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Wednesday, 11/08/2017, I shirked work duties & went “home” (the road). My Aunt Chris & I went on our “Fall Color Tour Drive”, heading to NW IL & mainly traveling through SW WI. Unfortunately, not much color was seen. We saw some very small spurts of color, but otherwise, leaves were either gone or hadn’t turned. Most of those that had color were a dull shade. Even so, it was an awesome drive & day, tho I didn’t take as many OC,SH original photos as I thought I might.

As I drove my 2003 Mercury Grand Marquis LS, I marveled how small towns & backroads I hadn’t seen before reminded me of other places, times & people. Similarly, for roads like US RT 20 between Rockford IL & Freeport IL, I noticed how, while I was making memories in a still-new-to-me car, old memories of that road & people & former cars crept into my thoughts.

After a “Niece #2 delay”, I left the house where I sleep ~9:40a. This mix of 2 seasons (winter frost & fall leaves) greeted me:

Still cold when we left my Aunt Chris’ home, we could clearly see the moon while traveling west along Plank Rd, headed towards Burlington IL! Can you see the moon in the pic?

West of Burlington, we cut across Moose Range Rd to take Base Line Rd west. I took this photo along Base Line Rd:

When Base Line Rd turns to dirt-gravel, we take Esmond Rd south to Lindenwood Rd west. Traveling along Lindenwood is not complete without a stop at our “Castle House”. The story of this place dates back to before the housing collapse. In the late 2001 & early 2002 timeframe, IL RT 64 was under construction between Goelitz Rd & Woodlawn Rd so the S-curve could be straightened for safer travel. During that time, we used Base Line & Lindenwood Rds to skirt past the closure; we literally watched this farmhouse (front part of the structure; to the right of the images) turn into a castle. But, then, the collapse happened & the house fell into disrepair. At 1 point, we found out someone had bought the property intending to complete the house. That didn’t happen & the place, as you can see, has fallen into further disrepair. Sad, very sad.

Knowing we wanted to focus on SW WI, from Lindenhurst, we took Mulford Rd to IL RT 72 W to I-39 N to US RT 20 W. I took these 2 photos along US RT 20, which I’ve also traveled on the east (MA) & west (OR) coasts in prior road trips:

From US RT 20, we took IL RT 73 N into Lena IL, 1 of the last towns in which my grandfather pastored. We had planned to then travel NW into WI, but missed the turn, so ended up taking IL RT 73 into WI, traveling WI M to WI B to WI D to WI 11 W. Our original plan was to take WI 11 all the way to US 61, then take US 61 back to US 151 into Mineral Point WI. However, since time was running a bit short, we cut off the western-most part of the trip (planning to do that another day) & headed up WI 80 to US 151, which we then took into Mineral Point, where we stopped at Suzy’s Pointer Cafe & had a scrumptious lunch, complete with a piece of pie:

This pic of re-entering US 151 after lunch doesn’t do the scene justice. I wouldn’t classify it as breathtaking, but it sure caught my attention to the wonder & beauty of it:

The return trip back to where I sleep was a bit less exciting, tho the radio kept playing favorite tunes. Unfortunately, the day’s theme seemed to be hitting my favorite songs just as they were nearing the end. Irony rocks.

Our route for the return trip: US 151 … WI 23 S … WI 81 E … WI 69 S … IL 26 S … to US 20 W & the reverse of how we started the day. I snapped this photo of the gorgeous sunset along Base Line Rd, nearing Burlington IL: