The Random Thoughts Review

So, after some of my recent excursions, I’ve been thinking about getting a truck camper to use for future camping trips. It seems like the ideal blend of functionality for me. It’s more than large enough for one person, lets me stay in tent sites at the rv parks, and has a stove, sink, etc for actual living.

Anyway, I’ve been watching the truck camper scene on ebay, and have bid on one that showed up a few months ago. It was a 1997 (or 1998) popup, which means that it has a section at the top that extends upwards when you actually camp. Driving down the road it only extends about a foot over the top of the truck, which would help a lot with wind resistance. I had set my max bid at $1,700, and it ended up going for $3,030.

Another one that I had thought about bidding on ended up going for $2,500.

The current one that I’m thinking about is an older model, without all of the amenities, with a starting price of $1,000 and a buy-it-now of $2,500 (ya, right). The
listing on ebay gives the details, which I’ll repeat here since the listing URL won’t last very long..

PERRIS VALLEY SMALL LIGHTWEIGHT TRUCK CAMPER RV
This Is a lightweight camper. This is the only mini camper I have seen where the bed pulls out over the dinette into a huge master bed, and the dinette makes into a double bed. The camper is in great conditon and has brand knew curtains and a front slider for access to the cab.It has 110 and 12v lighting. The outside is nice with no scapes or dents. The color is white with red and silver stripes. All the windows came tinted and do not leak. The roof is in a great shape and does not leak. It has one three gallon propane bottle that feeds a two burner stove top and will last for a long time. Yes this camper is Very efficient and cost little to maintain. The camper has 4 hydrolock jacks that work great. It has a ice box That kept all of my food cold for three days without replacing ice. I bought it from the original owner, he kept it covered and so did I. we are Having a baby and it must sell. email me for more picts. THE BOTTOM FOOTPRINT IS 6’10” LONG X 3’1” WIDE. thank you and good luck.

I emailed for more questions. Below are the questions, along with the guy’s response, and my thoughts on it….

1. What’s the dry weight of the camper? “700 dry”. Wow.. 700 pounds? That’s insanely light. The other campers, which have been newer, and probably made with lighter material, have been up around and over 1,000 pounds. This is suspicious to me.
2. What’s the height, both overall and the height to the cabover section. How far forward does the cabover extend? “6’2″, 3’3″, 3’9″ ” So, I’d probably have to duck slightly when in it. No biggy. But, this does mean that I’ve got something 6 feet high sitting in the back of my truck. That’s quite a ways up there. 3.75″ forward of the bed is going to put the front of it over the front window, but I don’t think that would be much of an issue.
3. No furnace, air condition, swamp cooler, hot water heater, or refrigerator? “no-heat no air no swamp no hot water” No surprise here, but too bad.
4. Is the ice box basically a built in ice chest? “the ice box looks like a fridge but takes ice” Bummer. A fridge would be nice. Wonder how it handles the ice melting. I guess if it is just a ice chest you’d be ok… but it looks like the door opens on the front like a regular fridge.
5. Any 110 outlets inside? “110 light and plug,12 volt lights”
6. Size of water tank for sink? Grey water tank size? “6 gal fresh no gray or black” Wonder where water goes when you drain it down the sink.
7. You explicitly mention the windows and roof as not leaking? Does this mean that the whole thing doesn’t leak? “No leaks”
8. Any instruction manuals with it? “no manuals”
9. What vehicle did you/previous owner have it on? “dodge dacoda”
10. What’s the Center of Gravity for the camper? “gravity???”
11. Does it come with mounting equipment? “yes 4 twist locks no bed hooks” I don’t know what this means. I’ll have to do some research.
12. What sorts of weather (summer/winter/etc?) have you used it in? Any experiences to share? “used in summer and in cold weater we boiled water in the morning for heat and it roasted us in less than 3 min”
13. Do the windows open? Screens? Roof vents? “all windows open and have screens,one roof vent and one vent\esc hatch over bed”
14. Width of camper/how long is the double bed. How long is the master bed when extended? “master bed 6’wide x 7′ long, double is 3’6”x6′”
15. How much storage space is there? “3 cabinetss 3drawers and a jacket closet”
16. Place for a portapotty? “cubby for portapot under jacket closet by rear door”

Other comments: “camper is all stock and on a 1-10 scale its a 9.9 very clean and no tears or holes one latch is broken on the a drawer.”

Subsequent emailing…

“this is my sons camper so im not totally familiar with all that’s included but I did just remember that he has 4 bed mounts that install on the truck bed and are removable when not in use I am sorry I forgot that so you wont need bed hooks we have them.”

“Hi the camper has eye hooks and we have the common threaded twist type anchors with hooks on each end and you will need hooks on your bed or the ones that mount under the truck.”

My random thoughts.. The camper is a few miles from the border of Yosemite in California. While that’s a pretty area, it’s a long way from here. About 2,100 miles, as best I can tell. That means 6 days of driving to get there and back. That’s 3 days out, 3 days back. Figure $500 in gas, and a couple hundred more in hotels.. That’s sizeable. And, I need hooks to attach the camper to, it would appear.

A few weeks ago I received a postcard in the mail inviting me to a seminar on buying rental property. The postcard was from the bank that I got my house mortgage through, and rental property is something that I’ve thought about doing for a long time, so I decided that I would go.

I sent email to the guy that was running the seminar, Tom Cain, and received a response back in a few hours that my spot had been reserved.

Tonight was the night for the seminar, and I didn’t really have any idea of what to expect. I had asked some other people who had accounts at the same bank, and they hadn’t gotten the postcard invitation, so I didn’t (and don’t, for that matter) have any idea what the criteria were for actually getting the invitation. Anyway, I got there and there was quite a crowd. They had probably 50 chairs set up in the main lobby of Bank Champaign with a podium at one end. There were various flavors of coffee available and a few trays of cookies, which I avoided. I found a spot near the middle of the room and sat down and waited for the event to begin.

The evening started out with Zachary McNabney (Assistant Vice President of Bank Champaign) speaking for a few minutes about the benefits of getting pre-approved for a loan. This was all old news for me. Having purchased a house, I still remember all of the nuances of that whole process. But, basically, being pre approved lets you quickly know how much house you can get a loan for, and it also gives the seller more confidence that the deal won’t fall through due to financing not being available.

Current loan rates, as of this afternoon were 6.625 on a 30 year fixed; 6.25 on a 15 year, 6.5 on a 5 year ARM with 10% down.

After Zach finished talking, Tom Cain took the podium and started by discussing his own situation. He had been at a Remax realtor conference in another town and 95% of the attendees said that they had kids, but that very few of them were involved in owning rental property. The speaker had said that if you bought a house for $80,000 with 10% down you were out $8,000. Then, the rental income could make your payments on the mortgage, and in 15 years, the house could be paid off. In that time, it would, conservatively, have appreciated to $100,000. So, for an expenditure of $8,000, in 15 years it turns into $100,000. Needless to say, that’s a pretty good return on investment.

To get started, he got a line of credit on his primary home that his family lived in. As an example, let’s say that you had an $80,000 line of credit. The houses that he has purchased were primarily in the $50-73,000 range. So, to purchase a house, he bought it outright using the line of credit on his house. So, he basically paid cash for the new property. He bought fixer-uppers. He said that he typically had put $8-8,500 in each one. Then, he got it appraised and they always ended up being appraised somewhere in the mid 80s. At that point, you get the bank involved, and get an actual mortgage on the new property (so that you can pay off your $50-73,000 + the $8-8,500) that you had initially borrowed against your house line of credit. You can mortgage 80% of the property’s value without having to pay PMI (mortgage insurance… bad stuff) so you can mortgage $85 * 0.8 or $68,000. Hopefully the $68 will cover your initial cost plus the cost of improvements, and you have your line of credit paid off. (Note to self.. If you put $8000 into the property and increase its value by 12-20k, consider just flipping the house)

So, you don’t have worry about losing your house if something went wrong. Then, the tenants can basically pay the mortgage payment each month, and it isn’t uncommon to clear $75-$100 a month on top of that. Prices that were mentioned for rent were in the $400 range for a 1 room apartment to $750 or so for a 3 bedroom house. Tom said that he always buys a home warrantee on the property when he purchases it. For ~ $300 this gets you a year of coverage if anything goes wrong in the house with the furnace, air conditioning, etc. You pay $60 per service call, and they either fix the component or give you a new one. This reduces the risk exposure for the owner.

In Champaign County, there is a loophole in the tax code that says that you can get the homestead exemption on property taxes if you write a clause into the rental agreement with the tenant that states that part of their rent each month is going to pay the property tax. Additionally, you have to put verbage in the lease that tells the tenant that they are then responsible for the payment of the property tax. If the lessor happens to be a loser, the tenant will be stuck with paying the property tax. One might say that the homestead exemption ends up being something like $500 a year*, so it could be significant. This is a loophole, and, as a lawyer discussed later on in the evening, it shouldn’t be assumed that it will always be there. They could close it at any point. It only applies to single family dwellings.

* – 2004 Champaign city tax was 7.7023% per assessed value, which is a kookie 1/3 of the actual value of the house. Anyway, the $5,000 homestead exemption times the 7 percent is $385. So, it would be $32 a month.

Owning real estate has several tax advantages as well. You can use depreciation on the property to offset some of the income. I’m not exactly sure how this works. Property generally appreciates in value, so I’m not sure what you are depreciating out. Maybe you only depreciate out the work that you do on the property.. I’m not sure. But Tom gave an example that, a couple of years ago, he had set aside $40k for taxes on the properties, and after he played the depreciation games, he only ended up paying $7k or so.

After Tom finished talking, Pat Fitzgerald, an attorney with Meyer Capel started talking. He concentrates on Real Estate Law and seemed like a pretty knowledgeable guy. I don’t know what he charges, but I wouldn’t feel like I had an incompetent lawyer if I ended up with him. He talked about making sure that the contract to buy gives you options. This is often called a due diligence time, but the basic idea is to make sure that you give yourself time and the right to do the necessary work for a property. This might include making sure that the title is clean, making sure that the zoning matches with your intended use, geo-ground work if needed. If you buy land and plan to build, you want to make sure that it isn’t all sand, or on a cave.. that sort of thing. Making sure that there aren’t any encroachments.

He said that that one of the things that he liked about real estate investing is that it is passive money. He said that normally, you have to be doing work to get paid. But with real estate, it is doing the work whether you are or not. This goes for most investments, though. He also mentioned a tax benefit of real estate investing. With stocks, if you sell a stock and buy another the same day, you are still responsible for paying taxes on the gains from the first sale. With real estate, you can do a “1031 Exchange” and sell a piece of real estate and buy more and not having to pay taxes on the sale of the first one. You defer the payment of the taxes. (No, you don’t completely get out of paying them… you just defer them)
For the 1031 exchange, you have 45 days from the closing date on the sale to identify properties you are going to use to replace that parcel in your investment portfolio. You can choose up to 3 other properties to replace it with, or you can follow the 200% rule, where you can choose as many properties as you like, but their sum must be < = 200% of the sale price of the real estate you unloaded. Then, you have up to the lesser of 180 days or the due date of the taxes for the year in which you sold the original real estate to actually make the purchases. An example is in order. If you sold in January, you'd have until July to purchase. If you sold in December, you'd have until the tax due date, which is generally April 15. But, you can get that extended so that you can still (in effect) get your 180 days. Using a land trust to purchase property gives you confidentiality. A developer that is trying to purchase multiple lots is an example of where this could be handy. A seller might realize that person X is willing to pay them more if they think that they have a parcel of property that person X really wants. But, by using a land trust, they would only know that Bank Champaign Land Trust #239823 is wanting to buy. Using a LLC or S-Corporation, etc to purchase property limits personal losses in the event that something goes wrong with the property. However, if, for some reason, the individual themselves gets sued, their assets would include the LLC or S-Corp, so they would still be seized. If you buy, definitely have property insurance, and also have liability insurance. Rule of thumb numbers would say to have a million dollars worth if you are owning as an individual, or $3-500,000 if you are owning through an LLC. For how much the bank is willing to loan you, one rule of thumb is 1.2 * the income potential. So, if you assumed that you didn't have any external cash income, after subtracting all maintenance costs, you would need to be making, in rent, 1.2 times the expected mortgage payment to actually get the loan. Tom said that there was an average12.8% appreciation in home prices in 2004 in Champaign County. I managed to get can warmer out of the evening that says Bank Champaign on it, along with a pen. There was also a piece of paper included in the packet on real estate investing using ones IRA. This is also something that I've been interested in doing. I might have to get ahold of Bank Champaign and find out some details on it. All things considered, I'm more informed now that I was before the evening started. I would like to have more details on actually owning the rental property. I realize that this seminar was on buying, and that's fine. I would like to learn more about actually owning, though. That's what scares me. The purchase is a one time thing. But actually owning.. Could a person keep rental property rented? If it isn't rented, the monthly mortgage payment will have to come out of your pocket. The main problem, anectdotally speaking, that I've seen with rentals is that you get bad people in, and they trash the place. Then you are out serious money fixing stuff up. Concerns and questions: If the realtor finds a really good house, wouldn't they buy it themselves? Are we due for a drop in housing prices? Can you keep it rented? How much work is it to own rental property? Are the management services worthwhile? (I'm sure the answer proffered for this question will depend on who you ask) I've seen numbers of 10-20% management fees, and more for new leases. This makes you wonder just what they do for that cash, other than take the monthly checks and call the plumber when the tenant tells them to. Some other relevant websites: Calculating cashflow from a rental property
Calculator to determine if an investment is profitable

So, I’ve been thinking for some time now that I needed to get a new pair of “tennis shoes”. The term “tennis shoe” is one that my family has been using for decades, and it refers to all non work, dress, hiking shoes that are typically designed for some of track and field type sport. Growing up, I always seemed to end up with Nike shoes. They were definitely in style, and mom and dad somehow managed to wheel and deal the shoe dealer into getting us Nikes each time we needed shoes.

During high school, I went through a phase where I owned a pair of LA Gear shoes, and a few pair of Reebok here and there. And, I went through a no-name phase, where I got shoes real cheap and watched the soles fall off of them in the first few months of ownership, etc. etc.

Anyway, that’s a little background. To catch everyone up to where things are currently at, a few years ago (probably 3-4, let’s say) I went to the local Shoe Carnival store and purchased a pair of New Balance shoes. The “model” number on the shoes was 804. I tried on pair after pair, and the 804 was the shoe that really felt good in the store. And, the shoe felt good as I wore it. I’m not really a grey-colored shoe guy. I prefer standard white shoes, but this shoe did feel good. I was mostly sedentary during the time I owned this shoe.

A couple of years back I decided it was time for a new pair of shoes, so I went back to Shoe Carnival. Needless to say, it is one of the corrolaries to Murphy’s law that you’ll never find the same shoe twice, and this time was no exception. You walk into the Shoe Carnival, they are playing the peppy musack, and every 3 minutes they tell you to come spin the wheel to get 10% off of a pair of socks if you buy 3 pair of shoes, and they have aisles and aisles of shoes. They have an aisle for Cross Training, an aisle for Basketball, etc. So, I went to where the shoes were at that were similar to the 804s that I was wearing, and didn’t find any 804s. I ended up leaving, only to come back a few weeks later and purchase a pair of 480s. The 480s weren’t a bad shoe. They didn’t hurt me or anything. I was sedentary during most of the time I wore these shoes. During the tail end of the 480 Reign I started working out more. For the past four months or so, I’ve been trying to kick the sedentary habit and have been walking, jogging, and running a fair amount. I’ve been thinking about getting new shoes for some time now… Probably the last 10 months or so.

But, I don’t get in a hurry about doing these things, and just ended up back in the Shoe Carnival in the past month or so. I figured that my exercise regime called for some new leather. Needless to say, they didn’t have any New Balance 805s, or 480s. And, there isn’t any way to really reference a current model shoe with what might have been in the past. There isn’t any obvious rhyme or reason to the numbering scheme (obviously they don’t just go in increasing order) so the hundreds place probably means something.. Who knows? Anyway, I ended up getting a pair of 504s. Perhaps these are related, in some small way, to the pair of 804s that I started out with. One of life’s little conundrums. The 504s don’t look too bad. I like a shoe that looks somewhat like a running shoe. I don’t care for the flat-footed looking walking shoes. So, the 504 passed the look test. It felt OK in the store. Was it a good shoe? Well, it’s hard to tell based on the shoe box. But, I had had good luck with New Balance in the past.

Shoe Carnival was running a special that night (No, that’s not the unique part.. they are always running a special) where you could get a second pair of shoes for half price. So, I ended up finding a pair of Nike shoes that looked like good running shoes and purchased them. Let me get the Nikes out of the way first. They are good shoes. They are light, and I can run in them for miles without any noticeable ill effects.

The New Balance shoes, on the other hand, are simply inadequate for my current lifestyle. They are fine for walking around work. But, any time I do any serious walking (4mph for > 2 miles, let’s say) I start seeing problems. And, I see these problems within a few minutes if I try to use them for jogging. When I start the exercise, everything is fine. But within a short amount of time I start noticing that my lower legs are hurting. Around the area where the calf is at, but the pain is on the front side of the leg. So it isn’t like a muscle that is hurting. It’s just a pain. And, I start noticing that, when walking, my feet start falling flat on the pavement. It’s as though the shoes aren’t giving me any “roll” as I move down the street. I just fall flat on my feet with each step, which is also uncomfortable. With the Nikes, I can run for miles without noticing problems.

Bottom line, I’m most likely not going to be purchasing any more New Balance shoes. I’m quite pleased with the Nikes, and my brother has recommended Asics as a good brand as well. I have also heard that you are supposed to wear a running show for 100 miles. After that time it has lost its cushioning and should be replaced. Well, I doubt that I’ll be quite that strict, but I definitely anticipate that I’ll be updating the shoes more often now that I’m exercising more. Hope this helps someone out there.

I had a guy ask me if I could post a picture of the home made projector mount for my Infocus 4805 projector. So, I took a few snapshots and put them up with some basic instructions/guidances.

The Picture Review :: Homemade Infocus 4805 Projector Mount

Toastabags – cook a meal in your toaster!

Gimmick, or fantasy? Basically, if you have one of those oversized toasters (I do) you just plop a sandwich into the bag, throw it into the toaster, and end up with a toasted meal.

I’ve already got one of those sandwich makers that lookes like a waffle maker that does something similar (probably better, to be honest) but cleanup on it is a real pain when cheese drains out into the little crevasses..

So, I’m not going to get them right now.. ($11.85 for a 2-pack) but I suppose they are something to keep in mind.

As the culmination of many moons of thinking, I now have DSL up and running.

Ever since DSL started dropping their pricing I had been considering switching. I’ve been using a cable modem for about 5 years now, and have been relatively pleased with it. But, it is expensive. It costs me about $46 a month to have the cable modem. I’ve been watching the DSL prices drop and drop and drop, and I eventually decided to take the plunge. When DSL is $14.95 a month, and they give you 3 months free for sending in a cable internet bill…. I had to jump on it.

I had a few people that I know get DSL, and I carefully monitored their thoughts on the subject. I knew that the price was appealing, but if the service was bad, it just wasn’t worth it to me. I wanted a reliable method of connecting to the internet. Speed isn’t that important to me. I don’t download tons of large files, so max speed isn’t as vital as simply having the connection. Having an always-on connection is a wonderful thing, and I didn’t want to give that up. So, when I would ask people, and they would tell me that they were happy with their service.. I listened.

So, late last week (Friday afternoon) I decided to sign up for SBC DSL. I filled out the form and clicked Submit. I chose October 13th as the day that I wanted to have the service turned on, and, after submitting, they felt compelled to tell me that it would be up to 6 business days before I had the DSL modem. So, I was a bit worried that I might not get the modem in time.

My worries were in vain, though. My DSL modem was waiting for me when I got home on Monday. How it got here so fast, I’ll never know… But I can’t complain about their speed when it comes to shipping that thing out.

I didn’t have a phone line back where I have the ethernet router, so I had to buy some phone equipment (cables, ends, crimpers.. standard stuff) and ran a new line for the DSL. I put the DSL filter down underneath the house, so all of my normal phones look just like they always have. The DSL filter is totally hidden. Kinda neat. I did the wiring last night.

Then, I hooked the modem up… But resisted the temptation to see if they had turned it on early, and waited until tonight.

When I got home tonight, I plugged everything into the system (It is a Siemens SpeedStream 4100 DSL modem) and crossed my fingers and hoped that it would just work.

It didn’t.

So, I rebooted my machine into Windows and put in their install CD. I went through the process and it told me that it couldn’t find the server. I went the IP for the modem (192.168.0.1) and the modem seemed happy. But, the router wasn’t picking up the DNS entries from the modem. And, it still isn’t. For some reason their is a miscommunication going on there. I was able to manually enter the nameservers into the various computers and it is now working as it should, but it gave me fits for a little while. So, go figure.

Other than that, the install went ok. I told the CD to not install any of the programs. It looks like it still littered my desktop with a few icons. Oh well.. that’s what recycle bins are made for.

Speed wise.. it almost feels a little snappier than cable. I downloaded a 5 meg file, and it seemed to be converging on 1.5Mbits/s just like it should have. On the cable modem I could easily get 5-6Mbits on a good day from a fast site. But, like I said, I don’t need that high of a max.

So, I’ll keep things like this for a while… and if it continues to work as it seems to be doing right now.. I’ll be calling up the cable company and getting rid of their service. And save myself a bunch of cash.

Got a new blog. Going to try this out on my own for a while.

Before, I was at http://mt-rainier.blogspot.com

Planning Your Visit to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum

Yesterday I went to the Lincoln Museum in Springfield. It was really nice. Took me a little while to find the place. The driving instructions weren’t as clear as I would have liked. But, with the help of the GPS I managed to find it.. (Come to find out, from I-72, it’s really easy.. When I-72 ends at Springfield, just go straight.. Turn north on 7th street.. Go a block or two and you are at the parking garage).

Got to the parking garage at 3:28pm. Left at 6:26pm. 50 cents per half hour for parking. So, I stayed about 3 hours at the museum.

Spoilers follow. If you plan on going, I’d recommend not reading the following. Experience it yourself. That’s part of the journey.

The museum had a special exhibit on John Wilkes Booth and the actual assassination, which I went to first. It discussed all of the conspiracy folk and what happened leading up to the day of the assassination, the actual assassination itself, and the followup (how the conspirators were caught, basically).. They had the actual carriage that Lincoln and wife took to Ford’s Theater on the evening of April 14th, as well as the bed where they took Lincoln following the shooting (where he died at 7:22am on the 15th) Pretty neat.

Then I went to a 3d presentation discussing the lincoln library and what they have there. Something like 12 miles of stacks.. Millions of books and pieces of stuff (various memorabilia)..

Next were the pre-presidential years.. Talked about his childhood, first exposures to slavery.. (If you go, note the colors of the lights on the first slavery display.. The slave is bathed in pure white light.. The auctioneer is lit from below in red light.. very demonic looking.. He might have even had a slightly pointy nose). Next was when Lincoln started getting interested in politics and how he moved up through the ranks.

Had a cute piece of “what it would have been like if Tim Russert were around to talk about the 1860 election.” That section ended with Lincoln getting elected in 1860.

Next, I went to another show on ‘Lincoln’s Eyes’. It was also pretty neat. The shows at the museum are technologically advanced. I won’t give anything away beyond that. But, this show discussed what you could see in a person’s eyes, and provided another history lesson on lincoln.

Next were the Whitehouse years. It started with a display of the women’s dresses and quickly moved into the political satire of the day. Many, many cartoon caricatures of Lincoln doing stupid things. They didn’t seem to like Lincoln, no matter what he did. I was really reminded of the current position that Bush is in. Both were in a war situation, etc. etc. The exhibit went on to show the whitehouse kitchen, the emancipation proclamation, and the war effort. There was a really cool display showing the north and the south on a map. It was called “the war in 4 minutes” or something like that. There was a date display at the bottom that slowly moved through the early 1860s. The map showed the area that the south controlled over time, and you could watch the area expand and shrink as the battles occurred (which were also shown). In the corner was a casualty count, so that you monitor the deaths that the north and the south incurred over time. Very very cool and very well done. Very sobering. Soon after that was an entire room devoted to the battle at Gettysburg. Very somber. Sends a chill down your spine. 52,000 dead between July 1 and July 3, 1863. Wow.

From there, they clean up the remaining details. Lincoln got reelected, Lee surrendered, and Lincoln decided to go to the theater. John Wilkes was considered by all to be the top romantic actor of the day. He was supposedly very handsome, and well respected. He just didn’t like the thought of abolition. A mockup of the theater was provided, and you could see the wax figure of Lincoln sitting there, with JWB getting ready to charge in and shoot him. When I was in DC 17 years ago, I saw a play at the Ford theater, and had seats up in the balcony. I was seated one seat from the end, right next to where Lincoln’s roped-off booth was at. The seat location where I sat was actually shown in this mockup that they had. Again, a very solomn thing.

After the death, they touched on Lincoln’s trip back to Illinois and they had a very large room showing where he lay in State here in Illinois.

All things considered, a very nice place. I would recommend it to anyone. They have a very high concentration of tech stuff there. Projectors all over the place. Neat way to spend a few hours.