Buck Creek Farm to Lincoln's Springfield & Route 66

Rooster reveille at Buck Creek Farm!

Since we'd arrived in the rain and darkness, it was a joy to lift the shade this morning and behold a clear morning and a pasture full of dogs, cats, and farm animals: a Belgian horse, almost-black Arabian mare, a pony, a Sicilian donkey, several sheep and goats, and a few dozen chickens, slaloming around darting among the legs of all of the above. Dora joined them shortly, after recovering from her shock  at the size of the horses. Pretty soon, she was practicing her amazing outfielder skills around the field, oblivious to them. Her Frisbee even bounced off the Belgian's back leg, which he flicked at her as she streaked by, unfazed.

After a trencherman's farm breakfast and another hour chatting with owners Kyle and Mary we set forth, across the rest of Indiana, to Lincoln's Springfield. Reaching our hotel was a challenge as about ten blocks of the downtown area had been blocked off for the Route 66 Car Show.

 Once we'd breached that hurdle, we settled in and headed straight to the two-block-long dirt street where the Lincolns lived for decades, learned about the surprisingly diverse neighborhood, that included lawyers, widow-landladies and an escaped slave, who became a drayman --- a handy profession for a man who became very active in the underground railroad.

Some of the cars in the Route 66 Car Show on display were far from antiques, like the Chevy in which Tom took the road test for his drivers' exam a few years ago, say ---1959

We ogled old cars for the next few hours. They included great old Ford  sedans and coupes, a variety of Studebakers  as well as my favorite: farm trucks from the 30s, the kind our role models, Ma and Pa Joad, took on their madcap adventure.

Later, we parked Miss Dora in the car and enjoyed dinner at Maldaner's a classic old downtown restaurant, where the delicate pate and delicious quail stuffed with sausage deserved many stars. The salty, dry, "veal sirloin" earned a negative review and went home with us --- to Dora's delight.