Date: 08/31/2019
Miles: 200
Today we left my cousin’s place in Paxton, Illinois and got breakfast. Where we stoped in Paxton, Arcade Pancake House, we all looked at the menu and decided to get skillets. Luckily we did, because they were all so delicious!
From there we headed north on Illinois State Route 47. It was damn near straight north. Very minimal turns. We didn’t see too much of anything new until we arrived at the railroad museum. There is literally so much corn and soy out here! It’s sort of crazy how much there is.
It took about three hours to get to the Illinois Railroad Museum. Christian asked if we could stop at the railroad museum which is why that was a stop on our route. We all got there not knowing much of what to expect. Well, after walking around a little bit, I think it was a great thing that we went. It was really cool!
We took a ride on one of the rail cars that was powered by an old restored coal fired steam locomotive. The three of us find it fascinating that these things are as old as they are and the engineering and manpower that went into designing and building them! We were there several hours walking around checking out the locomotives. Some of them are MASSIVE! The one in the barn is 975,000lbs where Christian is standing. The drive wheels are 80″ tall. I think it’s wild how well these were constructed considering the era. I’m definitely glad we went! Good call Christian!
After we left, I got a couple good photos of old barns along the way. We tried to make an hour or so worth of time towards Mount Rushmore. It’s out next big stop. By doing this we should arrive there in time on Day 7 with enough time to explore.
We finished the day in Rochelle, Illinois.
Adventures of Matty Q 