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.

State Fair

In our Lincoln Home Junior Ranger activity books, there is a place where the prospective Junior Ranger can write a letter to Abraham Lincoln giving him advice. This evening I had two little girls turn in their books, and I had to write down what their letters said because they were so funny and random. One girl wrote: "Dear Mr. President: Maybe you should have your wife make a vase." (I have no idea where that came from, but it was cute.) The other girl wrote: "Dear Mr. Lincoln: You should start a club about being honest." Kids are so funny.


Well, it's that time of the year when the state fair begins! I am quite excited to actually live near Springfield--so close to the Illinois State Fair. The Illinois State Fair is legendary, and I am excited to go see the giant butter cow (supposedly this year's butter cow exhibit includes a butter sculpture of Abraham Lincoln). I have never been to the Illinois State Fair and am hoping that Greg and I can head over there either some evening or maybe next weekend (we're heading to Nauvoo to meet up with Sarah, Joel, and Eliza this weekend!). It sounds like there will be some legendary food at the fair too, including Reuben dogs, fried Key lime pie (Sarah would like that?), cherry Key limeade, and Alaskan king crab cakes. Mmmmm.

Lincoln Home Randomness

Here is our Lincoln Home 2009 staff photo. It was taken a few weeks ago, but I haven't had a chance to post it yet. I am, as usual, in the front row with the short people :-) We have about 50 staff members (not all of them were there the day of the picture). Twenty of us are in the Interpretation Division--so we do all of the history/visitor contact stuff; and about 30 others work in the Maintenance Division--so they keep all the buildings and grounds looking nice.

So, the Lincoln Home is pretty much the most interesting place I have ever worked. There is literally never a dull moment there. The other day a cat ran into the Lincoln Home. It was amazing. The door was only open for about 30 seconds while a tour group was going in, and this random cat walking down the street just bolted for the door, ran inside, and went straight for the Lincoln's ORIGINAL horse hair furniture! Luckily Ranger Rose caught it just before it leapt onto the sofa. My philosophy is that it is a descendant of the famous "Lincoln Cats" (not quite as famous as the Hemingway cats). Abraham Lincoln loved cats and used to always bring home stray kitties to feed (I wonder what Mary thought of this).

Yesterday I was taking a tour through the house, and I had just ushered the group down the stairs and into the kitchen. When I looked up and saw another group through the dining room, I almost gasped out loud--there was Abraham Lincoln. Well, it wasn't really Abraham Lincoln. It was one of the many ULI's we get (Unauthorized Lincoln Impersonators). Basically, tall men with dark hair and beards like to come walk around the site so that people give them weird looks and ask to have their picture taken with them. This guy looked pretty good--except for the fact that he was in a t-shirt and jeans. Lincoln never wore jeans.

I really do not enjoy the evenings when I have to close the park--because it means I'm in the Visitor Center from 5:00-7:00 p.m.--the time when we always run out of tour tickets. And people can be very nasty. The other night it was about 5:30 p.m., and a lady wanted to go see the house. I told her that we were booked until 6:30, and she got all huffy. She said, "That is much too long to wait. I'm leaving." And she stormed out. Well, about 15 minutes later, she came back in and said, "Well, I guess I'll wait a whole hour if I have to." Unfortunately, by that time I was out of tickets for the rest of the evening. As you can imagine, this news was not well received by the lady, and she kind of freaked out. She was really incredibly rude to me. It was the end of a long day, and my fuse was already running short, so I put on my angry ranger face and became very curt with her. I don't like mean people. But I do really like nice people. Yesterday I took the cutest little girl through the house. She was in a wheelchair and couldn't really communicate, except by smiling. And she was always smiling about everything. I think more people (including myself) need to be more like her. Just smile--it makes you (and those around you) feel better.

Nifty Fifty

Greg and I took a little road trip over to Iowa this weekend to celebrate his grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary! We are looking forward to celebrating our 50th anniversary someday--but first we'll celebrate our first anniversary in October :-) It was a lot of fun to see Grandpa and Grandma Gray and to celebrate such a wonderful milestone with them. We left Springfield after I finished work on Thursday evening, then drove five hours to Marshalltown, Iowa. Greg's mom and his aunt Linda were already there, so we all had a good time catching up on things that evening. On Friday we did some shopping for Grandpa and Grandma, and then Greg spent the afternoon installing a new toilet for them--which works very well. He certainly is handy! Greg's uncle Steve came on Friday evening, and we all had a delicious dinner together. On Saturday morning Greg's cousin Scott, his wife Amy, and their cute twin boys Evan and Austin came to join in on the fun. The boys especially enjoyed playing with Big Spike and Little Spike--whom Greg and I had brought along with us. Scott Fogarty is the one who supplies all of Greg's and my Cardinals tickets, so he is definitely one of my favorite people. The Fogartys are a really nice family. That afternoon we went out for a 50th anniversary lunch, and then Greg and I got back on the road to head home.

We wished that we could have stayed longer, but there's that pesky thing called work which required us to head home (and we were anxious to see Lily who stayed behind to take care of the house). We saw this beautiful sunset on the way home. The rolling green farm fields of Illinois really are pretty--especially right now during the height of the corn season.