Route 66 & Beyond

Tour Day 8 - Grand island, Nebraska Day 8 saw us cover a lot of ground to get into position for our final "parade lap" into Kearney, Nebraska on the following day. The trip was uneventful and we saw some interesting things. One of my favorites was an old abandoned bridge that was part of the original routing of the Lincoln Highway heading west into Woodbine, Iowa. The concrete bridge remains but the rest of the roadway is long gone. There was an interesting gas station in Woodbine but I particularly liked the old sign. Out in the middle of nowhere is a pair of Lincoln monuments erected by J.E. Moss. A bit further is Gregory Corner. Another one of my favorite spots on this day was a short section of hard-packed dirt road. We had dinner at the Shady Bend restaurant in Grand Island. This used to be the main building for a motor court dating back to the late 1920s. The same family has owned it since the beginning, now on their third and fourth ge

Tour Day 7 - Rochelle, IL to Ames, IA We had a long day traveling from Rochelle to Ames, mostly because there was so much to see. It started in the morning with this great Cadillac sitting in front of a corn field and a classic barn. We had breakfast at another great cafe, this one in Franklin Grove, Illinois across the street from the Lincoln Highway Association headquarters. I love old drive-ins and this one is a beauty. Our morning stop was at this great windmill sitting on the Mississippi River in Fulton, Illinois. The view from the back of the windmill looking across the Mississippi River toward Clinton, Iowa... Our lunch stop was in the very cool and historic city of Mt. Vernon. This 1916 Buick was displayed in downtown Mt. Vernon when we arrived. It has been in the same family for all of its 97 years! Back in the teens and early 1920s it made several trips to California along the Lincoln Highway, to the summit of Pikes Peak, an

Tour Day 6 - Crossing Famous Highways We began our day by driving to La Porte, Indiana to have breakfast at B&J's American Cafe. It was like stepping into the past. What a great place! We talked to John, the owner, for awhile as well as one of the customers inside. We got one of their hot home-made cinnamon buns to go. It didn't last long. We crossed the state line into Illinois and drove through Chicago Heights. This is a crossroads where two great highways again share the road. This time the Lincoln crosses and briefly joins the western alignment of the Dixie Highway. The LH turns onto Chicago Road for about a mile before breaking off again. Chicago Road is the Dixie Highway through here. We stopped and had lunch at the Joliet Area Historical Museum which is where we crossed Route 66 the first time. From there we drove to Plainfield where the two most famous historical roads in America share three blocks of pavement. Along the way, Sharon and I

Tour Day 5 - Wandering to Indiana We began the day slowly, but in a very pleasant manner. We spotted this great restaurant called the Coney Island Diner in Mansfield, Ohio and decided to eat breakfast there. It was a beautiful place with great diner food; just what we were looking for. We took our time enjoying breakfast, and by the time we left we were the last ones on the road. Our first stop in the morning was the Wyandot County Museum housed in a beautiful old mansion. The museum had a surprisingly large collection of memorabilia, including a nice display on the Lincoln Highway. They fed us a morning snack in the church across the street. By the time we left we were again at the end of the line. One of the places I wanted to find was the intersection of the north-south Dixie Highway with the east-west Lincoln Highway. Sharon and I had spotted this place in a previous Dixie Highway trip. It's located in Beaverdam, Ohio. The picture below shows the view of the Lin