Monsoon in Monticello

Here is a picture I took out the window of my car today just after leaving Monticello. Notice the soybeans in the foreground, corn beyond that, and the barn in the middle--and that's pretty much it; that's all that's out there! :-) Just kidding, once you get into town there's a little more. But getting to town today was the trick. I have never ever driven in rain like that! I've been in snowstorms when you couldn't see the road, but I've never been on the freeway when it's raining so hard that you can't see the road. It was really dark outside, even this morning at 10 a.m., and there was lightning everywhere. It felt like I was driving into a tornado. I saw a truck driving along with flashing lights, and then as I got closer I realized that it was one of those storm chaser trucks like you see on the movie "Twister." That didn't help me feel any better! By the time I finally got off the freeway, I had to take a country road for about 14 miles over to Monticello. There was so much water on the road--I thought I was going to wash away. I finally made it to the museum, and then my funny museum adventures began.

Right now, the Piatt County Museum is housed at a warehouse--an old car dealership--near the railroad tracks. They have all of their artifacts stashed upstairs in the attic, and they have serious rodent, water leakage, and temperature problems up there. I saw many things that we can include in the grant proposal I'll be writing--they need lots of help! A couple of artifacts that stood out were the bed that supposedly Ulysses S. Grant slept in one time. Boy, he sure slept in a lot of beds! It seems like everywhere I go, someone's got a bed that US Grant slept in. Supposedly there are some letters to substantiate the story that he slept in this particular bed at the Piatt County Museum, but they seem to have mysteriously disappeared. Speaking of mysterious, the weirdest thing I saw up there in the attic was a coffin. The cute lady who was showing me around said very proudly, "And here's our coffin!" She said that one of the local boys was killed during the Civil War, and his body was shipped home in this particular coffin. She then proceeded to walk over to the coffin and pop the lid open. Yiiiikes!! Luckily the guy was gone, but it was pretty nasty because the muslin stuff that his body would have been wrapped in was still there, and all this other junk at the bottom of the coffin. That totally grossed me out. She said, "Ooops! Maybe I shouldn't have opened that." My question is, where's the soldier?

Everybody at the museum is really nice, and Mrs. Fenet, who was showing me around, took me out to the site where their new museum will be located. They received an old barn from the University of Illinois, so they are going to reconstruct it there on the outskirts of town, and move everything down there. Anything will be better than where they have their stuff stored now! Then we met with the museum board members and discussed what kind of grant they want to apply for. They have no idea, so I think I'll try to digest all of the information they gave me today and try to figure out what would be best for them. They were all so kind and appreciative of what I was doing. I told them that it was a win-win situation for both of us--because I was hopefully going to get a good grade out of it, and they'll hopefully get some cash. (I'd rather get cash!) Then Mrs. Fenet took me to this funny little restaurant in town called the Brown Bag. :-) It was a cute little home cookin' type place, and they had pretty good food.

When I left town, of course it started to rain again. It was nasty, nasty weather. I took a country road out of Monticello going south and drove through a little town that I can't remember the name of (it started with an "S") and stopped at an antique store, hoping the bad rain would pass over. I realized that the bad rain wasn't going to let up though, so I decided to just head towards Charleston. It was a little nerve-racking, but I made it back. When I got home, my fingers were pried around the steering wheel, and it took a little effort to get them off. :-) I definitely had white knuckles! I was pooped after my long day (and even longer drive), so I came inside and had a nap. I have to give a talk at church tomorrow, so I'd better figure out what I'm going to say!