Black Bart's Pumpkin Patch, Warrensburg

Black Bart's Pumpkin Patch is the place to go for giant pumpkins. They have a HUGE selection of HUGE pumpkins.

Black Bart's Pumpkin Patch also includes the normal pumpkin patch entertainment, a hay maze, a corn maze, a slide, and a petting zoo. There is a haunted house which was too scary for my son.

For sale you'll find multi-color corn, hay bales, squash, gourds, a stuff your own scarecrow station, and pumpkins galore. Admission is free to Black Bart's and then you can pay for activities a la cart. The corn maze is 75 cents, children under 3 free. Feed for the petting zoo is a quarter per serving. The haunted house and slide are free. Drinks are available in the store for 75 cents per pop or bottle of water.
My son and I walked and walked thru the pumpkin patch and never came to the end of it. We were so far away I couldn't even see the house anymore. I would guess there are thousands of pumpkins waiting for you. Giant pumpkins, white pumpkins, red pumpkins, warty pumpkins, flat pumpkins, dark green pumpkins, grey pumpkins, and jack-o-lantern pumpkins. It's amazing.

Black Bart's Pumpkin Patch is open Monday thru Saturday 9 am to 6 pm and Sunday 11 am to 6 pm. Pumpkins are 35 cents per pound. I'm putting it on the Google map.

Pastabilities Italian Grill, Decatur

Central Illinois is loaded with independent Italian restaurants, most of them inexpensive and very good. There's no reason to buy spaghetti in a bucket around here. I'm going to tell you about my favorite Italian restaurant and I want you to leave me a comment about yours.

In 2003 a new restaurant opened in downtown Decatur promising good prices and good Italian dishes. B and I were thrilled and so were most of our friends. After the first trip to Pastabilities it was added to our regular rotation. It has definitely changed since it opened, mostly for the better. The owners seem like they are constantly looking to improve the dining experience.

I love the ambiance at Pastabilities. A lot of Decatur restaurants don't seem to put much thought into the feel of the building, but Pastabilities really feels upscale and well decorated. I also like that there are several different kinds of seating. In the front you can sit at cafe tables with umbrellas. In the middle there is room for larger groups. There is a nice bar in the back as well as more romantic booths. I like to sit in the front because I always see people I know on the street or coming in the door.

It's hard to say what dish I like best at Pastabilities because I don't have a "usual" like I do when I eat at a Mexican restaurant. The Chicken Marsala is normally very good as is anything with the creamy tomato sauce. The bread sticks are always toasty and fresh. The sangria is hit or miss, but when it's on it's awesome. Pastabilities offers a few Italian beers and lots of Illinois wine. The waitstaff seems to draw heavily from Millikin and the servers are always pleasant and chatty. Most of the entrees are under $15.

Central Illinois Life Round-up #10

A mom's life is having a tough time finding a hippy playgroup. Try yahoo groups! Or try the next blog, I don't think this New Yorker will judge your blue hair. While BelleNoelle is sulking in Illinois, she also seems to be making the best of the move and trying to find a playmate for her son.

Mrs. Chicken has new bloggy digs. I love her banner, it makes me giggle every visit.

Some drindle wearing fun at Oktoberfest. Some hummingbird photos as they migrate through Morton, Illinois.

Thanks for blogrolling Central Illinois Life this week!

...for she loved much.
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Furrow Winery and Red Barn Pumpkin Patch, El Paso

Today I took my son to play at the Furrow Winery's Red Barn Pumpkin Patch. We had a blast! Admission is $3 per child and parents get in free. The children's play area is super fun. They have a bounce house, a swing set, slides for tots and bigger kids, a speed boat (sunk into the ground), a tractor, an old school bus cab, a hay fort, a petting zoo, and a corn maze. I would have paid $3 just for the maze. We spent half our time wandering lost through the corn.
Red Barn has a big selection of pumpkins, both picked and in the field. At 29 cents a pound they are a bargain too. We got a gorgeous 13 lb white, orange, and green striped pumpkin and two tiny pumpkins for $4.50.

There were 3 kindergarten classes there today and they were having a ball. The straw castle area was swarming with children, but I got a photo while they were eating lunch.
The tractor and the petting zoo were not a big hit with H, but I think he wanted to just be in the fray of kindergartners. And in the corn maze. He loved, loved, loved running around the corn maze.

Oh! Tractor train rides are also included in the admission price. My son got a big kick out of driving around the farm in these little train cars.

The pumpkin patch is well marked from Hwy 251 north of El Paso. We found it easily. The only negative was that the porta potties were very full today so we resorted to an emergency diaper. The staff was friendly, the play area was clean, the pumpkins were beautiful and inexpensive.

Before we left, I stopped at the winery shop for an award winning bottle of Panther Creek Red. This weekend Furrow Winery will be celebrating Oktoberfest with their special release wine (only 250 cases available) food and live music. This weekend would be excellent to take your children to the pumpkin patch and come back for Oktoberfest!

Utah Phillips performance, Bloomington

Utah Phillips will be performing at the McLean County Museum of History in downtown Bloomington Friday, October 12th at 7 pm. Tickets are $20 first come first serve at the door. Utah Phillips no longer tours as much so this is a treat and you should take advantage of the opportunity.

Evergreen Cemetery Discovery Walk, Bloomington

I just found out about the Evergreen Cemetery Discovery Walk which is coming up this weekend. It's a unique history performance where volunteers research and act out local people who are buried at Evergreen Cemetery. This year's event will focus on those who have contributed to Illinois State University.

The McLean County Museum of History spends 11 months preparing for the event by researching the characters, writing the script, auditioning and rehearsing the actors, creating costumes, and then managing the performances. Wow, what a huge undertaking! The audience gets to walk around the cemetery for 90 minutes and see the actors dramatizing the lives of Jesse Fell, Edwin Bakewell, Angeline Vernon Milner, Henry McCormick, Elizabeth Mitchell Christian, and several others.

Performances will take place September 29 and 30, and October 6 and 7 at 11 am and 2 pm. Tickets can be purchased in advance for $12 at the museum ($10 for members and $4 for children and students) or $14 at the gate of the cemetery one hour before each show.

Wettstein's Organic Farm, Carlock

I've told you about some great local butchers in Central Illinois, but what if you want to get even closer to the source and get incredible locally grown organic hand raised meat? Meat that will make you swoon.

Try the Wettstein's family farm near Carlock for out of this world poultry and beef. The Wettstein's have been featured by Farm Aid and are located a short drive from Bloomington-Normal. Take your family and tour the farm with the charming Wettstein children before you make your purchases. You'll see chickens eating loads of bugs and moved to fresh grass daily. You can walk all over a beautiful diversified farm with many different animals. It's like disappearing into a children's book.

Be ready to stock up while you are there because once you get home and taste the steaks, eggs, or chicken you'll wish you had purchased more. As good as the beef is at Eastside Market in Decatur or Walnut Street Deli in Le Roy, the steaks from the Wettstein's farm will completely trump any you've ever had. They also offer pork and lamb which I've not tried.

Dennis and Emily Wettstein RR # 1 — Carlock, (309) 376-7291. Since it's a family farm you should probably call ahead to see what meat is available and get directions.

Starved Rock Adventures, Ottawa

This weekend was the most fun I've had in years. Our hosts plan great group trips, like a weekend at Cedar Point immedately before their wedding. This trip was in honor of our friend T's birthday and everyone had an excellent time.

We were able to join the trip for Saturday and Sunday, but the houseboat was rented from Thursday to Sunday. Saturday morning the golfers did their thing. We all met up around 2 pm to leave the marina and sail to the island where we would spend the night. The boat rental company owns a small island where you can park the houseboat overnight and watch the barges go by.

We spent the evening playing bean bags (alternatively known as cornhole), enjoying all the good brews everyone brought, listening to music, and catching up. There were friends from college there we usually only see once a year and some we haven't even seen that much. I swam in the river for awhile. It wasn't as yucky as I expected. At sunset the guys built a bonfire and we spent the rest of the night sitting around talking about pregnancies, babies, hobbies, work, and college stories that always get trotted out for laughs.

It was so relaxing to not be in charge of anyone or anything. I didn't say "Stop that" or "Be careful" for a good 26 hours. We did have big excitement when a very large barge came by in the opposite direction as the other barges. The anchors started coming out of the sand and the boat went sideways. But we recovered and got the boat straightened out and anchored much better around trees.

This was a great weekend activity for adults. One major thing was the expense though. We contributed what we could to the hosts for the weekend. But if you look at the Starved Rock Adventure website prices, those are not the actual cost. The actual cost is significantly more because of all the add ons you have to pay for once you are there that are not included in the web price (insurance, john boat, etc).

Good Morning, Illinois River

B and I are off to Starved Rock for the weekend. I'll report back on houseboating Monday. While it's not exactly Central Illinois, it IS south of I-80.

Central Illinois Round-up #9

My dad took me to many, many high school and ISU football games as a child. And later when I marched in the band on Friday nights he was always there. Did you get out your sweatshirts last week and enjoy a little small town Friday night football? I did, and so did Chambana Fanna Fo Fanna. Put them away again this weekend.

Some of my fondest childhood memories are working on the Pinto with my dad. This photo is probably 1978, my dad was B's age. Analog Periphery writes a moving post on the automotive section and his father.

I also installed and sanded a lot of drywall with my dad.

My dad did his good grandpa deed of the year this summer by hosting my teenage nephew in Maine. I think he'd enjoy this poem from Hilton Hightower.

According to my dad, this is about how new houses are built in Indianapolis. That really tickles me.

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I have a question for you! I always wanted to try Hubers on Church St in Champaign but never have. Is it worth the time and the trip? What kind of place will I find?

Eat meat like a local

Two restaurants that make me feel like a local on a night out are Caboose Smokehouse in Bloomington and Tom's Grill in Decatur. They share a lot of features including an exterior that makes you say, "We're gonna eat here?!?" and a dim interior dominated by a bar.

Tom's Grill looks like any rough and tumble package liquor from Main Street. But park in back and walk through the hallway plastered in family photos and you'll discover one of the most unique dining experiences in D-town. For starters it's got an old school mobster feel to the red leather booths and they bring an appetizer set up to the table with pickled beets. B and I were unsure what to make of this the first time. I usually order a steak there and it's really good. It's not overly seasoned (unlike Roadhouse's salty steaks) and always cooked to order (if you order rare it will truly be rare, not medium rare). Once I got the prime rib on special and it was really good too.

The Caboose Smokehouse lives up to it's advertisements, "Hard to find, easy to love." It is way off the beaten track in a residential area west of Illinois Weslyan. It's prettier than Tom's from the outside and you can smell the smoker a block away. Inside it is also a dimly lit bar with great meals. Last time B and I went we were both pleased with every aspect of the meal, especially the steak and ribs, and could have stayed and played darts all night. It would be a fun place to see live music, which they have every week.

Bread Stretchers, Springfield

One of the things I was most looking forward to on my trip to Springfield earlier this week was eating a sandwich at my old favorite, Bread Stretchers. I hoped the sandwiches would be as good as they were 4 years ago when I stopped working in Springfield. I was pleased to find their subs are even better now than they used to be. They have more bread choices and the wheat bread is delicious and soft. I ate a Chick's Pick (chicken salad) and really enjoyed it.

Bread Stretchers offers 9 inch sandwiches in a half load ($4.41) full load ($5.34) or the motherload ($7.52). You can also get salads, soups, and hot subs, but I stick to the cold subs.

I like to sit in a window seat and watch the downtown foot traffic. You can also scope out new places to explore because it seems almost every storefront has changed since I last ate at Bread Stretchers.

Sugar Grove Nature Center, Funks Grove

Sometimes a road trip yields unexpected surprises. Today's was no different. We wound our way through the country enjoying the golden corn and browning beans. We counted tractors and combines and sang Old MacDonald as loud as we could. I had printed out a Google map route for our destination, but missed a turn. I thought one country road is the same as the next around here, so I made my next right on a gravel road figuring it would meet up with the next part of the route a few miles north. Surprise! It did not, we landed smack dab in the middle of an industrial hog farm. Whoops! So we turned around and took the NEXT right and did find our way back to the route. Our target destination this morning was the Sugar Grove Nature Center near Funks Grove. We parked and made our way through the gourd tunnel following the path to the covered bridge and the woods.
In the woods there is a great play area for children with a cabin, tire horse swing, a fire pit, tractor tires, and a fort.We had a grand time exploring and climbing.
Walking back toward the nature center itself there are beautiful prairie vistas.

The nature center is a great place for small children. There was a tent to play in, lots of terrariums and aquariums, a reading nook, a sand table, and a "Nut House" with many puppets. I liked the bird sanctuary but my son was more interested in running hither and yon. So much tactile exploration to do here!

Remember the contest I mentioned Friday? Here's the 411. Write about your own Illinois road trip and enter to win a navigation system. Enter here.

Casey's, Oakland

On a reader tip from Midlife Mutations, I stopped to try the chocolate doughnuts at the Casey's in Oakland on Hwy 133 this weekend. These gas station doughnuts are REALLY good. They are super chocolaty and were very fresh and had a hint of clove in them.

I took a quick detour around the Oakland square and saw this wonderful and curious public water fountain. A lion! Does anyone have information on this water fountain? They also had a building labeled Public Restroom. I can't imagine seeing that anywhere else but a town with a population of 1,000.

Oakland is on the google map, and now I'm off to Springfield.

Central Illinois Life Round-up #8

Wouldn't this emerald nugget necklace look awesome on a red head? Perhaps one who is having a baby any minute.

Speaking of green, Champaign has a new Green Party candidate for County Board.

All the googlers love festivals, so check out these Peoria area Oktoberfests and also head to Morton the Pumpkin Capital for the Pumpkin Festival this weekend and go again next weekend for Punkin Chuckin. People will not stop telling me about the Punkin Chuckin. B has mentioned like 10 times to tell ya'll about the punkin chuckin (they go 2 miles!).

And start thinking about your Illinois roadtrip adventures because next week I'll share a contest with you where you can win this.

Thanks for blogrolling or linking to Central Illinois Life this week!

Little Blog on the Prairie
Monkey in a Suit
A Mom's Life
The News Gazette
Chicken and Cheese

This has been an exciting week at Central Illinois Life. I've been contacted by two state agencies with events and contests to tell you about. Traffic here has more than doubled since Labor Day. And best of all, you all are commenting! I love love love to hear your thoughts.

Toddler interval training

I get so frustrated by celebrities who claim to get fit simply by chasing their kids around. So today I invented toddler interval training. I took H to a local cemetery because A) it has lots of smooth small roads to walk on now that students are using school tracks and B) it is relatively safe from vehicle traffic.

Initially I wanted to go into Bloomington and do this on Constitution Trail, but the volume of morning traffic set off my mom safety meter. So no post on the allegedly wonderful Constitution Trail, but maybe we'll venture there on a Sunday with two adults.

We set out this morning in our running shoes and the goal was to walk when H walked and run when he ran and not to turn down a race. We walked and ran and raced for 20 minutes before he wanted to be picked up. Then I put him on my shoulders and walked carrying an extra 40 pounds. We ended up doing 35-40 minutes of this and I did get my heart rate up, but did not break a sweat. On the other hand, H was wiped out and begging for a drink of water and a rest in the car.

PS not to return to my mommy blogging past, but for those that know us, H read a word yesterday. We were looking for a recipe for dinner and I handed H a printed recipe with no pictures and I didn't tell him what recipe he had. He pointed at the word beans and said, "This says beans." H is 2 3/4 and beginning to READ!

Make some friends...

Central Illinois can be a tough place to make friends. Often it seems like the people you might want to be friends with have been here forever and already know everyone they want to know and their lives are too full for new friends.

I'm the kind of person who will put myself out there to make friends. I ask my husband's co-workers whether their wives have enough friends. I have asked women bartenders out to the movies. I'm persistent. I had to invite GoneCompletelyFeral out like 4 times before she agreed, but then we had a good time with and without children in tow.

With my longest friendships dissolving since gradual school, motherhood and mistakes intervened I find a need for local friends, or at least local friendly aquaintences. And so I turn to the internet. Blogging has been a good way to meet people, luckily a few Central Illinois folks, but most are far flung.

The best way I've discovered to meet flesh and blood people in the area are Meet Up and Yahoo groups. You can meet people with some similar interest who want to get together. And that's a pretty good way to start when you don't go to church and all your classmates have moved to Chicago. For me, Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter don't have the same effect, though in a large city it might. My sister swears by Twitter for making local friends.

In conclusion, need a friend? Join a meet up group.

Weldon Springs State Park, Clinton

I took my son to Weldon Springs State Recreation area outside of Clinton on this beautiful fall morning. We had a great time walking around this well maintained park. There is a restaurant, boat launch, playground, and many picnic tables and benches every where. The Boondocks II restaurant seemed to have quite a crowd for a Tuesday. We brought our lunch so we just drove by the boat launch and restaurant area. The bathrooms were super clean for pit toilets. We parked by the playground and entered the walking trail behind it. That trail seems to go all around the lake. We saw signs for other trails as well. Lots of shore fishing spots both along the main road and in the woods.

Wonderfully maintained wood chip and gravel path around the lake mainly in the woods.
Super nice fire pits. We ate our lunch here and were besieged by flies.
Veterans Memorial. I hadn't given much thought to today's date until we climbed a hill out of the woods and saw a clearing surrounded by flags. The main flags on the lake were at half mast. B and I were on our honeymoon in Canada six years ago today with no access to TV and were buffered from the 9-11 images.

Mexican restaurants, Urbana, Springfield, Clinton

I told you we eat a lot of Mexican food. Here I go again with our old and new favorites.

In Urbana we like El Toro on Cunningham. It's easy to get to from the interstate, the service is lightening fast, the food is awesome, and all the waitstaff are super smiley towards children. I think it was opened by the original singing waiter from El Matador in Decatur. Those El Matador guys, they leave and open the nicest, most family friendly restaurants.

The first time a coworker suggested we eat at Xochimilco in Springfield I thought we'd be having Japanese. But it turned out to be a nice little Mexican restaurant in a strip mall on the west side. The original Xochimilco (I pronounce it So-She-Milk-O but that's probably wrong) is pretty similar to El Rodeo in Decatur. Serviceable but not stellar. I do really like the stand alone Xochimilco on the east side, especially for a late evening adults only meal. It's a fun place, more bar like than most Mexican restaurants.

We just discovered El Ray in Clinton. This tiny restaurant seems to be a refurbished Long John Silvers. It is a sit down restaurant but we had such super fast service it made our heads spin. Our son had a kid's burrito and rice plate which was nearly adult sized for like $3. B had the Fajita Quesadilla which was exactly the same as (west side) Fiesta in Bloomington and very similar to the beloved Mi Pueblito in Decatur. I had the Chili Colorado, which was not very good. The steak had not been cooked in the mole and the mole was very tomatoey instead of chocolaty. The mole was just drizzled on the meat.

I'm definitely willing to try again and see if I can find out what is really good. For us the location is very convenient and when you include the Ultimate Play Space in the trip, it's better than Fiesta with a side of Wal-mart. It took many meals at Fiesta to find the Pollo Encremada, which is out of this world.

Pumpkin Patches

Within the next couple weeks pumpkin patches will be opening all over Central Illinois.

The Great Pumpkin Patch is the mother of all pumpkin patches near Arthur. Definitely worth the drive for a huge variety of pumkins and gourds. This is a great family day in the country. It's pretty packed on the weekends, so if you can hit it on a beautiful weekday you will really enjoy yourself.

Gail's Pumpkin Patch is east of Lincoln and opens Sept 15th. The Berry Patch is more than just a pumpkin patch, you can get berries there during the summer too. The Berry Patch is off Rte 54 on Lynn Road near Buffalo Hart in Sangamon County. Pumpkin Works near Paris is outside my usual territory, but it has 11 mazes! Black Bart's Pumpkin Patch outside Warrensburg opens later in the season, not until Sept 21st, and it includes a haunted house. Black Bart's is located between Warrensburg and Latham off Rt. 121.

Fall Festivals in Central Illinois

Google, you love the festivals, dontcha? Here's a list of September festivals in the Central Illinois counties I generally cover. This information largely comes from the 2007 Central Illinois Visitors Guide put out by the Tourism Development Office in Springfield.

Today you can still make it to:
Atlanta Fall Festival. Just off I-55 you'll find a carnival, auction, petting zoo, a car show, and craft vendors.
37th Annual Broom Corn Festival in downtown Arcola. It features broom making demonstrations, art, crafts, street and food vendors, 5 & 10 K walk, carnival.
Taste of Country Fair and Festival. Off I-55 north of Bloomington-Normal in Lexington. Features a juried fine art show, antiques, crafts, and live entertainment.
Annual Juried Fine Art & Craft Fair at Washington Park in Springfield. Artists from all over the Midwest sell art. Plus a carillon performance!

Sept 14-16 Abraham Lincoln Railsplitting Festival: Logan County Fairgrounds, Lincoln.
Sept 14-16 Arts in Central Park: Downtown Decatur. Juried arts festival. This is a great one!
Sept 14-16 NBRA Short Course Nationals: Bethany at the Wilborn Creek Recreation Area. Hydroplane boat races.
Sept 14-16 Tower Hill Fall Festival: Tower Hill Park. Car show, tractor pull, produce parade.
Sept 15 Prairie Stories: Lake of the Wood Forest Preserve, Mahomet. Families can engage in work from an earlier time.
Sept 15-16 Railroad Days: Monticello Railway Museum. Train rides! Train rides! Train rides! Awesome event for railroad lovers.
Sept 15-16 Edwards Place Fine Art Fair: Springfield. 100 artisians sell crafts on the grounds of the Edwards Place.
Sept 15-16 Balloon Fest: Eagle Creek State Park, Findlay. Hot air balloon festival and dock party.
Sept 16 Bob Galloway Memorial Amish Country Bicycle Ride: Arthur countryside. Ride your bike 1 or 100 miles though the Amish farmlands.

Sept 19-22 Pygmalion Music Festival: Champaign Urbana. Huge music festival with something like 70 live bands. Definitely something to get excited about.
Sept 22 Celebration: Downtown Monticello. Live music, pet parade, children's activities, food, art & craft vendors.

Sept 28-30 International Route 66 Mother Road Festival: Downtown Springfield. Live entertainment, HUGE antique car show.
Sept 29-30 Apple 'N Pork Festival: Clinton. Museum tour, great food, entertainment and crafts.
Sept 29-30 Wine and Cheese Festival: Rockome Gardens, Arcola. Illinois wines, cheese and jazz festival.
Sept 30, Oct 7 & 14 Oconee Fall Festival: Oconee. Hayrides, maze, crafts, pumpkins, and zoo.

Ultimate Play Space, Clinton

Last week my sister and I were driving around Clinton, Illinois on a blog research trip and boy were we impressed. The downtown area is much bigger and nicer than I expected. There seems to be some love for the square and lots of renovation going on in nearby commercial buildings. We saw one particular building with gorgeous copper work going up outside.

Why were we in Clinton? Specifically to visit the Ultimate Play Space! Located behind the YMCA is a 13 acre park with a elaborate wooden play area (fenced in!) plus a sprinkler park plus porto-potties, plus swing and the older equipment. The Ultimate Play Space is separated into a Tot Lot and an area for bigger kids. Awesome! I didn't get any photos, but you can check out the Chamber of Commerce website and photos here. Once you turn onto Alexander off Rte 54, it's a quick left following the sign for Kiwanis Park. It almost looks like you are turning into an alley or the Y parking lot.

Addendum! B is a great sport and we returned to the Ultimate Play Space this evening to test it out. It was awesome! This is such a nice park and our son had a blast running with the herds of children. Here are some of the pictures I took. The Tot Lot was a big hit for H. Perfectly sized steps and all kinds of fun hiding places. Very nice materials and deep soft mulch. These photos show about 1/3 of the big kid play structure. It was huge and packed with children. You can see the sprinkler park in the distance.Some older equipment is spread out over 13 acres of lawn. I thought the motorcycle club brick was humorous.
Hopefully we can make it back for the Apple and Pork Festival, September 29 & 30, the quintessential Midwestern fall festival. If you like crafts you'll love the Apple and Pork festival. Myself, I love apples and pork so I go for the food and stay for the art.

Old Movie Theaters

Growing up I watched a lot of movies at the old Indiana Theater with its ornate lobby, marble stairs, ladies lounge, and a giant balcony. I adore seeing movies on one big screen and feeling a connection to the past.

I haven't found any grand theaters like the Indiana here, but there are some well loved old theaters where you can enjoy the true big screen.

The Avon is a wonderful old theater with a balcony where you can see both first run mainstream movies and independent movies. B and I used to go every single week no matter what was showing. We had our seats with extra leg room in the balcony and a tub of their awesome real butter popcorn to share. One thing I loved about the Avon was that you could (and probably still can) e-mail the owner and request movies. I remember seeing a review for Monsoon Wedding and asking Skip about getting it and he did.

The Princess Theatre in Le Roy is another wonderful old theater with a great big screen. They show family movies on the weekends and can also host special events. How cool would it be to screen an old favorite there? Too bad the website is not up to date on their schedule.
Super Bad is playing this weekend (9-14/15)

Central Illinois Life Round-up #7

Victor is . . . sure to be a double domer.

Mulch, mulch, mulch, mulch. Charge!

A mostly red take on a mostly blue state.

The eyebrows are the window dressing of the . . . keys?

Tantrums and beer, sounds like a fun house.

West Park, McLean County

I found this small park in rural McLean County recently and returned today to take pictures. It's a creepy spot, perfect for teenagers who want to hang out undisturbed. Until the man with a hook for a hand comes to kill them!

"This park was donated to McLean County by Simeon Henry West on the 10th of September 1906 for a forest preserve and is dedicated to the lovers of forestry for all coming time."
The park has a small shelter with a fireplace and a couple picnic tables. There are two grills, a possible outhouse, and a water pump without its handle. The trees are really huge here. According to the McLean County website they are old growth. It also says there is a nature trail, but we didn't find it.

Mostly it's just trees and grass. You could tell it had been mowed recently and there were several piles of downed limbs, so the county must maintain it somewhat. The birds were going nuts while we were there. It sounded like a lively bird habitat.
The most interesting part was the messages written on the building.

I'll do my best to mark it on the google map. I took photos of the road signs nearby so I should be able to get pretty close.

Simeon Henry West links:

Deer Park, TX history

An ardent spiritualist

Say Cheese! Arthur Country Cheese Festival

And cheese
Oh, the Cheese Tent. I wonder what's going on. Free cheese perhaps?

No. A cheese eating contest!

The guy in the green won by eating a pound of cheese in 3 minutes 10 seconds. B says, that's a snack not a contest.

We take a break for air conditioned Amish grocery shopping. We got Blueberry Butter, Tomato Jam, Blueberry Cheddar, Horseradish Cheddar, and some kind of hot pepper cheese for $18.We made it back outside just in time for Cheese Curling. Too bad we were only 3 people, we really wanted to curl.At the end of the day we wave goodbye to the 4 wheel cheese mobile.