Me and the Toyota Echo on a snowy Springfield road
My latest project is in Springfield, IL with the State Education Board. And believe me its no fun to be there after staying in Chicago for so long. There are few things about this place which have left indelible marks which includes:
Lincoln: Mr Abraham Lincoln is everywhere in Springfield. Starting from the Old Capitol to the bars, libraries and museums, cobbled road and Amtrak station:even on the walls of the restrooms of bars and coffee shops, its Lincoln and excerpts of his famous speeches all the way. Even the Amtrak train from Chicago to Kansas City via Springfield is called Ann Rutledge, the name of Lincoln's first girlfriend. People eat, drink and sleep Lincoln. Amazing guy he must had been to exercise such a tremendous influence even today.
No Fast Food after Sundown: All the food outlets in the downtown Springfield are shut down by 7pm and there is no food anywhere. My project mates are helpful; they drove me around to different places for dinner. You have to travel westward and eastward to get food or visit the restaurants of 3 star hotels to fill up your belly every night if you are in downtown.
One way Every way: This is fun. 90% of the streets in Springfield are oneways. I rented a Toyota Echo for a snowy weekend from enterprise. Small and powerful, this new model from the Toyota stable is pretty with not-so-good brakes (may be I was making it more hard on the melting snows).Besides the car had a bad blind corner on left turns. So the fact that every street is one way was actually helpful. It was fun to discover that you never can get lost with this one way strategy.
Small secrets: The pool table in Hilton Springfield does not have the Ball number 8. According to the bar tender, it always gets stolen. This is a very old hotel with broken closet doors, small bathrooms and slow showers. Hi speed internet is not available in all the rooms. They have parking charges.However they have a big complimentary breakfast.
The hotel Renaissance charges $10 extra for Hi speed internet. They too have parking charges.
Try out Hampton Inn. Very modern and up start. No parking. Free internet. And good gifts.
Interesting places for lunch and dinner: Here are a few of the places that I had my lunches and dinner and they were pretty good
*Capisce--at the top of Hilton
*Saputos--just behind Hilton
*Thai Kitchen---on 9th Street
*Gateway to India--for delicious sumptuous Indian lunch buffet
*Steak and Shake
*Alexander's Steak House ---Free style self grilling of food
*Sebastian's---Contemporary American cuisine
