I grew up in Chicago suburbs and everyone considered anything south of I-80 to be Central-Southern IL. When I went to school in Charleston, my St. Louis friends gave me a hard time about it. I'd say Springfield and Peoria are probably the central-ist cities in Illinois.
I live out by Winchester, in an area called Sand Ridge. I'm a board member of The Two Rivers Jeep Club (TRJC.com) that TrlWgn has mentioned. Starting a Jeep sub-forum sounds good. Those of you that have Jeeps could benefit from our club- we are a family oriented club that has trails all over Pike County on private property ranging from easy (for stock) to "you build it; we'll break it", and everything in between. We shut down for deer and turkey season to accomodate out landowners, so we'll be starting up Feb. 5th with our first trailbuilder- if the weather co-operates (and maybe even if it doesn't!).
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It's a JEEP thing- I understand!
I grew up in Chicago suburbs and everyone considered anything south of I-80 to be Central-Southern IL. When I went to school in Charleston, my St. Louis friends gave me a hard time about it. I'd say Springfield and Peoria are probably the central-ist cities in Illinois.
Oh, I'd say Peoria is kinda North-Central and Springfield West-Central
I live in east central Illinois about 10 miles from the IN state line along I-70 but I am currently in China and not planning to return to Illinois until mid April.
I would suggest avoiding living in the Effingham/Mattoon/Shelbyville area at all costs.
I used to live on Western Avenue in Mattoon. The only good thing about that town was Villa Pizza and the Seed Shop. The Seed Shop was awesome, because it used to sell a HUGE variety of hot sauces. Villa Pizza had excellent pizza, and the buffet was probably my favorite buffet I ever had in my life.
Other than that, the area reeks of flatness and really has no entertaining value whatsoever. I think the Bagel factory in Mattoon even shut down.