Springfield, IL

My hotel for the last 2 nights:

My car has an amazing dashboard:

My alarm was set for 7am but I woke up naturally at 5.20am. I updated my websites and logged onto my work email. Our artists (especially the singers!) do like to receive their money for concerts promptly so it’s less hassle if I keep on things while I’m away.

I left at 10am (to avoid the Chicago rush-hour) and drove the 3.5 hours to Springfield, IL.



Kasim is playing in Kansas City tomorrow evening which is about nine hours from Chicago but I decided to stop overnight in Springfield and have a look at that city.

I stopped for a quick sandwich on the way and reached Springfield by about 2.30pm. It’s the city where Abraham Lincoln lived for about 20 years so I visited his house. By chance I timed it just perfectly as there was a movie about his life in Springfield just starting and then I joined a tour of the house which was very interesting.

The kitchen (very small)

Abraham Lincoln's actual writing desk

Not the original bed but the ghastly wallpaper is identical to what they had (the girl was our guide):

The back part of the parlour where Lincoln first heard that people wanted him to stand for President:

After that I drove to Lincoln’s Tomb which is really big (his wife and 3 of his 4 children are also buried there but it’s the same size as a UK mausoleum that I went to which housed about 40 relatives of one family).

The tomb:

For some reason people reach up and touch his nose on this statue outside the tomb:

Consequently the nose is very shiny:

I then drove to my hotel. I’m slumming it tonight at a Red Roof Inn but it’s only for one night and there wasn’t a great deal of choice in the city.




I logged online for about an hour and went out to a nearby Ruby Tuesday for one of their gorgeous pasta dishes.

I got back to my room by about 7.30pm as a friend was ringing at 8pm so we had a long chat.

I then wrote some reviews and sorted out my photos, plus did some work and got to sleep at about midnight.