If you have the time, Hwy-2 follows a lovely route from Rockford along the Rock River southwest to the quaint old town of Dixon, where the Ronald Reagan Boyhood Home (815/288-3404) at 816 S. Hennepin Avenue preserves the house where the late Great Communicator spent his teenage years. Midway along, a rather majestic statue of the great Indian chief Black Hawk stands above the river outside the town of Oregon.
