Mavericke , Sorry to hear about your health problem . Let's just say been there done that , to all of them , and leave it at that.
The Caterpillar Museum in Peoria : I don't know what happened in the last 5 or 6 year since I left Peoria , other then there was vote to build it. Actually Caterpillar , said built it with Tax payer dollars or we'll move our World headquarters out of Peoria. Which pretty much means Caterpillar will eventually move it's World Headquarters out of the Peoria area any way, since they already moved most of there manufacturing out any way. All I know is when I drove through Peoria a few weeks ago, the "SEARS BLOCK" , where the Caterpillar Museum was to be built , was still a big empty hole in the ground , like it was 5 years ago.
There is a Museum in the Peoria area with a good number of the old Caterpillar tractor / bulldozers and some history on the company and the Peoria area. It's car museum on the very North side of the Peoria area on what now route 40. A few of the heavy hitters from the local Antique Car club put it together. It houses there collections, some other cars and trucks and a good bit of stuff on the Peoria are , including ABC , or Altoffer Brothers Company. ABC made washing machines and eventually was bought by Kelvinator and AMC , as the washing machine division of Kelvinator, in the Peoria area, where ABC made the washing machines.
It's hard to miss, but it's behind a gas station, BUT there is a large Steam Locomotive and cars along side the museum. The Locomotive pretty hard to miss , if if you do drive by.
Peoria use to be known for CAT houses, but they pretty much gone last I knew , had been closed down. Peoria was long been off and on been known for it's CAT houses , and I'm not talking the Caterpillar kind. River city what do you to expect. I also had low expectations for the place.
Lastly, if you need to make any plans regarding holding an Eagle meet with the AMC Nationals at Cordova, just let me know and I'll see what arrangements can be made. NAMDRA does not usually get a date until after the first of the new year, but it's been running the 2nd or 3rd full weekend of September for a few years now. LRDaum