Sarah Palin's Illinois Visit: Stops In Springfield, Tours Reagan's Boyhood Home

Following her stop at the Iowa State Fair during the GOP Straw Poll, former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin made a few stops with her family in Illinois.

The stops were part of Palin's "One Nation" bus tour, which some believe is linked to a possible presidential campaign in 2012. On Saturday, the family stopped in Dixon, Ill. to visit the boyhood home of President Ronald Reagan, which took the small town by surprise.

"I live down the street, and the neighbor told me that Sarah Palin's bus just pulled up, and we're Republicans and I thought we would just come on down and say hello," Dixon resident Anne Brousil told the Sauk Valley newspaper. Palin's team reportedly contacted members of the Dixon Ronald Reagan Centennial Commission prior to the visit, but volunteers kept quiet.

Palin toured the northern Illinois home with her husband, Todd as well as her 10-year-old daughter, Piper, and niece, McKinley.

"This is one of those places everyone in America should come to get a sense of Ronald Reagan's foundation -- to understand his humbleness and graciousness,” Palin said in Dixon, according to NBC News.

On Sunday, the Palin bus tour headed south and stopped in Springfield, Illinois to visit the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum. The State Journal-Register reports:

According to Dave Blanchette, spokesman for the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, Palin arrived at the museum when it opened at 9 a.m. She toured the facility for about an hour and half, shaking hands and taking photos with visitors, he said.

She did not visit any other Lincoln sites and asked that the visit be kept private, Blanchette said.

This week, President Obama is embarking on his own Midwest tour, where he expects to get an earful from voters who are frustrated "about the dysfunction in Congress." He will stop in Atkinson and Alpha, Illinois on Wednesday to discuss jobs and the economy.