Griggsville, Illinois loves purple martins! The invasion began fifty years ago when a local antenna manufacturer decided to go into the purple martin hotel building business. Right there in the midde of Main Street is a 70-foot high, 562 unit, tower. Purple martins. which, shhh, don't actually eat mosquitoes, were everywhere in the purple martin capital of America!
09 February 2012
08 February 2012
Robert Earl Hughes
As one of those weird kids that would read the Guinness Book of World Records from cover to cover I was well aware of the legend of Robert Earl Hughes. This trip gave me a chance to pay my respects to him.
When he was six years old Robert Earl Hughes weighed 200 pounds. His peak weight was estimated to be 1069 pounds but the heaviest he ever weighed on a scale was 1041. Hughes made a living by appearing at events, signing autographed photos of himself and hitting the carnival show circuit as a sideshow attraction. By all accounts he loved the work. He got to travel and talk to lots more people there than he ever would have in the nearly non-existent town of Fishhook. At 32 Hughes contracted measles and died from complications from that disease. He is buried next to his parents in the Benville Cemetery, a couple miles north of his hometown of Fishhook.
The Washington Times-Reporter has a great four-part (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4) biography of Hughes.
As a special bonus, while looking for information about Hughes I was pleased to find the AOL Benville Traffic Report. All you really need to know about traffic conditions in Benville is on this map.
07 February 2012
The Gems Of Quincy
Our first destination in Illinois was to see a Quincy Gems baseball game. Before I get to the baseball let me just say to any Bay Staters reading that there is no "z" in Quincy, Illinois. The Gems play in the Prospect League, a summer league for college players. The quality of play wasn't all that great but the fans were having a good time.
I was really tired by this time of the very hot day and that tiredness shows through in these photos (or lack of photos). The baseball stadium was one of FDR's Works Progress Administration projects as a baseball and football complex and is built out of a serious amount of local limestone.
The best part of the game was the post-game fireworks. Even though it was the July 4th weekend I didn't have high hopes for a quality show. Boy, was I wrong! Donna and I left to get dinner in the middle of the game. The game was still going on when we returned so we picked a location on the other side of the football stadium that we thought would have a good view of the fireworks. That worked out perfectly. We sat on someone's lawn and watched one explosion after another for quite a while.
06 July 2011
All Over the Place
Ack! I think I've bit off more than I can chew. I'm a bit overwhelmed by the places I've been to and the photos I've taken over the past few months. There's the trip to Washington and Oregon, a daytrip in the Hudson Valley, an upstate New York trip, and this past weekend's trip to Missouri and Illinois. There's also photos from several bike rides around town and my sister's visit. While this is hardly one of life's bigger problems, I am perplexed as to how to put all these photos online in a timely fashion. As long as I don't eat more of those horseshoe sandwiches (thanks, Marie) I should live long enough to get through them all.
05 July 2011
Fireworks Over Quincy
Have you ever flown over the country on the evening of the 4th of July? Everyone should do so at least once. Flying home last night it looked like every town had at least one official fireworks display and several unofficial shows. The sight is subtle from 37,000 feet but impressive nonetheless.
These terrible photos are from the fireworks display after the Quincy (Il) Gems baseball game on Saturday night. I wasn't sure what to expect but they put on a great show.
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