52 Weeks....to the Real Me

We awoke early (having gotten our showers the night before) and headed straight to... Cracker Barrel. We've now eaten there 3 times. =)

After a yummy breakfast we drove North to check out Tolono, Mahomet, Rantoul, Urbana, and Champaign. We also added Tuscola to the list, got a glimpse of Savoy.

Tolono- I'm beginning to see a trend with these small towns. They are very cramped on the inside. Although I get a kick out of knowing "where the town ends" -- you run into a cornfield. They did have a very nice school complex (Jr High/High next to each other) and a brand new, large library. The streets were kind of a maze and there are some new large houses being built in the area. Also there was this one old farmhouse in the center of everything, cornfield included. It was 3 stories high -- that's the house I want! lol (picture courtesy of Virtual Earth)
We drove through Savoy and Champaign to get to our next stop- Mahomet.

Mahomet- The schools looked great, the secretary was very friendly, she was actually the secretary for the preK-K building. They even had smaller railings lower for the kids to reach- in addition to the adult ones. There isn't much in town. A DQ, a few gas stations, an orthodontist, a pizza place. Everyone seemed very friendly and the houses were nice. I'm not sure about there being any rental properties though. Champaign is only about 10-15 minutes away, so "big shopping" is not too far away.

Rantoul - I think this was my favorite of the day. It was the one I was hoping to like the least, since it was the furthest away, but it immediately had a suburban feel, the secretary of the superintendent was very nice. There was a huge park next to the middle school -- even had a skate park in it. There is an Air Museum, with some huge airforce planes from the olden days. Just like with any town, there are nice parts of town and not so nice parts. It does seem like they have most of the "modern conveniences."

Urbana- I had figured of the two, Champaign and Urbana, I would like Urbana better because it was smaller. Silly me. Urbana is well.. very urban. Everything is close together, and rather rundown. (at least from what we saw as we traveled between the schools and the superintendent's office. Dad said he saw things chained down in the yard, presumably so they wouldn't be stolen, not exactly the kind of area I want to live and work in. Champaign looked more promising.

Champaign - First of all - IT'S HUGE. There are some really cool apartments on the IU campus, but after investigating when I got home last night, they cost significantly more. The schools all seemed nice, the once I tracked down (there are SEVERAL, 3 High Schools) We drove around the city quite a bit. Just like everywhere else though it felt kinda cramped, narrow streets, houses close together. But we found several neighborhoods that were more spacious, lots of parks, pools, and Champaign does offer about every shopping convenience.

On the way home I decided to stop by a small town that had OUTLET STORES.

Tuscola - Very small, schools were nice. Outlets were ok, I actually went to the Jockey one and talked to the ladies inside. One happens to be an "aspiring teacher" she's been subbing at the school for 2 or 3 years and is hoping to get hired. Her overall opinion was a bit bitter. It was a nice little resting point, but I don't think I'll really consider it.

We returned home (to the hotel), Dad took a nap and I surfed the web. I was searching for apartments, re-researching areas. Someone had asked it I was going to check out Danville, I hadn't planned on it, but I might on Saturday. I was also researching Walmarts and Targets just to get a feel of where they are, how far they are etc. I'm having doubts as to what I want, my natural assumption is that of course I want all the major conveniences, but then I think - how great it would be to live more simply, without all the commercial stuff. I guess this is something I'll have to ponder more over the coming months. Another town that keeps popping up that I've been doing some research on is Savoy.

Savoy- Savoy is part of the Champaign school district but it located just out of town (to the South) They seem to be the most "suburban-like" place. They share a library with Tolono (see above) and have a movie theater, book store, running store, Subway (restaurant, not train) and are within 10 minutes of Champaign and all it has to offer. I'm going to see if we can ride through there again on Saturday.

So I guess that's it -- oh we did find Mattoon's Walmart, we stopped for some diet coke and diet pepsi where it occured to me -- "do the Illini call it pop or soda??"

*We also watched Eagle Eye, it was a pretty good movie!

Side Note: We noticed that on the local news, they make it a point to report GOOD things that are going on in the community.