Day 2 of Illinois Journey

Hello from Amarillo, Texas! Today's drive was long - partly due to sheer mileage (~430 miles), but irritatingly added to by ROAD WORK! My daughter and I have a running joke that wherever we decide to go, someone has decided road work is needed. Well...there were no less than 10 spots where the speed limit was down to 45, and traffic was down to one lane. There are many, many trucks traveling on I-40, so this made it even more terrible! Oh well - 8 hours after leaving Gallup, I arrived in Amarillo in one piece, so I guess I can't complain! Driving through New Mexico was a straight trip through miles of empty land. At one point I looked in the rear view mirror, and thought I could see the road go straight back to Gallup - and this was probably 3 hours into the trip. There weren't even ranges of cattle or horses. The minute I crossed into Texas, however, the landscape changed. Gone was the desert-like scrub, cactus and trees, and in came the plowed fields, ranges of cattle and horses, and huge ranch-lands with big iron gates at the entrance showing the name of the ranch. Those were pretty cool!

I am staying at The Big Texan Motel, across the parking lot from The Big Texan Steak Ranch. Yes, they are combined. The motel rooms are very rustic and have those swinging saloon-type doors going into the dressing/bath area. Very solid, rough wood furniture, which is surprisingly comfortable! I did not go across to the steak house to eat - too tired and not hungry enough to do a steak justice! I ordered a hamburger to go and went back to the room.

The Motel:

My room:

Very nice space!
(Photos added Wed. 9/21)

Tomorrow's jaunt is through Texas and into Oklahoma, stopping in Oklahoma City. It's about 250 miles, so shouldn't bee too hard of a drive. I plan to leave early anyway, as I haven't been able to see much Route 66 yet, and there is a lot to travel on from here on out. I also need to be settled in Oklahoma City by 4:30, as I have a Webinar at 5pm - "Illinois Genealogy Crash Course" through the Family Tree Magazine website. I hope it offers some tips that I have not thought of!

So that's the update for today. For those who are reading this in the SF Bay Area, my thoughts and prayers go out to the two families facing crises this week. Please know that you are in my thoughts every day.

Tomorrow's post will be from Oklahoma City, OK (O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A OKLAHOMA!)

Day 1 of Illinois Journey

Nothing much to report tonight. Very uneventful, beautiful drive from Goodyear AZ to Gallup NM. There is not much drivable Route 66 for this section. I took some pictures of the Wigwam Hotel, but they are pretty bad. I'll get another shot on my way back and post them! I listened to some Frank, Sammy and Dean to start the trip off in honor of my dad (his favorites!), then switched to Nat King Cole for the Route 66 song once I hit I-40! That got me jazzed! Then I went to my current audio book, and listened to that the rest of the way. Like I said - fairly uneventful!

Tomorrow - on to Amarillo, Texas. I am staying at The Big Texan Motel. They also have a steak house connected to them, and both are recommended by the Historical Route 66 Federation, so I figured they were safe! Hopefully I'll have pictures to post tomorrow.

Drew - I couldn't find a postcard tonight, but I promise I'll find one tomorrow and send it off. Goodnight!

Addendum Wed. 9/21
The first picture of the Wigwam Motel wasn't too horrible, so here it is:

I still want some better photos on the trip back!


This is where I stayed Monday night

Off to Illinois

I have not been very diligent about updating the blog, but I promise to be better from here on out. Tomorrow I leave on my long-awaited and long-anticipated trip to Illinois! I am all packed, with everything lined up by the garage to be loaded in the morning. You would think I was going for a year, rather than a little over three weeks! Two suitcases, two crates filled with binders, books and files, a camera bag, my techie backpack (you know, the laptop, i Pad, Nook and all of their cords and such!) and, of course, a bag of munchies for the 6 day drive to get there. Oh yes, and my two cases of CD's in case I get tired of books on tape and XM radio. I have maps and books on Route 66, with places picked out to stop and investigate. I'll try to add a little blurb every day to let everyone know where I am and what I saw.

As for genealogy news, I have visited two cemeteries and taken tombstone rubbings from my parents' marker and my grandfather's head stone. (I posted pictures on the cemeteries page, if you're interested) I have found quite a few of the Illinois ancestors listed in cemetery listings online, so I actually know where to go to find them. Every time I came across a name it was very exciting for me. You have to remember that I never knew any of these people, and never even knew about them until very recently. Every time I see a name, or a picture of a headstone, I think "They really are real! These people really did exist and they are my family!". So, pardon my enthusiasm, but I am eager to go "meet" my grandparents, and great grandparents, and begin to put together an idea of the life they lead.

One of the other exciting finds that I made was that on both my mother's side - Mom's mother's mother's line - and my dad's side - Dad's father's mother's mother's line - there is a link to the Revolutionary War. We have "certified patriots" on both sides of the family who fought in the war. To find that I come from not one, but two families who sacrificed their lives and families to create this country awes me. I don't know what words to use to describe my feelings, other than awed. It doesn't really change who I am, but gives me more depth, maybe. I am proud to be able to say I am connected to people who were present at the birth of our nation.

Well, that is it for tonight. There have been other findings in the past month, but I will catch up on those at a later date. I am off to finish the last few things, then sleep, then up early to hit the road. Next post will be from Gallup, New Mexico!

New Page added

Check out the new page on cemeteries! It will be updated as I visit new places, and will undoubtedly go through many overhauls before I am "happy" with it.

Mike Keller

Contact re-established!
In the "My Illinois Roots" page I made reference to a cousin that I "found" on the internet, but with whom I had since lost contact. Please understand that it took me about a week to put this blog together (pathetic, isn't it?!), and I wrote different parts of it at different times. In that week, I again found my cousin's email address, sent him off an email, hoping he still had that address, and he answered me! Yay!  Not only that, but today he sent me some information that I didn't have, so there is more fuel for my trip.

So Mike - this post is to you. Thank you for still being reachable, and for sharing pieces of our family's history. I will share everything I find out on the trip with you when I return. Bless you!

First Post

Now that I have a blog, I have to remember to write something in it so people can read it! This may be a difficult thing for me to do. The remembering part that is, not the writing! As I said in the Illinois roots page, I am taking off on a journey to Illinois to do some long-awaited research. I leave on September 19 and return on October 10. In the meantime, I am going to continue my background work gathering information online and from county offices. I have sent written requests for some documents, and am going to visit the Alameda county and Contra Costa County offices in California to gather others. I am also going to make a trek to some cemeteries in California - Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Francisco and Pleasant Hill Cemetery in Sebastopol - to take pictures of headstones and document the burials of my parents and grandparents. I also have a few online classes to finish - a basic family history skills class, a brief overview of researching in Illinois, and a more in-depth class on cemetery research. So that is my plan for the next few weeks before I head east on Route 66.