The Illinois-Missouri Derby

I could have made the drive inside of two days had I been alone. But I had the wife and the dog, and when you’re driving the 1,164 miles between Chicago and Austin, Texas with souls on board other than your own, it’s best to make pit stops along the way.

Springfield. Kate was unimpressed with Lincoln’s home. “It looks too nice for being that old,” she said.

“You would have been even more unimpressed if they’d just let nature take its course for these past 152 years,” I told her.