A giant top hat welcomes road-trippers to the Illinois State Capitol Complex Visitors Center. We do love being seen.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

In addition to our annual road trips, my wife Anne and I have a twice-yearly tradition of spending our birthdays together on some new experience. On past trips we’d visited the graves, tombs, mausoleums and virtual posthumous palaces of 24 American Presidents in varying accommodations and budgets. One of the biggest names ever to grace the White House kept eluding us: Abraham Lincoln, planted a mere three hours away in Springfield, Illinois. In May 2023 I figured: let’s make his tomb a trip headliner of its very own, not a warm-up act on the road to Branson or whatever. History is technically more Anne’s fervent interest than mine, but we found plenty to do beyond reading wordy educational placards…

After our scenic tour inside the Illinois State Capitol, we returned to the car, drove over to the Capitol Complex behind the building, and drove a few laps around their visitor parking lots until a space finally opened up closer to our next attraction. Some spaces were cordoned off for a construction project; others were taken up by a few buses whose passengers we never encountered. The complex was apparently a popular place on Friday mornings.

Amid a collection of state government offices and other dull irrelevancies, we found artworks around the perimeter beyond what we’d already seen out front.

The Illinois Police Memorial.

The Illinois firefighters monument.

White-Tailed Deer, a 1994 sculpture by John Kearney made of chrome bumpers.

Lincoln: the bike rack!

Lincoln: the totem pole!

We parked a few feet away from the Capitol Complex Visitors Center, which contained much-needed restrooms along with exhibits of some things Illinois and some things Lincoln.

Illinois vanity license plates and an anti-drug teddy bear.

Souvenirs of various Illinois anti-addiction campaigns — collectible coins, buttons and patches.

Deer bearing the same expressions their ancestors held whenever Lincoln would walk into the woods and rehearse a speech to them.

The visitor center’s most distinctive feature was an assortment of giant top hats from a 2009 project called “Hats Off to Mr. Lincoln”, commemorating what would’ve been his 200th birthday if he’d survived his assassination and discovered the Fountain of Youth.

All-American top hat with Lincoln quotes written in each stripe.

Top hat with the full text of “Lincoln” by Springfield poet Vachel Lindsay.

The spirit of young Lincoln gazes across the home where the buffalo roam.

To be continued! Other chapters in this special MCC miniseries:

Part 1: The Tomb of Honest Abe
Part 2: More Wars, More Memorials
Part 3: The Illinois State Capitol
Part 5: Generation X Belongs in a Museum
Part 6: Misc. Museum
Part 7: His Presidential Library & Museum
Part 8: The Lincoln Museum Minus Lincoln
Part 9: ‘Round Springfield
Part 10: Lincoln Home & Law & Gifts