[egarvue]

I'm proud to say that this is my hometown. We've always had the Lincoln tourist stuff here, but this museum is nothing like we've had before. I admit, I was very sceptical when it was being built, I coulnd't imagine why the heck anyone would want to visit our town to see yet another dry, dusty, boring museum. But sneak previews given to the press have got the local journalists and radio DJ's just raving about it (and they're a cynical bunch, having to cover Illinois politics and all), and anyone else who's already seen it has given it very positive reviews. Several thousand people waited hours in line yesterday to buy general admission tickets for opening day. We may be a smaller city, but this museum is going to be a source of big-city sized pride for us.

[SaveTheChief]

I have friends there in Springfield and have visited on many occasions. It's an odd city in that there really isn't anything special about it (your own governor doesn't even want to live there -- but we won't get into that right now), while at the same time offering some unique and interesting attractions.

• The Dana-Thomas House is spectacular
• The State Capitol Building is well worth the tour
• The Old State Capitol is in a way, a monument to Lincoln
• All the other Lincoln sites - the tomb, his house, New Salem, are great places to learn about the man and his life.
• Let's not forget Springfield's gift to the world of food -- The Horseshoe.

The new museum building looks very nice and I am looking forward to visiting it sometime soon. If they did things right, Springfield will have something else to be very proud of.

Now if we could just work on that government thing....