Archive for the ‘lodging’ Category
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 »
September 30, 2008
Updating my post of July 14, the former Congress Inn east of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, is set to be demolished and replaced by a larger hotel. According to the Lancaster New Era, the 96-room motel on tourist-filled Lincoln Highway East could be razed in the coming months to make way for a six-story Four Points by Sheraton hotel pending plan approval by East Lampeter Township. A special exception for the hotel’s six-story height was granted this summer. Construction of the $12 million, 125-room hotel on the 4.5-acre site could start next summer and be ready by Spring 2010.
At right is a vintage postcard view, and below is the motel today.
The Congress Inn, renamed Passport Inn a few years ago, is next to the Lancaster Host and across from Dutch Wonderland, but looks to be declining. Willow Valley Associates, which owns and operates the county’s largest resort, the Willow Valley Resort & Conference Center, has been hired to manage the new hotel.
Tags:Lancaster PA, motel to be razed
Posted in highways, history, lodging, roadside | 1 Comment »
September 15, 2008
The Lincoln Motor Court west of Bedford, Pennsylvania, may be the last of the vintage courts still serving overnight guests along the Lincoln Highway. Denny Gibson stayed there Thursday night and wrote, “Despite looking the same from the outside, each of the cabins is just a bit different inside. I was in #6 this time and it is a bit more romantic than my previous accommodations. Note the champagne flutes and the vines near the bed. Hope I didn’t displace some late arriving honeymooners.” Click Denny’s photo below to see the interior larger:
Read more of Denny’s trips HERE, including a visit to the stone bridge at the Philly border.
Lincoln Motor Court was built before 1945; Bob and Debbie Altizer have been taking care of it for 25 years. As you can imagine, there are many challenges to maintaining vintage cabins from painting, plumbing, and wiring to keeping the cottages comfortable. Replacing the roofs have long been a goal but that is expenesive and grants are typically for non-profits. Help preserve this rare resource by staying overnight next time you’re in Pennsylvania. And look for the Altizers and their court in the forthcoming PBS special.
Lincoln Motor Court
5104 Lincoln Highway
Manns Choice, PA 15550
(814) 733-2891
Tags:cabin court, cottage court, Lincoln Motor Court, old highways, Road trip, vintage tourist cabins
Posted in highways, history, lodging, Road trip, roadside, travel | 7 Comments »
September 3, 2008
LHA member Dennis Crowley plans to walk across America on the Lincoln Highway. From 1998 through 2005 he walked and worked his way across America from Chicago to California on Route 66. He now calls the effort Cross Roads, “a single purpose and a simple message. By promoting America’s historic highways Cross Roads seeks to call attention to our country’s Christian heritage. The purpose for covering these highways on foot is to make the statement that America needs to return to and walk in her spiritual “‘old paths.'”
LHA director Jay Banta, also of Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge in Utah, wrote:
I look forward to hosting Dennis (and providing a shower!) when he arrives here at Fish Springs and I hope that others will provide him support as well. While we all have slightly different motives for ‘loving’ the highway, it is that passion that binds us and I think that Dennis and his quest can bring some great publicity to the Lincoln. I don’t think he has posted his schedule on the web but I know his first stint will take him from Lincoln Park to Sacramento in September of this year. He plans a Sacramento to Reno stretch in May of 2009 and then a push all the way across NV in the fall of 2009. His Utah and Wyoming crossing is planned for 2010.
Visit www.walkingamessage.com to learn more about “Walking America The Lincoln Way.”
Tags:Christian message, Route 66, Utah, walking for a purpose
Posted in highways, lodging, travel | 1 Comment »
August 19, 2008
PBS producer Rick Sebak made his way to New York City last week to catch the eastern end of the Lincoln Highway. One of the stops on their way back to Pittsburgh was at the famous Haines Shoe House near York, Pa., where he met LHA board member and long-time roadside researcher Mindy Crawford, who sent these photos of her interview:
She also described the day:
Just got home from a great day with Rick, [and crewmembers] Bob and Glenn. We spent the morning at the Shoe House. I did an interview on my top 5 “must see places’ in Pennsylvania as well as some general comments about the Lincoln. Then they interviewed Carleen Farabaugh (below), the owner of the Shoe House. They got a great shot of her husband, Ron and her grandson, Austin mowing the lawn and watering flowers. Then Carleen and I did a brief “preservation segment” on the care and upkeep of the Shoe. Even my husband Rodney got involved by being a “tourist” during Carleen’s tour.
We took a break mid-day to have the most amazing Thai food. Everything was delicious but it was almost as much fun photographing everyone taking photographs of the food before we ate. When we left the crew, they were headed back to do a few more approach shots at the Shoe House.
A couple days before, Rick and crew filmed at the eastern terminus of the highway – but as the site is not marked as the start/end of the LH, they spent time with its leading champion, LHA board member Jerry Peppers, whose office overlooks Times Square. Here’s a shot from Rick of Jerry – click HERE to read all about their day in NYC.
Tags:historic landmarks, NYC, PA, PBS special, roadside attraction, Shoe House, Times Square
Posted in highways, history, lodging, roadside, signs, travel | 4 Comments »
August 12, 2008
Well-known roadie Denny Gibson has been cruising down the Pacific Coast this week and passed through San Francisco the past couple days. Like producer Rick Sebak, he stayed overnight at the Pacific Heights Inn and reports it to be good and priced right. Yesterday morning he went in search of the last original 1928 Lincoln Highway concrete post. With a little help from me and Sebak’s blog and video diary, he found it with the surrounding bushes cut back to better reveal the post: “Yep, it’s so much easier that I walked by it twice without seeing it. I was looking for and into shrubs and certainly entertaining anyone who was watching.”
Then he cruised to the nearby Terminus marker, also an LHA concrete post but this one a modern reproduction.
Then it was off to the Cliff House to see where dedicated transcontinetalists really ended their trip – at the ocean, dipping their tires. (With the beach now closed to cars, there was no dipping for Denny’s tires.) Read more about his adventures from this trip, with tons of roadside info and images, at www.dennygibson.com/. (Note, his blog is a couple days behind so no LH mention is posted yet.)
Tags:highway history, Pacific coast, Road trip, San Francisco
Posted in highways, history, lodging, Road trip, roadside, travel | 2 Comments »
August 1, 2008
Businesses along old 2-lanes such as the Lincoln Highway often struggle to compete with chains that locate at Interstate off-ramps, but Ron Warnick reports on his Route 66 News about a non-chain motel in Barstow, California, that has found a way a pretty basic way to attract tourists. The story from the city’s Desert Dispatch notes that a simple image makeover instantly began attracting travelers who otherwise were passing by. For all those independent motels struggling in the face of brand-names that feature oodles of amenities and AAA ratings, it’s proof that business can be improved by attending to the look and cleanliness of a place.
Their current property, the Topper Motel on West Main Street, is popular with people, mostly locals, owner Ken Patel said, needing a room for more than a couple of nights. But tourists running down Route 66 passed right by and rarely stopped to rent rooms for just a night or two.
The Patels’ solution: Renovate the west side of their property, paint it the appealing color of an orange Creamsicle and slap a new name, The Sunset Inn, over the office….
Ken said problems with longer staying customers on the Topper side of the business made him consider ways to bring in shorter-staying out-of-towners. He said the rooms where people stayed for weeks or months at a time were often unkempt, dirty and negatively effected the entire appearance of his motel.
The Sunset looks like a completely different motel from the Topper sitting next to it. The rooms are crisp and clean and the parking lot features a small courtyard and desert landscaping. Day Manager Bill Snyder said the remodel has been so successful with the Sunset that there are plans to give the Topper the same treatment soon.
A story in a 1950s diner industry magazine advised owners to pave their decrepit parking lots. Many diner owners howled at the idea, saying customers were more concerned with the food that the lot. Yes, if you know a restaurant has good food, you’ll overlook the shortcomings, maybe even calling them “charming,” but for those not familiar with a place – as most travelers aren’t – they’ll pass by a run-down motel or restaurant. In the same vein, would you buy a beat-up used car or one that looked cared for?
Tags:Barstow California, highway history, motel renovation, Road trip, roadside lodging, Route 66
Posted in highways, history, lodging, Road trip, roadside, travel | Leave a Comment »
July 28, 2008
An article by Ardis E. Parshal at keepapitchinin.org discusses the auto camp that sprung up on the west end of Salt Lake City, and Mormon missionary efforts there:
By 1921 it had the usual amenities found in any such western camp. In earlier years [Pioneer S]take leaders had noted the increasing thousands who spent time at the auto camp before passing along, and they realized they had an unusual service opportunity. That summer of 1921 they pitched a large tent at the camp and held church services, both on Sundays and during the week. Meetings were short and casual, and relied on music and the recitations of Sunday School children. The various ward choirs in the stake took turns providing music, and talented instrumental soloists offered their services. Stake officers provided brochures, sold copies of the Book of Mormon, and answered questions. Some 25,000 tourists were served in that first year alone.
In 1922, the project expanded, and stake members build a small chapel, open on one side to face rows of benches in the open air. And word began filtering back from missionaries in the field, that they had been welcomed into the homes of people who had stayed at Salt Lake’s auto camp and changed their opinion of the habits and character of the Mormons.
ABOVE: an image of the auto camp missionaries from the article, which identifies the men.
TOP IMAGE courtesy Russell Rein.
SLC and the 1860s Tabernacle were regular stops for most everyone motoring through Utah. As the author points out, and as seen in period travel journals, many wanted to see what Mormons looked like. Early auto traveler Harriet White Fisher was among those who stopped to see but concluded, “I could find no marks of identification that made them any different from other men in the East.”
Tags:auto camp, early auto travel, highway history, Mormon missionaries, Salt Lake City, Utah
Posted in highways, history, lodging, roadside, travel | Leave a Comment »
July 24, 2008
Scott Berka, city clerk of Colo, Iowa, sent some great photos of the RAGBRAI® — The Des Moines Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa. Yesterday (day 4 of the week-long event), the bicyclists traveled the Lincoln Highway from Ames to State Center. He snapped the photos at the Reed/Niland Corner in Colo about 9:30 a.m.. They show the restored gas station, cafe, and area near the just-reopened motel. CLICK each one to see it larger.
RAGBRAI was started in 1973 as a 6-day ride (not a race) across Iowa by two Register columnists; it’s still planned and coordinated by the newspaper and is now hosted by the Register’s front-page cartoonist, Brian Duffy. The Des Moines Register naturally has numerous daily updates, including news that tacks strewn near Nevada, Iowa, caused at least 100 flat tires. Learn more by visiting the RAGBRAI® site or read a brief story at at WHO-TV.
Tags:bicycling event, bike ride, Iowa, RAGBRAI, restored gas station cafe motel
Posted in food, highways, lodging, museum, Road trip, transportation, travel | 1 Comment »
Lincoln Highway News 