Summer bar crawling through Carbondale

If you’re one of the few faithful followers of this blog, you’ve probably noticed my postings have become more and more infrequent over the past few months.  Well, there are a few reasons for that.  The good news is I have a new job which has been keeping me quite busy and requires a lot of travel, and I’m certainly not complaining about that.  The bad news is that schedule, along with ongoing computer issues when I’m home, has kept me from staying up-to-date on my blog postings. 

Hopefully, soon, I will start making up for lost time and catching up on some of my more “blog-worthy” (at least to me) adventures past and present.  One of those adventures happened earlier this summer when The April and I visited Carbondale, Ill., where she went to college at Southern Illinois University.  The purpose of the overnight trip was to allow her to show me some of her favorite haunts while she attended school there.  It was a fun stroll … or crawl, in this case … down memory lane.

PK's is a classic dive bar and Carbondale institution.  

A kiddo and her Cozy Dog

Sometimes I still find it hard to believe people willingly go to my hometown of Springfield, Ill., on vacation.   I know it was the hometown of our 16^th president, too, and I get the nostalgia factor of Historic U.S. Highway 66 which once cut through town.  But when you’re surrounded by reminders of Abraham Lincoln and Route 66 every day, it becomes easy to take it all for granted. 

Recognizing this, I’m always up to the challenge when one of my few faithful followers suggests I act more like a tourist in my hometown and blog about local places and events.  So, when I had the opportunity not long ago for alone time with The Kiddo, I decided to take her to one of Springfield’s culinary landmarks – and one of historical significance when it comes to fast food – the Cozy Dog Drive Inn.