The last stop in our little tour of Illinois was Princeton, the home of the Red Covered Bridge. 
The bridge was built in 1863 and runs across Bureau Creek just north of Princeton. It is still an active bridge, allowing cars to cross one at a time. (It’s no two lane highway!) 
I loved this advertisement on the ceiling beams for Brown’s Household Panacea.
When I was young, we visited the bridge. If you’d asked me a few weeks ago about our visit to the bridge, I would have said we drove across the country to see it. The ride, as an eight year-old felt sooooo looooooong! In reality, Princeton is only about an hour away from my hometown. Isn’t it funny how your memory plays tricks on you? 
My mom dug out this picture of us on our first visit to the bridge in 1986. (That’s my brother in the snappy Hawaiian shirt and my mom was pregnant with my sister at the time.)
Fun times in Illinois!
kimberly ah 
What a great picture. The first time I saw a covered bridge was in a movie I still think about from time to time: The Bridges of Madison County.
And a question: is the Princeton you mention the same as the University Princeton?
Yes! We went to see the real bridges from the book and movie several years ago. They are in a quaint Iowa town.
The “real” Princeton, Princeton University, is in New Jersey. 🙂