Tourism
So, I'm on the way to here this morning, and an ad comes on the radio. "There's lots of great things to see in Illinois," the ad says, "The Sears Tower, the Mississippi River, the House where Lincoln lived..." Huh. Three things to see in Illinois. A building, a big ass river you can see in like six other states, and a crappy old cabin. Woo! I started racking my brain to come up with other things to see in Illinois, and I came up with bupkus.
Truth of the matter is, there's just not a lotta touristy stuff in Illinois. We're not a big "Look at Me" type of state. In fact, here's a quick list of Reason's Why People Come to Illinois.
1. Chicago. Well, duh. Chicago's frickin' huge. People seem to like frickin' huge. (snickersnicker)
2. College. Don't ask me why, but people from all over the freaking world go to SIU and Uof I. I figure U of I is just generally famous, while SIU has apparently become Universally renowned as the party school to end all party schools...
3. Witness Protection. Wanna go to a place where people keep to themselves and the cops don't ask questions? Come to Southern Illinois.
Truth of the matter is, there's just not a lotta touristy stuff in Illinois. We're not a big "Look at Me" type of state. In fact, here's a quick list of Reason's Why People Come to Illinois.
1. Chicago. Well, duh. Chicago's frickin' huge. People seem to like frickin' huge. (snickersnicker)
2. College. Don't ask me why, but people from all over the freaking world go to SIU and Uof I. I figure U of I is just generally famous, while SIU has apparently become Universally renowned as the party school to end all party schools...
3. Witness Protection. Wanna go to a place where people keep to themselves and the cops don't ask questions? Come to Southern Illinois.
5 Comments:
As someone that's lived in five states, I can tell you honestly that after awhile, being a resident of any state means there's no reason for anyone to come see things in that state. It all depends on what you consider attractions. Water parks? One in Rockford. Theme parks? Six Flags Chicago (unless they closed that, can't remember). City and it's associated events? Chicago. There's plenty of rural to drive through, and you'd be surprised at the amount of people that do that. There's a national forest on the south end. People travel for tons of reasons and unless the only reason your travelling is to see Hollywood stars, elitist poetry or some specific thing, you can find anything in just about every state. Except maybe South Dakota. Go live there for three months, man. You'll be happy to go back to Illinois.
Dude. I love living in Illinois. I'm just saying there ain't really a buncha touristy stuff here. Hell, in your little whoisit you named 1. Stuff in Chicago, 2. Open Land, and 3. Trees. Actually, if you wanted to effectively call me on something, you shoulda brought all the people that come to Illinois to Deer Hunt. Now THAT is a bizarre touristy whoisit.
Does Illinois have a Blues Brothers tour ? If not that would be sweet to ride in a car and follow the same path they did. That would be something to see for me at least. Wizard World Chicago is a good thing to see in Illinois too.
Deer hunting is covered in this part of the post:
"People travel for tons of reasons and unless the only reason your travelling is to see Hollywood stars, elitist poetry or some specific thing, you can find anything in just about every state."
It covers a lot of things like trees, bridges (there is a covered bridge organization on the east side of the state), buildings, etc.
The gist of the post was not "these are the things that you come to Illinois for." It was "one man's tourism is another man's crappy old cabin." It was "you don't see the forest (attractions within/around your home) through the trees because you see the trees everyday."
How often do you think London natives get their picture taken in front of Big Ben or harras the dudes with the funny hats? How many times do Egyptians tour the pyramids? Familiarity breeds boredom. Take the Mall of America (pleas). A mecca of shopping experiences for tourists internationally, but the majority of Twin Cities residents rarely go.
Incidentally, Rockford is to Chicago as Clay City is to Effingham.
Of course there is that weird guy's house. You know, the guy that painted his mailbox like a demon-dragon and his concreate deer as skeleton deer with flaming internal organs.
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