Return to Alton, IL
This was originally posted on a different blog I was using before I decided to bring back CC&G. We have now been talking about moving to Alton for about 2.5 years. This post includes our affiliate link to Bookshop.org. Using our link helps support the blog!
We've been tossing around the idea of moving to Illinois for a while now. Missouri is just getting worse and worse, like it's trying to win the most hateful state in the union prize or something, and just across the river we have the Metro East. Whatever you may say about downstate Illinois, it is protected by Chicago and will probably be forever, and that's fine with me. We like our house a lot, and could live here many years, but if we wanted to get some things on our wish list - big front porch, bigger yard, fewer gunshots, etc - we may as well move to the suburbs that are in a sanctuary state.
If you went on ghost tours with me back in the day you might remember there was a little beef between that group and the Mineral Springs. All that is water under the bridge, I'm guessing as people got over themselves. The Mineral Springs has changed ownership, and Troy Taylor himself now operates American Oddities Museum inside the historic hotel. We haven't yet had a chance to tour the museum, since our kid is not yet into the spooky, but I did get to visit the gift shop for a T-shirt and some American Oddities Ghost Hunters loose-leaf tea. (For real.) The photo below is from before Troy took over the Soul Asylum museum.
We also cannot leave out Francis's favorite reason for visiting Alton: Playing Barge Simulator at the National Great Rivers Museum at the Melvin Price Lock & Dam. This is a great little museum with lots of special events, and you can sometimes tour the lock & dam as well.
There is so much more to show you in Alton! I still have a deep and abiding love of State Street, and I hope we manage to buy a house on Christian Hill some day! Make our dreams come true by supporting the podcast shop and Bookshop.org.
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