Listing Through Life

Sal and I spent several hours at the Botanic Garden in search of adventure and in pursuit of another item on my list of 30 Things Everyone Should Do In Greater Chicagoland.

Our original plan was to tour the garden then drive around the northern suburbs in search of periodical cicadas (17-year locusts). We were still in our car in the parking lot when we realized we could combine the two adventures. The place was crawling, and buzzing, with cicadas.

We walked the two-mile path that circles the park, then wandered around through the various gardens.

It was warm, but there was a refreshing breeze blowing so it was pleasant, especially down-wind of fountains and sprinklers. We bought Dove Bars as we strolled about dodging low-flying cicadas and bees (right, on roses).

We had to pay $5 each to get into the Model Railroad Garden, but it was worth it. There were a dozen or so model trains winding around the garden on a quarter-mile of tracks. The many bridges and trestles were all made from sticks. Model buildings representing famous places around the U.S. were set up throughout the area. It was very impressive and well done. It was my favorite part of the trip.

We wandered around the woods to look at the cicadas before we left (see next post).

Tracks of the Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroads run through Rochelle and cross in an unusual four diamond pattern. As many as 120 freight trains a day move through the town, all controlled automatically from dispatchers in Omaha and Fort Worth. Train enthusiasts have built a small park near the diamond with a gift shop, a viewing platform and a few pieces of railroad equipment scattered around a parking lot.

Trains are one of those things I could get into if I had about 70 hours in each day, although they aren’t nearly as interesting to me as they were when I was a kid. I used to love watching the trains go through Des Plaines pulling cars with logos and colors from all sorts of small railroads around the country. Now there are only a few giants and trains are less exciting.

Still …

I wandered through the gift shop for about three minutes, then went to the viewing platform. I was very thirsty after my long day of adventures. I had no idea how long I’d have to wait, so I decided to go get supper, then come back. I had just left the platform when I heard whistles from both directions. I went back and saw two trains pass by.

When they had gone, I walked around the area and took some photos. That was long enough for a third train to go by. All three of them were on the Union Pacific tracks. I don’t think I was there for more than 20 minutes — and that includes the time it took the long freight trains to go by.

Just a final note — I stopped at Arby’s in Rochelle for supper. I ordered a beef and cheddar combo, and the guy handed me my large drink glass. In the time it took him to get my sandwich and fries, I filled the glass with lemonade, drank it, filled it with Sierra Mist, drank it, filled it with Barq’s Root Beer and had it half drained. After I got my food, I filled it back up with root beer and left. I told you I was thirsty.

When I found the stuff on Amboy on the Internet, I also discovered that a set of Burma Shave signs have been erected on Route 52 south of the town of Sublette. It was only an 8 or 10 mile drive, so I went for it.

I found the signs with no problem and parked my car next to a cow pasture so I could get pictures. There are six signs. The first one says, “Welcome to Sublette’s Burma Shave Memory Lane.” I’ve posted the next four below, along with a shot that shows them all with Sublette in the background. The sixth (and last) sign didn’t even say “Burma Shave,” it said “Reminisce Magazine.”

Route 52 was a busy highway with wide gravel shoulders. It wasn’t at all a nostalic or romantic setting, although one of the cows thought it would do.

As you may have noticed in the background of some of these shots, there’s a huge wind farm around Sublette, with strange alien-looking windmills all over the place. After I left town and headed back north, I found myself in the midst of this strange forest.

After this visit, it’s my opinion that there’s no reason to go to Sublette.

Since I was in the area birding, I searched the Internet for other adventures in the area. I found Amboy. Here’s what’s there:

The Amboy Pharmacy with wood floors, a soda fountain and an old-fashioned candy rack full of hard-to-find candy bars. The specialty is the green river phosphate, but when I told the lady behind the counter that I’d come all the way from Crystal Lake to get one, she told me they were out. She recommended a chocolate soda instead. It took her a long time to make, and she complained that the stirring hurt her wrist. It was tasty, but I would have rather had the phosphate.

From the pharmacy, I went to Amboy City Park. In May, 1999, a storm knocked down a bunch of trees in the park. An Amboy couple has taken on the project of turning the stumps into carvings of famous people, animals, whatever they can think of. I parked and wandered around and, I think, took photos of them all — there are at least 21 of them. I won’t post them all. They were scattered around an area of about 15 acres and blended in with the trees. Somehow it managed to be goofy and cool at the same time.

After leaving the park, I saw everything else there was to see in Amboy (except the Depot Museum, which was closed). First was the Mormon Cemetery where one of the wives of Brigham Young is buried. It took me a while to find it — it’s unmarked except for the fact that it’s on Mormon Road. There were a few broken and unreadable tombstones in a small clearing, and I couldn’t find the one that marked the grave of that unfortunate woman.

There were also two historical markers. I finally tracked them down on the exterior walls of a couple of taverns. The second building on the left is the site of the first Carson Pirie Scott store, opened by John L. Pirie and Samuel Carson in 1854. it’s now the Long Branch Saloon. The building on the right is Wayne’s Trackside East Tavern. Ironically, it has a plaque on the wall that say Joseph Smith’s son was ordained in a building on this site in 1860.

This isn’t a big park, but I enjoy going here regularly — it doesn’t seem at all like Illinois. Birds are one draw, but I also like the lack of crowds and the scenery along Franklin Creek as it winds through a narrow valley.

I walked a mile and a half to the second crossing, then turned around and walked back.

Here’s what I saw: Downy Woodpecker, Black-capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, House Wren, Indigo Bunting, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Great-crested Flycatcher, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Acadian Flycatcher, Eastern Phoebe, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Louisiana Waterthrush, Red-eyed Vireo, Hairy Woodpecker, White-breasted Nuthatch, Belted Kingfisher, Green Heron, Baltimore Oriole, Cedar Waxwing.