Abraham Lincoln and the Flea Market.....

Bill and I got up early and headed to Altamont, IL to the flea market that is open there all summer on the weekends. It has been open for the least 5 years or so. In fact, Bill worked there for the first few years it was open, running Wild Bill's Concessions and serving the customers corndogs, curly fries, and lemon shake ups, just to name a few. We have been to this flea market many times through the years, but it had been a while. It was a beautiful day, with 80 degree temps and no humidity. We had fun browsing through the many booths and bought a few useful items, like a marble based cheese slicer.....couldn't live without it! We also bought a cold pack canner and some kitchen utensils. For lunch they were serving chili dogs, so we had one and cupcakes for dessert. (Well, ok, I had mini-cupcakes, Bill had pineapple upside down cake, that we bought at a bake sale that was going on at the flea market too) We looked around some more then headed to Vandalia.

Vandalia is just down the road from Altamont, and is, in fact, only 30 minutes from my house. Vandalia is where the first capital building of Illinois is located. Abe Lincoln served there in 1839 when he first entered into his political career in the house of representatives. The building is very well preserved, although some of it had to be rebuilt due to a fire that destroyed some of the flooring. Many of the items were the original furnishings present during the time Abe Lincoln served there. We enjoyed each room, as it was furnished and decorated like Abe himself was to be there any minute. The curator showed us around and let us go into the roped off rooms and really looks at things, it was very interesting. We had quite a long chat with her and she was very knowledgeable about all things Abe Lincoln and the history of the building and the area. On the second floor were two large rooms at the top of the winding staircase. One room was where the senate would meet and the other one was where the representatives would meet. Each room had long wooden tables, with ink wells, quill pens and parchment papers laying on them. There were 6 Ben Franklin type wood stoves in these large rooms for the cold Illinois winters. Anyway, Bill and I had a little chuckle as we stood looking into the Senate meeting room......I told him it was just like watching C-span....the senate is in session, but no one was there....:-) Anyway, enough of the history......here is a link with a short description of the beautiful Capital building, and a little history.

Illinois State house

We left the state house and headed across the bridge behind it to the Fayette County museum. It was full of wonderful things from the past. We spent a very long time in there looking at everything and talking to the tour ladies. So, again, to save some time, here is a link to the museum and some pictures on the left side of the screen.

Fayette County Museum, Vandalia, IL

By now, we are hungry so we headed to Jay's Lounge and Restaurant, which is right next door to the Jay's Inn.....yes, the Jay's Inn......We had a fun little waitress and the food was some great down home cooking. Bill had shrimp and new potatoes, grilled with green peppers and onion, salad, hot rolls. I had marinated chicken breast, baked potatoe, salad and hot rolls. We had a few Miller light beers too and enjoyed the old building the restaurant was in. The walls were all old barn wood, and the tables and floors were large planked wood slabs. It was a fun place to eat, we had never been there before. So, that was our day, and it was great fun as always with Bill. Oh, and at 9:00 p.m. we went to the store for ice cream.....'cause, ya know, we were back in Mayberry where little kids are running around bare-footed in the grocery store at 9:00 at night buying candy, and the old folks were buying Klondike bars....