Anniversary Trip-- Day One Part 3 Stockton to Galena

I did a little research on the claim that Kraft Foods began in Stockton. It is actually the site of their first factory to make cheese. The advent of WWI in 1914 cut the Kraft brothers off from their supply of imported cheese so they decided to make their own.

They chose Stockton because it was located along a railroad and there were lots of dairy farms in the area. Of course, milk is a major ingredient of cheese. They bought their factory from Hal Sheetz in 1914.

These guys weren't going to let anything like a war stop them!!

From Stockton, we drove to Elizabeth with possible plans of spending the night there. A small mom-pop motel is located east of the town on US-20 called Marcotte's Family Motel with 16 rooms starting at $50. It looks to be nicely kept up and has a website http://www.familymotel.com/. There is also another small one west of town called The View Motel with 11 rooms starting at $50 as well http://www.theviewmotel.net/. I just found that if you type in .com, you get The View Motel in Sedona, Az.

Elizabeth has a reconstructed fort from the Blackhawk War called Apple River Fort State Historic Site and the Chicago Great Western Railway Depot Museum. We drove through town, but it didn't look like too much was going on so continued.

I still miss the great old automobile showroom which I found out burned down a few years back, It had two old classic neon car signs, a Pontiac and a Buick. A new place occupies the site and still sells autos. If they were able to save the signs, I hope they put them back up.

As I said before, US-20 becomes one of the US' premier drives at Stockton, but then it even gets better here. You drop down out of town then start climbing. At the top of the hill is a scenic overlook tower that has a great view. Unfortunately, we were told at the Freeport visitors center that it is now closed because of the local high school antics at the site after hours. That is really too bad. You can see a picture of the Long Hollow Tower at the View Motel site.

Then, you drive through Tapley Woods for several miles. This is a canopy drive for much of it, with the trees forming a tunnel. Always a great respite on a hot day.

Then, it's up and down the rest of the way. It was nice to have two lanes on the upward climbs because of trucks. At one point, you round a bend, and catch a full look at Galena. That is always one of the highlights of this part of the drive.

To STILL be Continued. I Might Just Get Through Day One the Next Time. --RoadDog