It was a spontaneous decision to ride the ferry with friends across the Illinois River and eat lunch in Brussels at the Wittmond Hotel. But the serendipitous moment was the antique Trailways Bus parked next to the Hotel that provided a "back to the past" photo opportunity.

I even had my "old" digital camera to record the scene. So what happens if one begins to "play" with the software to express the feeling of "turning back time"?

Ah, it looks like a postcard or an advertisement for "Leave the Driving to Us!"

And there are other visual possibilities as well...with a picture straight out of an ancient family photo album:

The hotel was built in 1885 and supposedly there are 15 guest rooms upstairs. But the primary attraction today is the family style meal served in a room filled with tables and conversation and laughter and antique lamps and dated wallpaper. The Hotel doesn't take credit cars (there's an ATM across the street at the small bank) because it's "cash only" which gave an opportunity for the patron at the neighboring table to claim he didn't know how to operate an ATM. I thought later that he was either a salesman or a politician, maybe both, taking us all for a ride. I was fairly certain he wasn't the bus driver.