On the road again....

Today I drove to Springfield, Illinois to attend the Annual conference of the Federation of Genealogical Societies which is one of the top 3 genealogy conferences in the country each year. Going to a national conference has been on my genealogy bucket list for several years and here I am. The conference starts Wednesday morning at 8 am and goes until 6 pm Saturday. But, until Wednesday morning, I will be playing tourist in someplace new!

During the time I was planning my route here, I found out that Darryl's brother is buried in Carlinville, Ill. Carlinville is only 12 miles off the freeway so I made a side trip today so I could get a picture of the cemetery and a picture of his brother's grave for Darryl. It turned out to be more of an adventure than I anticipated......  I ate lunch at a Cracker Barrel in the St Louis area and then gave Samantha the cemetery address we wanted to get to. Now I assumed that she would take me around the city, connect with the freeway to St Louis and make then the 12 miles side trip to the Carlinville.  But no.......she wanted to take a leisurely Sunday drive on multiple 2-lane roads winding through corn fields, past farms, through little towns, etc before we got to Carlinville. She has always taken the fastest, shortest route until today! Anyway, she takes me to the address which turns out to be not the cemetery but the funeral home. Then I look up "Mayfield Memorial Park" and Google takes me to the charming town square - no cemetery in sight. I decide to find a police station for directions but on the way, go by a church with some people standing out in the parking lot talking so stop and ask them for directions. They gave me directions - go back to the 3rd stop sign, make a right, go past the Shell station, vere right at the Y and go to the 2nd cemetery on the left - the first one is the Catholic cemetery and not the one you are looking for. I followed their directions and found it!  After getting the pictures for Darryl,  I went back the the town square to look around.

Carlinville is on the original Route 66 and is 1,796 miles from Los Angles at this corner of the square. 

This is the gazebo in the town square. Very pretty and well maintained. I noticed these lawn chairs setting in various spots around town, including one in front of the old, historic jail - not sure why. 

This beautiful building is the Macoupin County Courthouse. The picture doesn't do it justice. 

It was a very pretty, small Midwest town and an unexpected surprise. Then it was back to the freeway and 30 more miles to Springfield, IL. Tomorrow I will be a tourist and learn all about Abraham Lincoln.