Illinois' 25 Biggest Cities Today: Des Plaines, Palatine and Normal

From Homesnacks "100 biggest  cities in Illinois  for 2022" by Chris Kolmar.

After listing the 25 biggest Illinois cities in 1870, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the list as it would stand today.  When my family moved to Palatine in the early 60s, there were only around 10,000.

25.  Normal    54,699

24.  Berwyn    54,850

23.  Oak Lawn    55, 432

22.  Tinley Park    56,082

21.  Des Plaines    58,316

20.  Orland Park    58,380

19.  Skokie    63,300

18.  Palatine    67,875

17.  Decatur    71,857

16.  Schaumburg    73,392

15.  Evanston    73,979

14.  Bolingbrook    74,319

13.  Arlington Heights  75,071

--RoadDog

Good Buddy Denny Back to Cruising Again-- Part 2: On the Yellowstone Trail

In June 16, (Day 11 on the trip), Denny Gibson was in Illinois on the Yellowstone Trail., but we failed to connect, but over the telephone agreed to get together on his way back.

The Yellowstone Trail in Illinois runs through the Chicago area as that part of its 3,719 length.  From Chicago, it runs along the Lake Michigan shoreline through Evanston, Highland Park, Lake Forest, North Chicago, Waukegan, Zion and Winthrop Harbor before exiting the state to Wisconsin. Much of the route ran along Sheridan Avenue along Chicago's North Shore, and that is a beautiful drive in its own right.

Some mighty rich and mighty poor folks live along Sheridan Avenue which runs from Chicago north to Wisconsin.

Then, it goes through Wisconsin to Minnesota, South and North Dakota, Montana, the panhandle of Idaho to the state of Washington.  That is essentially the route that US Highway- 12 takes from Indiana to Washington state.  It is also a road I would like to drive some day, but I sure couldn't stay on the road as long as Denny.  

When I got together with him this past Saturday, that was his 34th day.  After two weeks on the road, I am always ready to go home.

But he is, as the truckers say, a long-hauler.

He makes sure to eat at little mom and pop places and stay at mom and pop motels whenever possible.  My idea of traveling there.  He also has a habit of stopping at most every craft brew place he can find along the way.

You can go to his trip by looking up Denny Gibson.

--RoadDog

Eight Sites in Chaicaoland Honoring Notable Women-- Part 2

FRANCES WILLARD HOUSE

The only woman to have a statue in Statuary Hall in the U.S. capitol =when it first opened.  Frances Willard spent most of her life in Evanston -- or at least recuperating there at her "rest cottage" after traveling all over for her causes.  Her life can be seen in what is considered the oldest house museum in the country (in operation since 1900 and the first museum dedicated to a woman).

It is owned by the Women's Christian Temperance Union, which she founded in 1883.

She was not the humorless ax-wielding Carrie Nation, but the woman often referred to as "the mother of grass-roots organizing."  She went through life tirelessly working for women's suffrage, labor reform and peace activism among other causes.

Here, you will also find "Gladys," the bicycle she learned to ride at age 53 and which led to her 1895 best-selling book "How I Learned to Ride the Bicycle."

Frances Willard House, 1730 Chicago Avenue, Evanston; 847-328-7500 or www.franceswillardhouse.com.

--RoadDog