S<$>ADLY, too many people often choose a travel destination solely based on the glitz and glamour of its advertising and publicity image. Which means much of the world doesn’t get the attention it really deserves.Yes, there’s a special excitement exploring headlined, far-flung exotic destinations. But it’s also very rewarding to experience a slice of “the real world” . . . a region where life proceeds at a more relaxed pace and the population isn’t as jet propelled, but actually has time to talk to visitors.

Visualise an area, often in the shadow of a fabled historic past, with residents who take pride in their land but aren’t about to set off bells and whistles in an effort to lure travellers there. These are quieter places locals often refer to as “the salt of the earth” and readers can enjoy refreshingly folksy, down-to-earth travel experiences in them. Everywhere from Aunt Mary’s rural English village and cousin Clyde’s Barbados township to upstate New York and rural New Hampshire.

This traveller, used to jet-setting around the world, also finds so much to see and do in such off-the-beaten-track tourist regions, that we’re taking readers back to the heart of the midwest for yet another visit.

We were intrigued because within the same day, one will walk in the footsteps of Abraham Lincoln and opponent Stephen Douglas, be introduced to the canal system that helped open water transportation to the east and south, and see a slice of history that helped open the frontier.

From small homesteads to prosperous farms — to surprising mansions built by the wealthiest of the entrepreneurs — it covers them all. We see and savour it, then return to the wonderful wilderness mood of Starved Rock Lodge to hike, relax, dine and get ready for yet another day of exploring.It was here in Ottawa, gateway to Starved Rock, that Lincoln actually began his march to the presidency. The first of the eight famed Lincoln-Douglas debates attracted some 20,000 eager listeners to Washington Park there on August 21, 1858.So intense was the interest in the campaign that people camped overnight when every hotel room in town sold out. Douglas came by carriage, Lincoln by train and steamboat, and each was met by paraders carrying placards. There were booths and stalls, a carnival-like atmosphere.

The debate that lasted three hours is memoralised in an impressive, very life-like statue of them both in this town square of war memorials and civil war canons. Descendants of those present on the occasion will tell you how Lincoln was hoisted up on their ancestors’ shoulders.

Douglas, already a two-term US Senator, won another, but was defeated by Lincoln in the Presidential race of 1860. Slavery was a major issue, Lincoln thinking the US Constitution proclaimed all men free and equal, Douglas feeling state sovereignty should hold.

Ottawa contained a number of other surprisies. Everyone has heard of the much-prized lamps made by Louis Comfort Tiffany. Those lucky enough to own these treasured antiques know their considerable value. Surprise of surprises, the Illinois river town is where glass to make them came from. The town wisely has preserved its history through creation of six outstanding murals painted on walls of warehouses, shops and offices. One especially dramatic one recalls the Peltier Glass Company.

My brother Jim was first to ask what a vintage Ford Illustration was doing next to what looked like a Tiffany lamp and elaborate glass dome from Chicago’s Cultural Centre.

“Was glass from here involved in making them?”

Yes, a special kind of silica sand native here created the superior glass for early Ford headlights, those famous lamps, collectible marbles, stained glass library domes, and so on, all made of this world-renowned glass factory. So keep your eyes on full alert at local antique shops.

Several unusual annual events draw visitors from afar. One widely publicised nationally is mid-June’s Heritage Tractor Adventure. More than 350 vintage tractors are hauled in from around the country to participate, parading through communities along the historic Illinois and Michigan Canal.

It usually lasts five days with stops for food, entertainment, overnighting and camaraderie. Visit www.heritagetractoradventure.com for details. We’ve been wanting to attend for years, but always seem to have a conflict of activity. Eagles are big news along the river with 94 pairs in the Plum Island area alone. A wealthy Chicago banker bought the unspoiled island near Starved Rock and wanted to build condos. But conservationists went into action and saved it from over-development.

An “Honour The Eagle Pow Wow” is held in late May in the Starved Rock Boat Ramp area. It includes Native American dancing, drumming, special presentations, cultural demonstrations, crafts, storytelling and tepees.

Thousands of Boy Scouts converge on Ottawa’s Scouting Museum each June to participate in the W.D. Boyce Pilgrimage / Founders Weekend. Why is Ottawa, Illinois centre of the US Boy Scout universe? Because in 1909 millionaire newspaper publisher William Dickson Boyce, while travelling in London, became lost in the city’s notorious fog. He was helped by a British boy scout and so impressed by the scout’s helpfulness that he formed the Boy Scouts of America as soon as he returned home.We didn’t have time to visit the Boy Scouts of America Museum there, which also houses memorabilia from Girl Scouts and Campfire Girls. But we did visit his gravesite at a cemetery on Ottawa’s outskirts. It’s a most tranquil site high on a bluff overlooking the densely wooded shore of the wide Illinois River directly below.It’s reflective in many ways of the entire surrounding area . . . a landscape that retraces some of the same homespun folksiness for which Lincoln himself was noted. But yet quietly and unassumingly, many of its residents achieved major landmark successes.

You’ll not only be see tranquil beauty of state parks and historic sites strung out along the Illinois and Vermillion Rivers like a necklace, but realise there’s beauty in the simplicity of open farm fields encountered en route to the canyons and bluffs of Starved Rock.

Those fields of corn and the corn cribs and silos housing the crop are the hope of the current energy crisis, as their production for ethanol increases.

Depending on the season, there are opportunities to visit a local county fair, take a scenic river cruise, rent boats of every kind, play golf, attend some little theatre or join the fun at a local summer festival. In Mendota it’s corn, Utica . . . burgoo stew, Ottawa . . . scarecrows. And, of course, all the other things we told you about last week.

It will come as another surprise to World War Two veterans to learn those LSTs (landing ship tanks) that played such an important role in both the Pacific and European fronts were built here along the Illinois River. A memorial at the former plant site in Seneca honours those who built 157 of them here and servicemen who sailed them. These massive ocean-going landing craft weighed 2,200 tons and carried up to 60 large tanks or trucks. They were among the 223 super-sized LSTs involved in the D-Day invasion of Normandy.

Some World War Two veterans went to Europe a few years ago and actually sailed one back across the Atlantic, but it’s currently located elsewhere.

It’s “just down the road a piece” from one of the country’s oldest grain elevators. Erected in 1861, its 65 feet tall and holds 70,000 bushels of corn.

The group of journalists attending this annual conference comes from very diverse areas and many of us see each other only once a year at this event. But over the years, close friendships have evolved and because they’re all outdoor oriented, most are very involved in causes — like our old fishing buddy, Jack Ehresman from Peoria, with whom we shared many an hour on Wisconsin Governor Warren Knowles’ treasured private fishing trips.

Jack single-handedly managed to save and see established a preserved natural habitat for native Illinois prairie chickens threatened with extinction.

Admirably, each participant is involved in saving something using the power of the pen to do it. We’re personally very into native prairie conservation, historic preservation and open lands, and have established a scholarship and funding for prairie restoration.

We bring along seed when there’s been a good crop to distribute to those who are interested. The rest is harvested and donated to Midewin Tall Grass Prairie, being developed by the US Government on a former US weapons arsenal site.

Locals decided an unusual pub crawl would make for a different kind of reunion and give participants a chance to catch up on each others activities . . . and it certainly did. Participants boarded a bus and the highpoint turned out to be revisiting nearby Utica.

Three years ago this small village, where we so often enjoyed antiquing in the past, was struck by tragedy when a tornado literally tore through, leaving devastation and death in its wake.

Clay, sand and sandstone had helped Utica prosper and its sturdily built stone buildings looked like they could withstand any force of nature. Down in a river valley, no one saw the tornado coming and weather warnings failed.The<$> howl of a tornado is eerie and unforgettable, something hurricane-prone residents are also well aware of. Some compare it to a racing train at full speed and that’s how it sounded to me the last time one roared past our property, which has been in the path of many. Some left entire neighbourhoods in our village destroyed.My mother told of seeing a house flying through the air lifted from its foundation like a scene from The Wizard of Oz when she was a youngster. A commercial greenhouse in the area was totally demolished, its employees saved only by huddling under benches, but badly hurt by flying glass.

So we were taught early on as children to head down into the southwest corner of the basement, since tornadoes seem to come from the southwest . . . and off we would rush clutching our little metal bank box of treasured silver dollars. It was thought if the tornado took the house, it would go towards the northeast.

Eight people gathered in a Utica pub for a nightcap that evening were not so lucky. Although it was built of large thick slabs of stone that looked strong as the Rock of Gibraltar, their bodies were found huddled in its basement, crushed by those massive stone building slabs. A horrible nightmare.

Destruction was so devastating even New York police arrived to help and planted 1,000 trees in thankfulness of Utica’s assistance to them after 9-11.

All pub stops were fun, but standout is a wonderfully off-the-wall, imaginative Irish pub called Duffy’s alone worth a detour to Utica. Those who loved a place decorated with memorabilia and floor-to-ceiling antiques will want to sip a Baileys Irish Cream and wander around absorbing it all.

Travel factfile: Helpful web sites: www.experienceottawa.com and www.starvedrocklodge.com

[obox] Next week: Surprising update on where people are travelling.