THE LAND OF LINCOLN

September 12, 2011  Dateline: Beardstown, IL USA

I left Peoria a little after 8 this morning, and within 45 minutes I had traveled to the Peoria Lock.  I sat at the lock for 2 hours while I waited for a tow to clear the lock.  Once we cleared the lock MY WAY and I got on our way.  We had 88 miles to go today to get to the barge at Beardstown where we would tie up to for the night.  There were two railroad bridges that had to be lifted so I could pass underneath.  I was lucky because both bridges were able to be opened as soon as Rich called. The second bridge had a long freight train go over it about 30 minutes after I cleared it, boy, was I lucky that I did not have to wait for that train.

I passed through Havana today. Because MY WAY is Canadian it is ok for her to go there, but I didn’t think that I could.  Then I learned that this Havana is in Illinois and not Cuba.

The dock in Beardstown is a couple of barges tied to shore below a 30 foot wall which keeps the river out of the town when it overflows it’s banks.  There are no services, and I mean no services, no water, no electricity and I am tied to the clamps that hold the covers on one of the barges.  It is a different life style, but I am happy to be here, because without the barge I would have had to travel some 168 miles today.

Beardstown was founded in 1829 and was the site of Abraham Lincoln’s Almanac case.  Rich and Carol got to go into the court room where President Lincoln defended William Duff Armstrong and they saw the jail where Duff was held for eight month before the trial.  Lincoln used the almanac to discredit a witness and win freedom for his client. 

President Lincoln and Stephen Douglas had one of their famous debate in the Beardstown public square in 1858.

Beardstown is located in Illinois near the Indian burial mounds.  The town’s museum contains 8 picture frames about 2’X4’ in size that are full of Indian arrow heads.  The arrow heads within each frame are arranged in different patterns and are very attractive. 

Beardstown is also known as the watermelon capital of the nation. The watermelons that grow here are shipped to every major city in the country.  Cargill Pork has a processing plant in the town employing some 2,200 people and processing 19,000 hogs a day.

Tomorrow I am off to Grafton, IL about 88 miles further south west where the Illinois meets the mighty Mississippi.