Many of the work trips Liz and I take have us traversing through small towns with populations ranging from 225 to 3500 and names like Otterville and Nutwood. One of the most interesting things we have seen so far in one of these towns was a small pond next to a normal family home with tall Greek type statues lining the back of it. A nice little retreat in the middle of nowhere. We also passed a large sign that said, Bulls for sale. You definitely do not see that everyday in Naperville.

The Illinois State Historical Society Award Luncheon was being held at the Pere Marquette Lodge in Grafton, and when we pulled into the parking lot, we were happy to see lots of trees, hiking trails, and the Illinois River running behind it. The weather was beautiful and we were going to take advantage of it after the ceremony.

Liz and I were pretty confident that the lodge was not an original log cabin, but had been built specifically to be a hotel and recreational center. Normally we would turn to the Naper Settlement for help with this, but unfortunately they were not able to make the trip down to the award ceremony. They had won two awards too!

We were treated to a nice buffet lunch before the award ceremony, and the other guests sitting at our table were incredibly nice. At first we thought we would sit alone, but eventually some brave souls named Barb and Ted Wachholz ventured over, and by the end of the lunch, they were deeply interested in the Cock Robin/Prince Castles story documentary Liz had done as well as our station and will hopefully come over for a visit. The award ceremony turned out to be a wonderful presentation honoring state historians in more ways than one. Apparently history is not only relegated to books these days. There were awards for Educational Programming (the category we were awarded in), Public Programs/ Exhibits, Special Projects, and Teaching. We were the last organization to be awarded in the whole ceremony and were extremely happy to walk away with a Superior Award for Educational Programming for the Joseph Naper Documentary. We never think of ourselves as historians, therefore, we were honored to be given an award from the Illinois State Historical Society. It has given us great credibility in being historically accurate which is something we strive to be. (With great help from the Naper Settlement.)

After the ceremony, we walked around the Pere Marquette lodge grounds gearing ourselves up for another 5 hours in the car for the drive home. We walked around in a circle on a campsite until we figured out that the trails were on the other side of the lodge. Then having finally found our way onto a moderately difficult trail, realized that we were ill-equipped to be climbing over fallen trees on a one-person path bordering a nice size ravine. I was also wearing clogs which are definitely not hiking shoes.

An hour later, we were back on the road, listening to a great cd mix a la Liz. Liz pulled a Bryan Ogg and made us stop at a small cemetery in the middle of a corn field where we found a gravestone with Carl’s (our operations supervisor) last name on it. I graciously made the photo his new computer desktop. We stopped at Cracker Barrel for dinner again on the way home. Chicken and dumplings this time and I finally tried one of the biscuits Liz is a huge fan of.

All in all, we were honored to win the Superior Award for Education Programming from the Illinois State Historical Society. We are also deeply appreciative of the Naper Settlement who nominated us for the award and who is also a great help to us in keeping our documentaries historically accurate. Carl gets a shout out too for being the behind the scenes guy and putting in just as much work in the Joseph Naper Documentary as Liz and myself.