Archive for the ‘food’ Category
November 25, 2008
Sylverta Blaugher writes:
Bought several of your books this summer as my husband and I were traveling Route 30 West [Lincoln Highway] from Chambersburg Pa. I was raised in C’burg but married and moved to Ft Wayne 40 years ago.
I lived with my Great Aunt Pearl and Great Uncle Harry during the summer months in the late 1950s and early ’60s. They owned the Cove Mountain Tea Room that is in your book The Lincoln Highway: Pennsylvania Traveler’s Guide, pages 183-184.
The house is gone and the garage that is still standing was used as an antique store that they operated. My Mother lived with them in the ’40s after they bought the property. She often talked of buses stopping there and serving sandwiches. After Aunt Pearl had a stroke they stopped serving but they still sold Shell gas and had a small store where they sold pop and candy.
My Mother still lives in Chambersburg and going thru my Grandmother’s papers that she has I am always searching for any articles regarding when they bought the property and any menus etc, but I have not yet found any. I do have pictures of us on the top of the roof and many great family picnics.
I still miss the mountains and when I go home I sometimes get off at Breezewood so I can relive old memories of days gone by. Never had the fear of roaming the mountains like I do today.
Keep up the good work so the rest of the travelers can read of places that are no longer there to see.
Tags:cinrtage gas pumps, family-run business, Lincoln Highway, mountaintop stop, roadside attraction, tea room
Posted in food, highways, history, Road trip, roadside | 2 Comments »
November 21, 2008
Ibapah is along the original Lincoln Highway that crosses the Utah desert between Salt Lake City and Ely, Nevada. You’ll need most of a full day to drive the dirt roads between those points but you’ll also see Orr’s Ranch, Fish Springs, Gold Hill, and other unpopulated outposts.
The Ibapah Trading Post is bound to become one of the Lincoln Highway’s must-stops, much like Oatman, Arizona, draws travelers to a desolate part of Route 66. I’ve been corresponding with Carolee Johnson at the post in anticipation of my next book, Lincoln Highway Companion. The big news is they now have a cabin for rent along with the old country store.
Carolee wrote:
We are trying to make this stop on the Lincoln Highway a little more inviting as funds become available, and people are welcome to stop through in June to watch real Western Cowboys rope and brand the livestock, and check out a real Old West ghost town. The buildings in the town are all still there as it was at one time the main stop for the overland stage between Chicago and Sacramento. There are stories of bandits coming to rob gold, mined out of the Queen of Sheba Gold Mines, out of the safe in the store where it waited for the overland stage. Efforts were foiled when the store owner was tipped off and hid the bars of gold in the ashes of the old pot belly stove. We still have the safe that was rolled out and blown up with dynamite by the bandits. Needless to say they didnt get the gold. This stop on the Lincoln Highway is teaming with US history and deserves to be on the map. I very much appreciate what you are doing for the history of the Lincoln Highway, and hope this helps a little.
Tags:ghost town remnants, highway history, Ibapah UT, lonely outpost, Route 66 -Oatman AZ, Utah, Wild West
Posted in food, highways, history, lodging, Road trip, roadside, transportation, travel | Leave a Comment »
November 18, 2008
Inspired we hope by our post of last Tuesday, Spiny Norman followed later that day with his first-person impressions and recollections of the Olympia Candy Kitchen. Spiny’s blog, Goshen’s Lincoln Highway, explores the route through that Indiana city and the places along it. It’s a great idea about an area with lots of neat places to see. Yesterday’s post investigated an old alignment south along US 33.
Tags:chocolate store, Goshen IN, Indiana history, Lincoln Highway, roadside business, soda fountain
Posted in food, highways, history, roadside, travel | 2 Comments »
November 14, 2008
New on DVD from PBS affiliate WQED is producer Rick Sebak’s 1992 program, The Pennsylvania Road Show. This video includes my original trip with Rick on the Lincoln Highway east of PIttsburgh, 15 years before he set out to film his national Lincoln Highway show that just debuted.
Driving in my Camaro convertible, we cruised to Shirey’s Cabins, the Ship Hotel, and other Lincoln Highway landmarks – many, including those two, now gone. Sebak also visits Lee’s DIner and the Shoe House, both along the Lincoln Highway near York. On the cover is a 1920s Lincoln Highway postcard.
Also featured are visits to Reptileland, movie cowboy Tom Mix’s birthplace, and the ducks walking on fish at the Linesville Spillway. The DVD is available from WQED for $19.95.
Tags:Lincoln Highway, PA Road Show, PBS-related video, roadside attractions, Ship Hotel, WQED
Posted in food, highways, history, lodging, Road trip, roadside, travel | Leave a Comment »
November 11, 2008
Kare Andersen of the fabulous Olympia Candy Kitchen in Goshen, Indiana, writes that they will be making their homemade candy canes and ribbon candy the day before Thanksgiving to be available the Friday after Thanksgiving. “The candy canes have five flavors — cinnamon, peppermint, wintergreen, anis, and clove. The ribbon candy is available in cinnamon and peppermint. We have seasonal candies like this throughout the year — we just got done selling caramel apples. We are coming into our busy season with Christmas and will shipping candy all throughout the U.S.” Stop by next time you’re in Indiana or shop online.
Olympia Candy Kitchen
136 N. Main St
Goshen, IN 46526
Phone: (574) 533-5040
www.olympiacandykitchen.com
HOURS (Eastern Time)
M, T, H, F: 7a – 5p
Saturday: 7a – 3p
Sunday: 9a – 1p
Closed Wednesdays
Tags:candy, chocolate store, Goshen IN, holiday candy, Olympia Candy Kitchen
Posted in food, highways, roadside, travel | 1 Comment »
November 10, 2008
Scott Berka alerts us that the woman who was running Niland’s Cafe in Colo, Iowa, had some medical issues and closed the cafe after Labor Day. The Colo Development Group is hiring a manager to operate it, hoping to reopen shortly after Thanksgiving. Winter days will be Friday, Sat., Sunday, then likely back to daily except Monday come Spring. The motel is still for rent at $49.99 per night.
Until the acafe reopens, those interested in renting a room should call the Colo Development Group office at (641) 377-2278. Once the cafe is open again, the number to call will revert to the cafe: (641) 377-3663.
Tags:cafe, Colo Iowa, Iowa, Lincoln Highway, motel, neon sign, Road trip, roadside cafe, travel, vintage motel
Posted in food, highways, lodging, Road trip, roadside, travel | 1 Comment »
October 30, 2008
The Lincoln Highway can be a great idea for a road trip: its length makes it close to much of the county, you can drive as little/much as you want, and even remote sections are never far from an Interstate for a quick return trip or a family who need modern amenities. I’ve never driven it non-stop from coast-to-coast but have driven most of it in every state. The adventures are still endless — as PBS producer Rick Sebak said on his road trip this summer, “We could do this for the rest of our lives!” That’s his picture of Green River, Wyoming.
Our kids have been along on most of the trips and will be with us again next summer as we head from Pittsburgh west to the Pacific Ocean. There was a time when 5 of us could fit on one bed — not by choice but when a motel’s double rooms were full! Now they’re nearing driving age, and though none are roadside devotees, they’re more excited about the trips than we are. The trick is to keep it fun for them too.
Along with old-fashioned car games, they bring along their favorite electronics. We mix in some familiar restaurants along with lots of cafes and diners (advertising draws them to fast food but they always remark how good diner food tastes). We ask them each to keep small trip diaries to help them (and us!) remember where they’ve been, stayed, and eaten. We visit bookstores and toy stores along with cool old attractions like Fort Cody Trading Post in North Platte, Nebraska. Next trip we may visit a skatepark and snowboarding hill. We also stay in a cool variety of rooms, from tourist cabins to chains (we like Quality Inn) to wacky places like the Wigwam Villages. We see a lot of the country and its people, who have been overwhelmingly friendly.
About that trip next summer — my Lincoln Highway Companion will be published in Spring 2009 and we’ll be using it ourselves to drive the road and do some signings. This book was meant to coincide with Sebak’s A Ride Along the Lincoln Highway but our schedules got out of sync. The publisher is finishing the design now but here’s the first peak at the cover. It will list many cool places to visit, eat, and sleep, but if you want info now, check my Greetings from the Lincoln Highway book, or the Lincoln Highway Association site, or old posts on this blog.
Tags:Lincoln Highway, PBS show, Road trip, vacation ideas
Posted in food, highways, lodging, Road trip, roadside, travel | 2 Comments »
October 27, 2008
It won’t ship till after the show airs nationally, but A Ride Along the Lincoln Highway DVD is available for pre-order from PBS.
The DVD includes 5 extra segments as listed on the back cover below plus we’ll have more information about them later this week. Above is a screen shot from the end of the program; note the cover has changed slightly since the program was finished, as seen in these images provided by producer Rick Sebak.
Tags:automotive history, DVD of historic highway program, fun video, highway history, PBS show, US history
Posted in food, highways, history, lodging, Road trip, roadside, signs, souvenirs, transportation, travel | 1 Comment »
October 15, 2008
Time to hit the road and visit stands along the Lincoln Highway selling fruit, jams, gourds, and pumpkins. Here’s Bingham’s Orchard, 9823 Lincoln Way West, St. Thomas, Pennsylvania.
Tags:Fall, highway stops, produce stands, pumpkins, roadside stands
Posted in food, highways, Road trip, roadside, travel | Leave a Comment »
October 9, 2008
Along with major stories of financial woes, including the national debt clock running out of digits in New York City’s Times Square — the eastern terminus of the Lincoln Highway — comes news that the Eat’n Park chain of restaurants has greatly reduced the hours of its Park Classic Diner along the Lincoln Highway in Jeannette, Pennsylvania.
Located at the busy corner of US 30 and Lowry Ave. in what is locally known as Lincoln Heights, the building was an original 1960s car-hop location that the chain converted to a 1940s/50s-style diner in 1999. According to an article in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, “The diner remains open for breakfast and lunch, but now closes at 4 p.m. because of the lack of business during the dinner hours, said Kevin O’Connell, a spokesman for Eat ‘N Park.”
Reducing hours has become common for diners in recent decades, as including dinner means adding a new shift of workers and stocking many more foods for larger meals. However, it’s surprising that a chain that already manages a large staff and can supply most such items as standard with other locations finds the need to cut back.
Tags:Eat'n Park, Jeannette PA, retro diner, sign of the times
Posted in food, highways, travel | Leave a Comment »
Lincoln Highway News 