Springfield Tour

[Joe Di Cola]

Now that I am back in Troy and have had the chance to see Rob's pictures and to look at the few I took, I feel extremely fortunate that I had the opportunity finally to meet some of the members of the Symposium. Roger gave all of us a priceless gift when he started this site. It has attracted members from all over, including Germany, and has given members an opportunity to delve further into whatever aspect of Lincoln's life they choose. I would guess that some of the persons at the annual Surratt Conference have been motivated to attend for the first time due to the "assassination" part of the site. The Symposium inspired Gene Cook to put forth the idea of a trip to Springfield to tour the Lincoln sites. I personally feel that I made some lifelong friends as a result of the get-together in Springfield last week--to me, it was as though I had known Gene, Rob, Bill, and their spouses for years. Thank you Roger for this site, thank you Gene for the idea of the trip, and to Gene, Joy, Bill, Donna, Rob, and Cheryl many thanks for a superb three days.
It was also fun to be with the other Lincoln nerds (the spouses wisely absented themselves) at the bookstore. In terms of sheer volume (no pun intended) Rob was the clear winner in the "buy-athon," although Bill and Gene were not exactly empty-handed when they left the store!