On July 17th, we took a trip on a lot of back roads throughout Jo Davies County in the very northwestern part of Illinois.
BLANDINGS LANDING
We visited Blanding's Landing by the Mississippi River across from Bellevue, Iowa, the only section of privately-owned land between the railroad tracks and the river for miles and miles in that area. The rest is owned by the government, in part for the nearby lock and dam as well as probably for flooding. There used to be the town of Blanding there, but no more.
SMALL TOWN AMERICA AT ITS BEST
We went to a parade in Elizabeth, Illinois, a small town about twelve miles southeast of Galena. With a population of 682, you wouldn't expect much, but you sure would be wrong. Besides a picture-perfect main street, US-20, (which unfortunately has traffic and LOTS of TRUCKS coming through), this is one town aware of its heritage. They have two museums as well as a reconstructed fort from the Black Hawk War.
They were having their 90th annual Community Fair and a parade to go with it. We watched the parade from the air conditioned Jug's Bar and Grill on Main Street. As hot as it was, that cold air sure felt good and the $2 parade specials like rum and Coke slaked our thirst. Being an agricultural community, there were plenty of tractors in the parade.
After visiting the local winery, we came back for the fair, but weren't too happy to have to pay $6 apiece to enter. There wasn't much of interest for us, but we did have a great meal at reasonable prices, capped off with some really great pies at $1.25. How do you beat that in these expensive days.
A Real Fine Town. --Cooter
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