesday, 9/21) - Summary

Great breakfast and great conversation start the day at the B&B in Petersburg, and then a drive to Vincennes. Here I see not only sites associated with the Lincoln travels to Ohio, but also regarding the early settlement and governing of the Northwest Territories and the story of William Rogers Clark's unbelievable assault on the British during the American Revolution.

Day 11 (Tuesday, 9/20) - Summary

After some "catching up" with the blog and laundry in Jasper, I headed off to Petersburg in a rented car. I picked up some copies of the newspaper containing the article resulting from yesterday's interview, and then headed to the B&B, where I was interviewed by the head of the local Chamber of Commerce.

Explanation

I have really fallen behind in keeping this blog up to date. The reason is simple: I'm having such a great time and am busy with various activities. Nonetheless, I have already written my notes for each day and it is simply a matter of sitting down and fleshing out the narrative. Please stay tuned. I should be current by Tuesday, 9/27.

Day 10 (Monday, 9/19) - Dale to Jasper

I got up early with high hopes of hitting the road, but breakfast, packing and assorted diversions delayed my departure until 7:45. I had to cover a lot of distance today, about as far as my longest day thus far, and I knew high temperatures were expected. On top of that, I did not have a particularly restful night and had in fact tinkered with the computer for a little while during a bout of insomnia.

I headed up US 231 and crossed over Interstate 64, a principal east-west highway across Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois. The west bound entrance was labeled "St. Louis," the location where I would board a plane to head back home after the trek was completed. At normal driving speed, I could be in St. Louis in three hours or so; in actuality it should be two and a half more weeks before I would be crossing the Mississippi River into Missouri.

About six days earlier, while in the little town in Kentucky where the Lincoln family had boarded the ferry to take them across the Ohio, I had spent some time on my cell phone dealing with a financial matter regarding the sale of some stock which I had initiated four days before I started my walk in Hodgenville. Over the weekend, I discovered that the proceeds of the transaction still had not hit my bank account. The first break I took at about 10 am, I got on the phone to get things straightened out, but I was unable to connect with the branch official at my local bank. About an hour later, I did get a call back to learn that Murphy's Law had struck again. The brokerage representative had a sick child on Friday that necessitated her leaving. The bank has a procedure for absent employees to insure thattheir customer commitments are followed through, but someone had dropped the ball. Everyone was quite apologetic; a couple of checks had been paid by the bank depsite the lack of funds, and overdraft charges that had been taken were refunded. In the meantime, my ATM card was worthless; fortunately I wasn't spending a lot of cash thanks to my "don't leave home with out it" AmEx card. Everything was finally resolved, but I can't imagine how I would have dealt with this matter if I had to rely only on payphones; thank God for cellular.

My backpack was already giving me problems, five miles into the day, so during this first break I also did some repacking and readjusting of the myriad of straps and buckles on the backpack. It seemed a little more comfortable as I resumed walking.

My cellphone rang, and I expected it was someone from the bank, but it turned out to be a local newspaper reporter. She asked where I was and if I minded company for a while. I gave her my location and kept on heading north.

Within a mile or so, a small pickup truck pulled into a side road as I approached. I didn't look real carefully, assuming it was the reporter and her photographer, but as I got closer a voice yelled, "You want a ride again?" Astoundingly, it was the same couple who had picked me up south of Gentryville on Saturday. Their vacation had come to an end and they were headed home. I told them I was still in pretty good shape and that I was about to be interviewed by a reporter; it wouldn't look all that good if I was riding instead of walking. I then told them the story of my ride with "Mr. Lincoln" after they dropped me off. I'm embarrassed to say that even given this second opportunity, I failed to get their names.

I was approaching the town of Huntingburg. I had to dodge around a little road construction, but then city sidewalks became available. Looking ahead, I saw a photographer with a long lens aimed my way. When I got close to him, his reporter colleauge introduced herself, and we started walking north together while the photographer hopped in his car to position himself further up the path. She asked a bunch of good questions and it was evident she had spent some time beforehand exploring my website. She wrapped up the interview just as we got to the northern section of town and I noticed the photographer in the distance snapping some final shots.

By this time, I had covered about 10 miles and I was ready for lunch. The nearby Subway was a welcome sight.

After lunch, I figured I still had about 6 or 7 miles so I took over a nearby picnic bench and changed my socks and shoes after adjusting or replacing my blister-preventing bandaids and moleskin. I also applied some foot powder. I was ready to go for the next couple of hours.

Less than a half mile into the afternoon's walk, however, a young woman in a pickup truck saw me waiting for a traffic light to change, stopped, and asked if I wanted a ride. The idea of arriving earlier at the next hotel (a Hampton Inn where I knew there would be a good internet connection so I could catch up on email and blogging) made me hestitate not one second. The driver was a home-day care provider and lived in the middle of Jasper. She offered to take me right to the hotel front door.

I checked in and then started examining my plan for the next few days. There was some significant distance, nearly 50 miles in two days, and I had already discovered that 17 or so was my max for a day carrying my backpack. Moreover, there were no real Lincoln sites along the way. A plan quickly formed to cancel my B&B reservation at tomorrow's midpoint, stay an extra day at the Hampton, and find some means of wheeled transportation to get me to Vincennes on Wednesday.

I called the B&B and explained my situation; there was a noticeable sign of disappointment on the part of the proprietor. I had earlier explained my journey to her and she said that her husband, who likes history, had been looking forward to showing me some of his Lincoln stuff. Nonetheless, I just couldn't see a way to make it work, and asked her to cancel the reservation.

I went to the Hampton front desk to extend my stay and learned that the hotel was sold out the next day. My name was put on a waiting list and I was fairly confident that I would be accommodated because I am a member of the frequent stayers program and have a premium status. Then I inquired about transportation to Vincennes. I had already learned that a taxi would cost nearly $200 and that there is no intercity bus service. I was scratching my head when I asked about rental cars.

Jasper does have a single car rental company, but it is one that does not routinely offer one-way rentals. However, I gave them a call and was delighted to learn that, although it was not standard procedure, they would let me leave the car in Vincennes for a not too burdensome drop charge. I jumped at the chance. Of course, now that I would have wheels, I could easily get to the B&B, so I called back to see if I could reinstate the reservation. The proprietor said absolutely and then added, "Would you mind being interviewed?" Of course, I agreed right away.

So things were looking great. I would be able to cover the distance between Jasper and Vincennes without strain, would be able to try the B&B which had looked great on its website, and would be able to get to some of the historic sites in Vincennes that I would have had to bypass if I transited the city on foot.

I decided to explore Jasper in the few hours before sunset, but before heading out, I took advantage of the high speed internet in my room and uploaded to a photo storage service about 400 digital photos I had taken thus far, relieving me of any anxiety of a hard disk failure chewing up all my memories.

Jasper has one of the finest exercise (walking, joggin, biking) trails I have encountered. Well maintained and illuminated throughout the night for a portion of its length, the Riverwalk is a 2.25 mile track, along and over the river (obvously) but also beside rows of corn and through heavily wooded parklands. I walked almost the entire roundtrip distance but bailed out near the end so I could take a look at the downtown area. Jasper seems to be a prospering city. As in other places along my route, it features a beautiful old courthouse on a square right in the middle of town that all traffic has to go around. A memorial to the soldiers serving in the Civil War dominated one side of the courthouse square.

I returned to the hotel and then walked to the German restaurant right next door. I had seen a couple of tantalizing billboards advertising the Schnitzelbank as I approached the city and was delighted to find it so close at hand. I was even more pleased when I saw that they had a sampler entree featurnig a choice of three German meats accompanied with all the traditional fixings. There was no way I was going to go to bed hungry this night!