road trip 2015: on to Iowa City

Just a quickie since we're moving toward lunch with Harlan and Steven. Yesterday was mostly on blue highways from Valparaiso, Indiana, just South of Chicago, on U.S. 30 (Lincoln Highway) and others. I stopped in Plainfield, Illinois, and found the Opera House and Masonic Block.

Both were built in the 1890s and the local Historic Preservation Commission very kindly had a walking tour brochure in a covered box near one of the historic markers.

More blue highways until Peru, Illinois, where I joined the Interstate 80 crowd. I got to Iowa City mid-afternoon and talked and talked and talked with Deb and Diana Kruse before some homemade minestrone soup and then off to a lecture at the University of Iowa by Carole Paul on the Grand Tour.

The lecture was held in Art Building West, designed a few years ago by Steven Holl and damaged by the 2008 flood. Here's a view of the interior:

Gotta go help in the kitchen. I'm being called.