I first wanted to put an educational program together to take to schools 'cause they needed materials.

- And was that Illinois or was that the cross country?

- That was Illinois.

- Okay.

- And I had to drive all over the state to get pictures of all the various historic sites and geographical landmarks, and to learn the story of Illinois, put that together, and that became my biggest selling program.

And then I started branching out into, I called it Cities and Towns of Illinois.

That's now the "Main Street, Illinois" program.

I walked the length of the state at one point.

And- - While you were researching, while you were doing your research, or just for fun?

- Just another way of experiencing things.

- Okay.

All right.

- And I had this old map on a corkboard where I'd put pins in it for all the places I'd been.

And when I did that walk, that gave me something like 50 different towns right there, plus all the others that I'd been seeing.

And that gave me the idea to go to every place in the state.