Fun at the Fair

Today Greg and I had a very cultural experience: we went to the Illinois State Fair! It was a nice way to unwind after quite a stressful week--and we had to fit in as much fun as we could today before Greg starts school on Monday! (He will be going to the University of Illinois-Springfield working on a degree in Chemistry.) And what says Illinois better than a giant butt cow . . . and butter Lincoln! This is probably the coolest 1,200 pounds of butter you will ever see.

Although Butter Lincoln looked a little mummy-ish.










But Butter Cow looked nice. That is a lot of butter.







After seeing the legendary butter sculptures, it was off to enjoy the culinary experience that one can only find at the Illinois State Fair. We had a freshly-made corn dog and sweet potato fries--yum. Then, Sarah will be so proud, we had Key lime pie on a stick!!! It was the most amazing thing I've ever eaten. It was literally a slice of Key lime pie covered in chocolate on a stick. Sarah will be happy to know that this chocolate covered slice of heaven came from one of her favorite places: the Key West Lime Shop in Key West, Florida!

And what do we have here? Is that a powder sugar covered corn dog? Nope. Try a fried Snickers bar! It was sinfully good. The candy bar on the inside was all melted and delicious. (I think this is maybe a once-in-a-lifetime treat.)

Mmmmmmm, gooey fried Snickers deliciousness! The same place where we got the fried candy bars also offered fried Twinkies. There were so many people there--it seemed like the entire state was at the fair today. The fried candy bar place was doing big business. So unhealthy . . . but so delicious.

When I first saw this, I did a double-take. I thought, "Is that really what I think it is?" Indeed. A giant inflatable sinking Titanic slide--probably not the most tasteful slide design they could have come up with. They at least didn't need to have it say "TITANIC" on the back of the ship. But, I guess that it is the Illinois State Fair, so they can do whatever they want. It just looked weird to see little kids laughing in joy as they slid down the deck of the ill-fated ship. It was so improper that it was kind of funny.

We had a great time at the fair today. There were cute little animals everywhere. I got to hold the cutest little baby chicken who fell asleep in my hands, and we saw these funny miniature donkeys. We also saw some really pretty horses--which brought back fond memories of when I rode Jamaica (a Welsh pony) in the Utah State Fair back in 1996. Good times. I have never seen such a large assortment of fried food offerings. We heard rumors that you could even buy fried Pepsi, but we couldn't find any. The fried candy bars were pretty epic though. All I can say is: thank goodness I don't have my gallbladder anymore!

Day of the Twisters

I have often reflected on why I am so afraid of and fascinated by tornadoes. I decided that it is probably because back in 3rd grade we read a book called Night of the Twisters at school. It is quite a scary/exciting book--and maybe that is when the fear/fascination was born. But anyway, Wednesday was our very own Day of the Twisters here in Illinois.

The National Weather Service completed a survey of the area yesterday and determined that we were actually hit by three separate tornadoes Monday afternoon. The first one was an EF1 that hit southwest of Loami. The second tornado, which hit Loami, was rated an EF2. The Loami tornado then lifted off the ground, traveled over Springfield, and then formed into a third tornado--an EF--which hit Williamsville. The EF3 tornado stayed on the ground for almost 25 miles, and at one point was a half mile in diameter! The maximum wind speed was 140 mph. A few people are still in the hospital, but luckily they think everyone will be okay. These pictures are of the tornado before it hit Loami.

And here is all that is left of my favorite antique mall, Route 66 Antiques, in Williamsville. I drove past it today, and it is literally just a pile of rubble. They had so much cool stuff there! I can't believe that it is now just scattered all over who knows where. There was also a Casey's gas station next to the antique mall that was demolished--all that is left is the sign. What a terrible storm. I don't like tornadoes, nor will I ever be able to get used to them as many of the locals are. A lot of people I've talked to say, "Oh, it's just normal; no big deal." I say there isn't anything normal about it!

My least favorite sound is a tornado siren--nothing makes my stomach churn quite like that droning noise, but I am grateful for tornado sirens nonetheless. We are very blessed these days to have such high-tech, well-monitored radar systems that can detect even the slightest rotation in any storm. The tornado warning was issued for our county about 15 minutes before the storm even arrived, so if people will actually heed the warnings, then there is plenty of time to take cover.

Tornado Trauma

Well, it was another exciting day here in Illinois--unfortunately I mean the bad, tornadic kind of exciting. Supposedly tornado season was over, but obviously the tornadoes didn't get the memo. At about 2:30 this afternoon, some pretty dark clouds started showing up on the western horizon. I checked the weather radar on the computer, and it said that there was a tornado warning in Jacksonville, which is just west of Springfield. I told the rangers in charge, but they said that the storm looked like it would miss us. Well, about 15 minutes later, I looked again, and now they had issued a tornado warning for Sangamon County. Springfield is in Sangamon County! So again I told the head rangers, but because it was not storming yet, they said not to worry about it. At about 2:55 I called Greg, and he checked the radar and confirmed that it looked like the tornado was heading for Springfield. Just then, THE SIRENS WENT OFF! I was standing out in the neighborhood at this point, and I booked it down to where some of the other rangers were standing. Everyone was kind of frozen in fear. Luckily we managed to check all of the houses and get everyone down to the visitor center right before the storm hit. There was a tour group in the house when the sirens went off, but they all made it to the visitor center safely.
We probably had 70 or 80 people at the visitor center (which, though it is not underground, has been declared the safest place in the park), and then it got nasty outside. At one point the sirens stopped, and I called Greg to see if it was over, but he said that the worst was still to come--and he was right. At about 3:15 p.m., the sky outside turned this strange blackish-green color, the thunder and lightning picked up, and the rain started coming down in buckets. Then the rain started blowing at a 90 degree angle, and we knew that the storm had arrived (and the sirens had started again by this point). After about 10 minutes of the sky literally falling on Springfield, it all just kind of stopped. Everyone was a little freaked out, but at 3:30 we were able to let everyone out of the visitor center.

It turns out that the tornado (which I'm guessing had to be at least an EF2) touched down in Loami--which, you may remember, is where my friend Linda lives. And they always get hit by tornadoes! The latest news reports are saying that at least a dozen homes were destroyed there (and they were still cleaning up from a tornado back in March). I talked with Linda on the phone, and luckily their house is okay. She was in Springfield during the tornado, but her daughter was at home--and luckily everyone was all right. But Linda said that she could see the path the tornado took THROUGH THEIR YARD where it tore down some giant trees and ripped through the cornfields.

After hitting Loami, the tornado went over Springfield and touched down again in Williamsville, a little town just 7 miles east of Athens. One of the rangers, Jim, lives in Williamsville, and he called the park to tell them that there was a lot of damage there. He was worried that Athens would have gotten hit too, but thankfully Athens dodged a major bullet today. This evening when I got home, Greg and I decided to drive over to Williamsville to see what Jim was talking about, but when we saw a police blockade diverting traffic away from the town, we knew it must have been bad. We couldn't even get close to Williamsville. Then we turned on the radio and heard just how bad it was. My favorite antique mall was totally destroyed, as was the gas station next to it.

Pictured here is the Williamsville Christian Church, which, as you can see, was basically destroyed as well. This church is right next to a daycare center, so hopefully all of the kids are okay. There were some reported injuries at the church. There were a lot of injury reports, but so far no deaths. We heard that several subdivisions were totally destroyed. It's scary to think that this could have just as easily been Athens! What a crazy, terrible day! So, I am now even more traumatized about tornadoes than I was before, and am sure that my weekly tornado nightmares will probably increase in frequency. We just hope that everyone ends up being okay. The storm certainly put a damper on the Illinois State Fair today--but it sounded like everyone there was okay. I'm sure there will be more pictures of the storm and damage available in the near future.

Adventures with the Agates

What a fun weekend we had here in the Land of Lincoln! Sarah, Joel, and Eliza were on the Midwestern leg of their coast-to-coast journey back to South Carolina, and on Saturday they stopped in Nauvoo. So Greg and I went over there to meet them, and we had such a wonderful day. (Thank you Sarah for taking such great pictures! I remembered to bring my camera--but forgot the battery which I had charged the night before.) We began by going to the Joseph Smith Mansion House. Eliza was so cute and kept talking about "Joseph Smith House." We also got some delicious root beer at the Red Brick Store. Later in the day when we asked Eliza what her favorite thing about Nauvoo was, she said "woot beer."

We had a delicious lunch at the Zion Mercantile, and then later in the day we went to the Family Living Center (where Eliza had fun running around, riding fake sheep, and playing with pioneer dolls), and then we took some pictures at the temple. (I'll attribute my silly face to the bright sunlight.) :-) Then we drove to Beardstown, Illinois where we had a delicious Pizza Hut dinner before heading on to Springfield where the Agates spent the night at the Fairfield Inn.

Then on Sunday morning, the Agates came to the Lincoln Home (Greg came too). Eliza was the cutest of all the rangers!! She even helped me give a tour of the house. After the tour we had a picnic in the "Ranger Room," and then Greg and the Agates walked around the neighborhood while I went back to work. I was sad that the Agates had to leave that afternoon, but it's good they left when they did--because the weather in Springfield was not good later in the day. We're so glad that the Agates have since made it home safely and that we could have such a fun couple of days with them! The rangers at the Lincoln Home are still talking about how cute Ranger Eliza was.

The weather was not good yesterday either. We got slammed with a nasty thunderstorm in the afternoon and even had to close down the park because of lightning. I had to close last night and was very relieved when the storm blew over just before 7:00.