Since we’re in the Land of Lincoln it is only appropriate that do we Lincoln things today. Springfield is everything, and I mean everything about Abraham Lincoln.

But first, we need to have some breakfast. I’ve been hearing about a place for a few years now. Would you ever think to stop at this place?

If you cannot make out the sign, here’s a closer version.

This place was featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. They have a 16″ pancake. If you eat four of them, it’s on the house. No, I didn’t try that. I would have difficulties downing one of them. Instead, I had what’s called a horseshow. I’ll show you a picture in a moment. First, some of the inside of Charlie Parker’s.

What did Trevor have? He had a buffalo chicken sandwich.

I, on the other hand, had the breakfast shoe.

What’s in the breakfast shoe? Well, here’s a closer look.

As you can see .. on the bottom are biscuits. Next layers are egg (over easy) and sausage. On top of that is gravy and cheese sauce. At the very top is hash browns. Did I enjoy it?

You betcha!

Anyway, now that we’re all fueled up, we can go see the sites. We head downtown and check out the visitors center.

Across the street is the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum and the Presidential Library.

Around the corner is the old capitol building.

Every now and then, you see something you just have to shoot. This is one of those times.

You know those signs that say .. In case of fire… .. well, I don’t think you’ll get me on the fire escape. Take a look back at Chicago — Day 1! :O)

But, like I said, Springfield is all about Lincoln. I would be remiss if I didn’t show you the man himself.

We get back in the car and follow the signs leading to Lincoln’s home.

This is not what the home originally looked like. The story goes that two additions were made over time. One story goes something like .. “Lincoln came back from Washington, walked down Jackson St., turned the corner and walked right by his house. He stopped at the end of the street and asked his neighbor where his house was.” It turns out his wife had the house remodeled and Mr. Lincoln didn’t recognize his own house.

Would you like to see some of the inside?

Back outside there were other houses and carts and what not. I still haven’t really figured out what the next photo is or what it was used for. I think it had something to do with campaigning for Mr. Lincoln. While his opponents would go on the campaign trail, he would not. He would let others do that for him. Anyway, if you know what this is used for, let me know.

Well .. that’s all of Springfield we really saw. We went for a drive after that and saw some interesting things that I won’t post here. At the end of the day, it was time to check in. Take a look at where we stayed.

You got that right. This place is everything Route 66. The mother lode on the mother road! Too many pictures to show on this blog, so I’ll show just a few.

Well .. that’s it for today. I have a lot of pictures of this hotel, but I will leave those for my photo album. Next time we go from Springfield to St. Louis, and then to Sikeston (not on Route 66).