When we went to St. Louis, we claimed that it was a practice run for our big road trip. That was a lie, of course, but this time we decided to do it in earnest. For Memorial Day weekend we left the car-filled view of our urban balcony in downtown Chicago for the bug-filled tent grounds, just outside of Galena, IL.
For those not from the Chicagoland area, Galena offers something that most places in and around Illinois don’t: hills. Oh, the hills! I can feel the car thank us for finally getting it to use all of its muscle.
But also, Galena is one of those quintessential American towns. Where the Memorial Day parade didn’t have any floats, but did just fine with an ambulance, fire truck, police car, the high school marching band – all led by veterans who walked through the middle of town (yes, on Main Street).
I happened to be able to catch some pictures of the parade in front of the De Soto House. It was a hotel that once had 240 rooms, but once the town lost of its grandeour, the hotel apparently (somehow) also lost the top two floors in the downsizing process.
It was on the balcony where Abraham Lincoln spoke to the town on the balcony in 1856 as did Stephen Douglas in 1858. One of the coolest things about it was this was Ulysses S. Grant’s headquarters for his 1868 presidential campaign (he lived in Galena and his house is now a tourist site/museum).
So how did the trip pay off? We remembered most of our camping gear, except the following
- Bug spray. For the love of God, may we not forget the bug spray.
- Pillows. Yea, it sucks.
- Good hiking boots. Well, this one is all me (James). Marc brought his. Luckily the trails we went on today weren’t too harsh and sneakers were ok.
UP NEXT: Stay tuned for pictures of our hikes in the Mississippi Palisades Park.
