Monmouth, Illinois

Today your esteemed (or not esteemed) blogger is coming to you from the lovely library at Monmouth College in Monmouth, Illinois. I’m giving a talk tonight for the campus’s archaeology day.

Because of the vagaries of travel in the antipodes, I am in town for the entire day rather than my usual surgical strikes. This gave me some time to wander around town looking for a coffee shop with the internets. This does not seem to exist in Western Illinois, but I did get a delicious breakfast (and, yes, I do know the golden rule of social and new media: no one cares what you had for breakfast…). 

But the town was gorgeous despite the low grey skies. Some really nice victorian domestic architecture:

Some nice examples of turn of the century, small-town monumentality.

Some commercial and public buildings that are nice, if showing some signs of wear and tear.

Some urban art.