Something

April 3, 2024 – Day 18

Giant City State Park, Makanda Illinois

We actually did something today. We were still both pretty beat, we hung out in the coach in the morning then headed over to the Giant City Lodge for a late lunch.

Giant City Lodge was built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps. It is a pretty nice building. They have cabins and a restaurant.

Three CCC units were assigned to Giant City State Park. The first company was the nearly 200 men of the company #696. The 696th CCC Company remained at the park from 1933 until 1942. Company #1657 assisted the 696th for five months in 1934. Under the supervision of the National Park Service, the CCC undertook such projects as road construction, landscaping, foot trails, guardrails, and general forestry improvements.

https://giantcitylodge.com/history/

There is a lot more to read about this history of the CCC and the Lodge at the above web page.

Food was, well, interesting. It was the sort of food one might find on a menu back in the 1960s. It was inexpensive, had enormous portions, and was exceptionally “normal” American fare, but not from 2024. Paul had the fried catfish dinner. Of the two filets one was exceptional and the other wasn’t. The buttered corn side was canned and tasted heavily sugared. Susan tried the chicken and dumplings. They were more of a puffy noodle than a dumpling. We did have good biscuits with some great apple butter on them. Overall the food was okay but pretty sure that we won’t be back. (susan here: It’s April 7th as we finish catching up on blogs and we haven’t been back.)

The local taxidermists certainly had a field day. All the walls were covered with stuffed critters. There were deer, fluffy cows (aka bison), fish and birds. I’m sure there was a jack-a-lope somewhere.

The gift shop was really nice. We got a great magnet and Paul got a great eclipse T-shirt. It turns out that Makanda, IL is in a crossover location. A crossover is a place that has had 2 eclipses pass over it. They had the 2017 and will have 2024 totality eclipses. How cool is that!? The cashier said the last one was pretty cool. We complemented them on not jacking the prices, the magnet was only $6, one of the cheaper ones we’ve purchased.

For something to do we stopped in at the Visitor Center to see their exhibits. We talked with the on-duty ranger. They had also been there in 2017, but in an official capacity. I guess the park was jam-packed with people. We’ve started to see “No Parking” signs sprout up along the side of the park’s road network. The ranger told us that the camp host would be delivering an eclipse packet which included 2 eclipse glasses. This is good, since we’ll be able to use the films to cover our binoculars! They also told us that there is an eclipse viewing field just a 10 minute walk from our campground. There are a lot of trees in the campground, that makes it hard to get an open sky. Also on eclipse day the rest of the park will be packed (only campers will be allowed into the campground). And wouldn’t you know it! They had the same magnet for only $5.

We returned home and played board games for the first time this trip. Although we are “stuck” here we are making the most of it. We didn’t do dinner because our lunch was very late and very huge. We did some half hearted foraging in the fridge.

We are still hedging our bets and to that end we didn’t cancel the reservation in Ennis, TX. We figure we need to decide by tomorrow. It is a two day hard drive there from here. Right now the weather is looking better for Makanda, IL. Plus, the whole experience here looks better than there. Giant City State Park is an unexpected gem and really has their act together.