By Lee Ross

We woke up in downtown Peoria and drove to University Street, past my old TV station to Childers Diner.

It was packed for Saturday breakfast and it seemed like everyone there was in good spirits. We’ve had a bunch of folks tell us they’ve been following us on our adventure. The old saying about Peoria is that if it plays there, it will play anywhere.

Well, one man who has played well is Aaron Schock. I first interviewed him seven years ago during his successful run for school board president. He was a write-in candidate … and he was only 19 years old.

A few years later he took out the incumbent state rep to get a job in Springfield. And, on Super Tuesday, he won the GOP nomination for the open Congressional seat with 71% of the vote. We sat down with him at Childers and will likely see a lot more of him in Washington.

After a good breakfast, we left Peoria behind for Springfield where we were graciously welcomed by the folks at Bullet Express Indoor Firing Range.

Owner John Thurman told us he wants John McCain to select Secretary Rice as his running mate. And props to Phil who, without any practice, hit the center mark live on air with 9mm Ruger.

For the next couple of hours we hit a few super small towns. The most memorable was with one honest man who said he didn’t vote in 2000 or 2004 and won’t vote this year either. He simply didn’t believe that his vote or the candidates makes a difference.

Off to St. Louis.

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