Back to Memphis. Day 1 Peoria

After being able to have our son visit for a week, we decided we had just enough time to take one more trip this summer before school starts. We really don't know what the new school year will bring us so we figured we might as well enjoy ourselves while we can.
We decided to go to Memphis for a few days to revisit a few favorite haunts and find some new ones. Our first stop was to stay at Peoria, Illinois.
On the long, monotonous drive through central Illinois, we saw quite a few wind turbines.

It would make sense that all of this wide open flat land would get some breeze once in awhile. It is nice to see that some states are doing something about this. Our state made it more difficult to put them up.
It is truly amazing to see the amount of corn and soybeans planted for endless acres mile upon mile.
I snapped a picture of this interesting conglomeration of grain silos.

We eventually made our way to Peoria which is situated on the Illinois River.

We had made a reservation at a Four Points by Sheraton Hotel. We had stayed in one near East St. Louis a couple years ago and liked it. The rooms looked nice judging by the picture on the website. Unfortunately, when we got there, the room did not look like the picture. It was an older hotel that had been bought by this chain. The room wasn't terrible, but it was kinda dusty and the bathroom was very small. The bed was pretty comfortable with scratchy sheets, but in the morning when we got up to take a shower, the water kinda trickled out. We complained when we checked out and the lady at the front desk was very surprised that the pictures on the website did not look like the actual rooms. She actually comped us for the room, which we didn't expect but it certainly made up for the experience.
I digress, though. After checking in we looked around looking for a place to eat. We decided on an Irish Restaurant called Kellerher's. It was in a neat area close to the waterfront that had a bunch of restaurants and bars built in old buildings. All along the front was an open area with tables and stuff to sit outside and for the smokers. We sat down by a lady with two children. Lindy went to the bathroom. Meanwhile the one child spilled his pop and fell off his booster chair and ended up standing on his head. I didn't realize the pop made a huge puddle right by Lindy's chair so when she came back she slipped on it, but thankfully didn't fall. The mom was apologetic but if she had been watching her kid in the first place it probably wouldn't have happened. Anyway, we moved to a different area and ordered a couple of beers.
They had a number of different kinds of draft beers so Lindy ordered a De Struise/Stillwater Outblack and I had a Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous Black Ale.

I guess black ale is the latest fad in beer, but neither of us were real excited about them. They do have a high alcohol content. Lindy's was 10% and mine was 8.7% We ordered our food and got an appetizer of Guiness-marinated roast beef cut in thin slices over dark rye bread with Swiss cheese melted over the top. It was really yummy; so yummy it was gone before we remembered to take a picture.  We decided to try a couple more beers. Lindy got a Goose Island 312 Urban Wheat and I got a Flossmoor Station Railhopper Double IPA. We liked both of these better. Next we got our food. Lindy ordered a Banger Toastie which was a grilled pannini sandwhich with mini sausages and Swiss Cheese.

I got a Sampler Platter which included Shepherd's Pie, Cabbage Casserole, and Irish Champ potatoes.

Lindy's was pretty good and mine was OK. The service was pretty crappy, though.  We decided to drive around a bit and then go to the casino. On the way we saw a sign for the Dan Fogelberg Memorial. We didn't realize that he was from there. We thought of Sandy because she was a big fan of his. We crossed one of the many bridges over to East Peoria where the Pair-A-Dice riverboat casino was located. It was a very nice looking casino-especially for the riverboat variety, but it had pretty old and crappy games. One good thing is that there is no smoking allowed in Illinois casinos so that was really nice. The other good thing was I won 2000 credits on a game.

I came home with my money, but Lindy didn't. We still had a good time and made our way back over the river to our hotel. Tomorrow we are on to Memphis via Cairo, Illinois.