Hello Listeners/Readers!
Indeed, as Francis has promised, time for a Martin recap of the epic Abe Road Trip. It was quite a day, as I was in Francis’ driveway before 7 AM, and back in my bed at midnight. 17 hours, 2 pastrami sandwiches, a coffee mug souvenir, a giant pork tenderloin, and 450 Robert pictures later, I think we can say Snakes & Otters has Abe covered.
The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum is very engaging, using life size displays to dramatize Abe’s life, in addition to housing many artifacts of his life and presidency. Both the museum and the nearby Lincoln Tomb contain incredible statuary. I was stunned as I hadn’t realized how many attempts at capturing Abe in metal and stone had been made. Many of the smaller ones at the Tomb are studies for the larger more well known works. I’m sure we’ll be “moved by the spirit” when we do our Lincoln episodes later this year. There’s 7 “rooms” to the log cabin area, detailing Abe’s life before the presidency. The diorama of his early law office, complete with Willie and Tad playing whack the inkwells with broom handles (did they invent baseball?) is not to be missed. Next up is the White House. Excellent layout from the cabinet room to the second inaugural to a recreation of Abe lying in state at the Illinois capitol building. Amazing detail. I was particularly struck by the Frederick Douglass figure and have been inspired to research him further. He had Abe’s ear, and was an incredibly accomplished speaker and author.
A huge Snakes & Otters shout out to the very friendly staff at the museum, who, upon seeing 3 50-ish gentlemen in identical hoodies, just had to ask us what it was all about. Also a thank you and shout out to the very friendly fellow doing contact tracing and admission control at the tomb. Because of the small spaces, admission is a bit restricted, but we were able to slide right in.
And the tale of the trip isn’t complete without some talk of the food. If you have been reading all the steak and hamburger posts, you know we get pretty serious about our grub. First up, Robert had arranged for us to get our breakfast grub on at Biscuit Belly. Excellent pancake sausage corn dogs. Francis had some huge feast of a meal, a chicken thigh with bacon and an egg on a biscuit with gravy. Great Heine Brothers Coffee too. Next up was lunch on the move, with some excellent pastrami sandwiches courtesy of Francis, eaten in the Martin-mobile. Plenty of snacking along the way too. Finally a big shout out to to the Marine Diner in Marine, IL. The giant pork tenderloin sandwich is really giant, and filled with peppery goodness. Snakes & Otters are satisfied customers, and maybe we’ll be back your way someday Marine.
That’s all I have for Martin Monday, but I expect we’ll see a Robert coda for the trip on Wednesday. Watch for those Abe episodes later this year!
