Illinois

This state is a festering ground for some of our favorite people. Barack Obama, Abraham Lincoln and the one, the only, Ferris Bueller. However, besides being represented by some awesome politicians (Bueller included), Illinois is also home to many small towns that we never knew existed.

Take Princeton for example. No, not that Princeton. Princeton, Illinois is how we East Coast folk picture Sarah Palin's "Small Town America." Once you pass through about a mile of corn (this is the crop we assumed was growing) fields, you reach the heart of Princeton. A street with city hall and the fire department in one building, a gas station, a convenient store, a grain elevator with a giant cross on top, a train station, a barber shop and a Dairy Queen. We didn't see any organic eateries but it was refreshing to see such a tightly knit community amongst the endless expanses of fields.

After our brief excursion in Princeton, we drove into the sunset toward Iowa, where the Hamburg Inn awaited our arrival.