It was a wonderful weekend. The weather could have cooperated a bit more. Largely due to the weather there was one midget and four Bs to begin the weekend; one midget and seven Bs when we finished on Sunday. Seventeen members of the Chicagoland MG Club and the Vintage MG Club of Chicago began the tour; 30 finished it (7 Vintage and 23 MG Club members).

Breakfast at the Sunrise III Cafe

For some the weekend began on Thursday night at the Blackhawk Steak Pit across the parking lot

To the top of the overlook

from the Paddle Wheel Inn. I was not personally there for dinner, but I heard rave reviews about the food.

The Tour began in earnest Friday morning. We drove south on Illinois Route #2 to the Sunrise III Café in Oregon for breakfast. From there we drove to Castle Rock State Park,

Six MGs by the Rock River

stopping at the overlook to look over the Rock River. Several hiked the steps up to the top of the overlook (somebody counted 139 steps, but who’s counting). While it was overcast, and raining (or just drizzling), we were able to take a picture of the MGs with the Rock River in the background.

John Deere’s original Blacksmith Shop.

From there we headed to the John Deere Historic Site in Grande Detour (or Grande de Tour, I saw it printed both ways). I heard nothing but glowing reviews about this stop. It began with a tour of the archaeological excavation that archaeology students from NIU had undertook in the early 1960s, at the request of the John Deer Company, to find the location of the original John Deer blacksmith shop. They found it and were able to locate the precise boundaries of the original building and its later additions. As an archaeology site it is totally

Lloyd the Blacksmith

under a protective roof (which was nice for us as it was still raining).

We then went to a recreation of John Deere’s blacksmith shop where Lloyd entertained us (I think his name was Lloyd). And I do mean entertained. He was a character that perfectly fit the role of village blacksmith. While we waited for a group of elementary school children Lloyd talked about the tools and artifacts hanging on the walls of the blacksmith shop. Eventually he gave up waiting for the school children and began his demonstration of blacksmithing. Just as he began, the school children arrived, and he had to begin again.

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