September Festivals!

Arcola Broom Corn Festival! Sept 5, 6, and 7. Carnival, parade, arts & crafts, live music, beer & wine. Arcola has one of the best little downtowns in central Illinois. Don't miss the great prices on antiques at the Emporium.

Bruegala! Sept 5 and 6. Eighth annual festival of international beer held at the Interstate Center in Bloomington. Over 200 beers, six bands, and a bean bags (aka corn hole) tournament. Sounds perfect to me.

Havana Oktoberfest! Sept 5 and 6. German foods, arts & crafts, and carnival. Sept. 5: Oktoberfest Parade kicks off at 6 p.m. Muddy River Brass Band, Phat Kitten. Sept. 6: Polka Pace Race and 5k Walk/Run (sign-up 6:30 a.m.) at 8 a.m., followed by pancake and sausage breakfast; 3-on-3 basketball tournament, 10 a.m.; Eddie Korosa Jr. and the Boys from Illinois, Bob Dozak Band, Still Kick'n with Angela Martin.

Mt Pulaski Fall Festival. Sept 4, 5 and 6. Civil War-era encampment. Cavalry rides in festival parade; Regiment Band performs on courthouse lawn; 1854 Cast Iron Tombstone Trial reenactment in the courthouse courtroom. You shouldn't miss the donut eating contest and central Illinois band Poprocks always puts on a killer show.

Scovill Zoo fall festival! Sept 6 and 7 in Decatur. Activities, entertainment, animals, and a teddy bear repair and picnic.

Taste of Country Fair Festival & Rt 66 Reunion, Sept 5, 6, and 7 in Lexington. Parades, juried fine art show, antiques & crafts. Local food vendors and entertainment.

Chrisman Days Celebration, Sept 5, 6, and 7 in downtown Chrisman. Fish fry, garage sales, flea market, horse show, and entertainment.

New Salem Traditional Music Festival. Sept 6 and 7. Jam sessions, bluegrass, old time music. Lincoln's New Salem historic site.

Atlanta Fall Festival. Sept 11, 12, and 13 throughout Atlanta. Features music, a carnival, free petting zoo, car show, art & craft vendors, great food and pie & cake baking contest/auction.

Abraham Lincoln National Railsplitting Festival. Sept 12, 13, and 14 at the Logan County fairgrounds in Lincoln. This is a can't miss festival with railsplitting, corn shucking, tomahawk throwing and a Civil War ball.

Tower Hill Community Fall Festival! Sept 19, 20, 21. Friday, Talent Show & Karaoke. Saturday, Car & Motorcycle Show, Tractor Show, Produce "500", Kids Competition & Games, Garden Tractor Pull, Parade, Auction, Scavenger Hunt, Live Music. Sunday, Demolition Derby!!!

The Touchstone Energy Hydrofest NBRA National Hydroplane Boat Races. Sept 19, 20, 21 at the Wilborn Creek Recreation Area. This is one of the best race sites in the country with the fastest competitors. Don't miss this exciting event.

Marshall Autumn Fest! Sept 19, 20, and 21 in downtown Marshall. Arts & crafts, car show, you get the picture.

2nd Annual Gourd Festival, Sept 20, 21 (9 am to 4:30 pm) at the Clinton Jr. High School. Gourd arts & crafts. Free.

Arts in Central Park, Sept 20, 21, and 22 in downtown Decatur. Annual juried art festival.

Railroad Days: Monticello Railway Museum, Sept 20, 21. Ride the vintage passenger and freight trains as many times as you want. $12 adults, $10 seniors, and $8 children between the ages of 2 and 12.


Apple and Pork Festival! Sept 27 and 28 in Clinton. A true fall festival prominently featuring the foods of the season. Wear sturdy shoes and don't miss the fine art booths.

World Wide Day of Play, Sept 27 in Bloomington-Normal. Tipton Park, Anderson Park, and at the Children’s Discovery Museum. HUNDREDS of exciting ways to play. Visit one or all of these three locations and enjoy free, fun activities! Everything is FREE! In addition to the activities, there will be great prizes and goodie bags.

This list is not exhaustive. Please leave a comment to add your local September festival information.

Perfect weekend get-away

It looks like Lake Shelbyville is going to be a great place to go this weekend. Unforch, we have other plans, but YOU could check out the fishing and boating there.

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

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.

Findlay Marina, Lake Shelbyville

With the cooler mornings and school starting in some districts it is clear fall is on the way. I love fall, it is my favorite season and I'm looking forward to the weather, but I still have SO many summer activities to tell you about.

While it is still over 90 degrees where can you go for a bit more summer fun? Lake Shelbyville! What I love about Lake Shelbyville is that there are so many different parks, golf courses, fishing tournaments, restaurants in one very rural area.

Findlay Marina is just one choice for renting a boat for the day. For B's 30th birthday we rented a pontoon boat and invited 4 couples to spend the day cruising around the lake. It was a blast! We boated and swam and even got pulled over by the Department of Natural Resources patrol. We arrived before lunch and returned just before dusk. And for $200 plus food and drink it was a memorable party.

I grew up fishing, but have not had the chance to fish on Lake Shelbyville. I hear it is a wonderful place to fish and worth a special trip.