Visiting Bonnie

We decided to go to Signature Indian Restaurant for dinner.  It was very good.  But we had way too much food.

We had plenty of left-overs to take home.  I think that they must not have a lot of customers because the owner came over and gave us 2 free desserts.  We could not eat them. So we decided to give them as hostess gifts to Bonnie.

Dinner was a little faster than expected so we stopped by Lake St Louis.  It was a pretty lake.  But it had this section that had a wall around it and a little gorge. Not sure of the purpose of the wall.

One of the reasons for this road trip was to visit Bonnie.  She used to live in Ely.  I knew her as well, from my visits to see Jeanne.  Bonnie has moved to live with her son and his wife in this newly built gorgeous home. We had a very nice visit.  

We left there about 10 pm.  It was nice to catch up.

Carlinville, IL to O'Fallon, Missouri

We had a bowl of cereal for breakfast at the Carlin Villa.  Then we headed off to see the the Blackburn College campus.

Gosh!! It was totally dead.  I guess Sunday morning everyone is sleeping.  Nothing was open.  Most of the building were locked.  We did manage to get into the Science building.  It has changed a lot since I was there.  Fun to see.

My dorm.  I was on the top floor, left in back.

In the science building, models designed by Pop Jewell (a retired doctor who helped students) 

My favorite professor

I worked for Dr Singh

We went into the green house where I spent many hours taking care of the plants.  We got locked in there accidentally, but luckily the outside door was not locked.  

The school mascot

A few years ago we were asked to buy a brick, as a fundraiser.  Here is mine.  

We wandered all over campus.  We got into 2 classroom buildings.  When we were leaving, around 10:30 am we finally saw a few people.  Even the cafeteria was not open.

Then we drove out to Beaver Dam Lake. That was fun.  The weather was perfect.

We walked part way around the lake.  This was a big hang out for some people.  I think I only went there a couple of times.  It was a 7 mile hike from campus.

Then we got back to the motel and checked out.  We had bought a can of Taylor's Chili, and had that for lunch.  

Yummy.  Just as good as I remembered.  Very tasty.

Then we headed off towards St Louis.  We are staying at a Holiday Inn Express in O'Fallon, northwest of St Louis.  

Arch drive by pictures. We plan to go there tomorrow.  We got to the hotel and checked in.  

Verona, WI to Carlinville, IL

After breakfast we headed off to the Verona library so that the kids could check out their books for the week.

It was a cool library.  

Then we went to Epic, where Laura works.  They have been expanding and putting in more buildings.  It is cool because each building has a different theme and they have put a lot of thought into keeping the theme throughout the whole building.  Laura works in the Jungle themed building.  We did not go there because we have been there before.  We went to the Fantasy House, Alice in Wonderland and the Wizarad of Oz.  We ran out of time.  

Rapunzel's hair

don't climb the hair

Door to a small meeting room.

A lot of cool art work on the walls.

A ghostly picture.  This is what it looks like until you get at exactly the right angle and then you see the ghost.

There was a cool slide going down the rabbit hole.  I took a movie.  I will add it later. It was fun.

Alice in Wonderland

The emerald city

The yellow brick road.

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!!

glass

Tristan found Pokemon Go much more fasinating.

The gingerbread house is still under construction.

We ran out of time and could not go to the Harry Potter building.

Epic is an amazing place to work.  It is growing all the time. 

We went home for lunch.

Then Jeanne and I left for our drive to Carlinville.  We wanted to have dinner at Taylor's Chili.  We used to eat there when we were in college.  Pretty amazing chili.  We checked on-line and found that it was open until 3 am.  So no problem.  My mouth was watering just thinking about it.

We got to the motel a little after 6 pm and found out where the closest grocery store was.  We needed to buy some liquid refreshments for the next few days in the hotels.  It was so cheap that we might have bought more than what we needed.  We shall see.  At least Jeanne can take whatever we don't use home. We walked down to the square.

In the downtown square a Lion's club festival was going on.

I took this because of the EPIC sign.  

We went to Taylor's Chili, right on the square.  Argh!! It was closed, and it was going to be closed on Sunday as well.  Just can't trust websites.  We went back to the grocery store and luckily they had it available so we bought some and we will have it for lunch tomorrow.  It is not available anywhere else.  Not quite the same but I hope it will be ok.

So we went to the Fairway right across the street from the motel and had a steak instead.  

Back to the motel.