Theater and friends in Harrisburg, IL

We left the Garden of the Gods in order to meet friends for dinner and hopefully get some gas in some tiny little town on the way.  We went through Equality, which most likely had gas hidden somewhere, but not on the main drag and not toward Harrisburg,

 where we knew there was gas.  I tried to look for the old Slave house in Equality, but even though the State of Illinois now owns this historic site, they don't publish it in the tourist books or let people in anymore.  I guess they want to be the land of Lincoln and don't want to show the other side of the     state's stance on slavery.  The old slave house was a notorious stud farm for slaves owned by salt mine millionaires.  Supposedly haunted, and

one of the few places that most likely deserves to be haunted. 

We went in to Harrisburg and got some gas, hit a good little bookstore that John remembered from his time here and met Katherine (and her  movie star daughter) and Nick who are former students

  of John's.  We had a nice dinner with them and then went to see Fiddler on the Roof put on by SIC and their Teveya was wonderful! We got on the road right after the play was over after saying bye to Katherine and Alexia to get some way up 

the state before hitting a hotel in Effingham.  We stayed at a motel 8, which John didn't want to do, but I didn't realize that they are now part of Wyndham group.  So, it was a nice place to sleep for 8 hours and get back on the road.  Since we had made some 

progress the night before, we were able to take our time and still stop at different sites that interested us.  Since we've been on a Lincoln kick, we thought that we should stop and see his father's homestead while he was president.  We were able to see the Shiloh cemetary where Lincoln's father and stepmother are buried, but people keep taking a piece of Thomas Lincoln's marker as souvenirs, so it's had to be replaced once and still has chips off of it.  We went to the homestead and were surprised by how small the cabin was even after his son was a succesful lawyer and politician.  We were happy to have seen all these little sites that we have missed over the years, but more importantly have some sunshine, time with friends, and see things blooming finally.