Illinois (the "s" is silent)

It's storming still outside here in Rochester. Lots of bright lights and loud noises all night. So far my oversized rain gauge says we're almost at 2 inches of rain.

After driving through the corn and beans.... past the World's Largest Truckstop in Walcott (wave to Angie's house) - we enter Illinois.... Named after the native Illiniwek people. Illiniwek means "tribe of superior men..... women go wash dishes". Illinois was the 21st state admitted to the Union, ranks #25 in Area, but ranks 5th in population. There must be a lot of people flocking to Galena or something.

Illinois is known as the "Land of Lincoln" because it's good for dumping all of our pennies that nobody wants. That and Abraham Lincoln spent most of his life here too. How do you think he financed his campaign? Had to use a few million of those pennies!!

Illinois is much more diverse in ethniticity than our previous states with only 66% White, 14% Hispanic, and 15.1% Black. There is a high number of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, Mexican-Americans, and of course everybody's favorite Polish-Americans.

Eddie's from Illinois. He's Polish-American. One of the few people I know that is 100% of any ethniticity. I'm a mutt.

Other facts:

• Chicago Pile-1 was home to the world's first artificial self-sustaining nuclear (not "nucular") chain reaction in the world's first nuclear reactor. Built on a squash court on the University of Chicago's campus.
• Illinois ranks 1st for states for Nuclear Power production.
• Chicago Cubs have the most dedicated fans to such a poor team. They traded Maddux to the Dodgers just before the deadline on Monday.
• I'll buy anyone a pop if they can name the team name of the Major League Soccer Chicago team without looking it up.
• Ronald Reagan attended Eureka College in Eureka, Illinois. It was there that he perfected his acting skills to become president.
• Oprah lives in Illinois.... so did Hugh Hefner... glad there was no correlation between the two!
• I think Barack Obama (Junior US Senator) should be the next president of the United States... just my opinion though.
• Did I mention that Eddie's from Illinois?

State Animal: White-tailed Deer (that Eddie shoots)
State Bird: Cardinal
State Dance: Square Dance.... now that's funny
State Fish: Bluegill
State Flower: Purple Violet.... isn't that like saying "red red"?
State Insect: Monarch Butterfly
State Nickname: The Prarie State
State Snack: Popcorn
State Tree: White Oak

We take I-80/I-90 from D-port all the way through Illinois (hopefully traffic in Chicago isn't too bad.... lots of tollways to pay for though.

Song of the Day - I like it when it rains, or at least low cloud cover... it means I can pick up Cities 93x which is heavy rock! Don't get to hear any music like that in Rochester unfortunately. HURAAAAAY BEER!

Video of the Day - With Illinois today, I have to bring out the classic Blues Brothers in which they wreck more cop cars than any other movie. Now with the heavy emphasis on Computer Graphics (computers are SOOOOOO over rated), they can create car wrecks with computers.... not possible during the days of the Blues Brothers. A side note though for VOTD: Beverly Hills Cops movies are much better on Showtime than on Comedy Central. No commercials and they don't have the cheezy edits of all the swear words. Advice to live by right there!

Webpage of the Day - As bad as this sounds for one's body (especially those of us on the 5 year diet)..... but it looks so good!!! A new stacker from Burger King!!! I wonder if it will be on the 99 cent value menu????