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I have created some entries on Worldisround where you will find pictures from my trip:

Highlights

Heading to Chicago

Wednesday August 4 -

I have to wonder why it took me more than three years to write up this trip summary.  Especially when it has entries like this one:

I had an early, uneventful flight to Chicago.  I picked up my rental car at the airport and headed south to my sister's place where I spent the night with her and her family.  Well, except for my niece, who was in Minneapolis visiting my parents.

Reagan Sites - Part 1

Thursday August 5 -

The Ronald Reagan Trail is essentially an association of small towns in north central Illinois, mostly along or near Illinois Highway 29, that have some connection to Ronald Reagan, who was born in Tampico.  Of course, some of the towns were more strongly connected than others.  

My first stop was in Princeton, a quintessential small Midwestern town, complete with grain elevators, diner, and train tracks.  Princeton's connection to Reagan?  Well, according to the Ronald Reagan Trail brochure I have, "On his travels to college, Ronald Reagan would pass through the unique community of Princeton."  But it is centrally located on the Ronald Reagan Trail, so it is as good a place to start as any.  Early settlers were from Massachusetts, which is reportedly reflected in its architecture.  Many homes in town were part of the Underground Railroad before the Civil War.  Nearby is the Bureau County Red Covered Bridge.  Originally built in 1863, it is one of only five covered bridges in Illinois.

After checking out the bridge, I headed north on Highway 29 and 26 until I reached the village of Ohio.  Reagan and his brother would hitchhike from here when they wanted to go to Dixon.  He would get dropped here when returning home from college with some buddies from nearby Walnut.

I made a quick stop in Walnut, home to those college buddies of Reagan.  I suspect that its bigger claim is that Walnut was the birthplace of American humorist Don Marquis.  Today a key local employer makes frozen pizza.

Finally I reached Tampico, where on February 6, 1911, Ronald Reagan was born.  A large mural on the side of one of the downtown buildings commemorates this, although Reagan looks vaguely like a tall Japanese woman in that mural.

The primary attraction is the First National Bank Building.  Jack Reagan rented the upstairs apartment starting in 1906.  Neil Reagan was born there in 1908, and Ronald followed in 1911.  The Reagans moved out a few months later.  The apartment is open for to visitors, so I took the tour, which shows off the entire apartment, including the room where the future president was born.

The Reagans then moved to a nearby house where they stayed for a few years.  A sign marks it as President Reagan's Boyhood Home, but it is a private residence, so treat them, their property and privacy respectfully should you go take a look at it.  The village also features the site of the Pitney Store, where Jack Reagan clerked, St. Mary's Catholic Church, where Jack Reagan and son Neil attended services, and the Church of Christ, where Ronald and his mother attended services.  The Reagans eventually left Tampico, then returned a few years later, and then settled in Dixon.

That wrapped up this round of sightseeing.  I reached Cedar Rapids, IA and my brother's house at around 4.  We got caught up.  I had a bit of nightlife at Club Basix, a decent gay bar for a one-bar town, but the Thursday night crowd was a lot smaller than I would have expected.

Iowa

Friday August 6  -

I spent part of the day visiting with my grandma and uncle.

I was born in Cedar Rapids, and lived there until I was 8, so I also spent some time checking out some childhood-related sites and getting digital photos of them for my archives.

Back to Club Basix, which was terribly slow.  It turns out that there is a new gay bar in what is fundamentally a one-bar town.  (I figured that Basix would be gone within a year, but at last check it is still hanging in there.)

Saturday August 7 -

My high school Class of 1979 held its 25th anniversary reunion tonight in Oelwein, about 50 miles north of Cedar Rapids.  When we moved back to Iowa in 1976, we spent about 9 months living in a trailer in Hazleton while our house was being built before moving to Oelwein itself.  I headed up early so I could check out both towns, again getting some digital photos of highlights of those years (if you could call them that).  Oelwein was the biggest small town in northeast Iowa when we moved there, but its downtown has undergone a steady decline, something unfortunately common to a lot of small towns.  Where there had once been a decent collection and variety of businesses today features a Dollar store, a Goodwill store and a handful of consignment shops.  A couple of the old businesses hang in there - Schuchmann's Pharmacy, Hub City Bakery, First National Bank.  But there's not much of anything to draw people there today.

About 40 classmates and 30 spouses showed up for the reunion.  A little smaller than I had expected.  A couple people from my small high school circle were there, but most of the people I would have liked to have seen again didn't show up.  More people seemed to remember me than I remembered them - but in 9th grade I was the new kid in my class, which made me stand out to them, whereas the couple hundred classmates I met that year were mostly a blur.  There was nothing in the way of activities at the reunion to push much in the way of interaction, so folks mostly seemed to sit down to dinner with the same people they hung out with in high school.  The folks in my little circle left shortly after 8.  I didn't see much point in sticking around, so I left shortly after they did.

I headed back to Cedar Rapids and headed for the new bar, the Dragon Night Club, located in downtown Cedar Rapids.  Although it bills itself as an "alternative" nightclub, it was mostly filled with gay men, lesbians, and straight women bridal parties.  Decent place, although the crowd was youngish, and the music clearly targeted them.

I got a real surprise there, though.  An old bar buddy of mine from Dayton was there - Ted - whom I had met years ago through a mutual friend.  I had last seen him 2 1/2 years ago, not long before I moved from Dayton to Seattle.  I hadn't seen him out in any of my return visits to Dayton, but then he didn't seem to go out all that often.  He was as surprised to see me as I was him.  Turns out he had just relocated to Cedar Rapids for work, and this in fact was his first night out in a local bar.  I enjoyed catching up with him - which made up for the indifference I felt at the reunion.

Reagan Sites - Part 2

Sunday August 8 -

Today I drove back to my sister's place near Chicago, making three stops along the way.

The first was a short stop at the Rock Creek Covered Bridge near Morrison.  Not a lot to see there.

Next up was the town of Dixon, IL.  The Reagan family moved here in 1920 when Ronald Reagan was 9.  The Ronald Reagan Boyhood Home is located at 816 S. Hennepin - a statue of the president stands nearby.  The grade school Reagan attended was just a few blocks up the street.  

Reagan became a swimmer and then a lifeguard, working at Lowell Park on the Rock River where he reportedly saved 77 lives.  I have to say that the number seems high, given that I've never once seen a lifeguard actually save one.  Maybe the people of Dixon were just really poor swimmers.

A handful of Reagan-related sites are scattered around the town, including some artwork, a sculpture, and a segment of what looks like the Berlin Wall.  It's not really the Berlin Wall, though, only a sculpture to honor the president's "Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down This Wall!" speech.

My last stop was in Wheaton, where I lived from age 8 to age 14.  I was going for digital photos of sites related to those years, and got quite a few.  As well as a big surprise - the high school I had briefly attended there, Wheaton-Warrenville High School, was no more.  The building was still there, and it was still a high school.  But given the Tigers mascot, and it apparently had been taken over by the folks from arch-enemy Wheaton Central when they closed that school down.  I'm not sure why Wheaton-Warrenville had to lose its identity as a result, but that's not something I dwell on.

Dinner, conversation and TV wrapped up the evening at my sister's place.

Heading Home

Monday August 9 -

Family time in the morning.  Off to the airport at noon.  Home before dinner time.

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