Don’t forget to follow along as John and Joyce Jackson of Delaware, Ohio, follow the Lincoln Highway westward. Actually, they’ve already reached the Pacific and are taking Route 66 back eastward but their adventures are preserved online. Follow along at blog.jacksonlhtour.com/.
Shelton, Nebraska, will celebrate its 13th-annual Lincoln Highway Festival and car show this Sunday. The Kearney Hub reports that the car show starts at 10 a.m. with trophy presentations from 2:30-3 p.m. The Shelton Historical Society will serve lunch at the American Legion Hall, and the Lincoln Highway Visitor’s Center will be open all day.
The Grand Island Independent reports that more than 60 cars are expected. Also as a part of the festivities, a kids tractor pull starts at 2 p.m. on C Street and kids can get fire truck rides at the fire station from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Contact Bev Thomas at (308) 647-6617 or Bob Stubblefield at (308) 647-6554. To register for the car show, call Cindy Ryan at (308) 390-4123: fee is $10 in advance or $15 the day of the show.
Photo of Bob Stubblefield in Visitors Center by Dave McLane.
Kirk Dougal, Editor-in-Chief of the Times Bulletin in Van Wert, Ohio, sent photos of one of the 12 Lincoln Highway plaques that were placed at every corner of the downtown Streetscape project. Below, from left: Van Wert Safety-Service Director Jay Fleming; Connie Swander of Swan Memorials, makers of the plaques; and Van Wert Mayor Louis Ehmer.
Photos courtesy Van Wert Times Bulletin.
Last year, motorcyclist Chris Hutter took the Lincoln Highway from Pittsburgh to the east edge of Grand Island, Nebraska. This year he’s hitting the LH in Omaha after a visit to the Surf Ball Room in Clear Lake, Iowa, where Buddy Holly played his last concert. From Nebraska he’ll stay on the Lincoln to its Western Terminus in San Francisco. Follow along at hutmo.blogspot.com/. Note that his map gives a LIVE GPS location! Refresh, zoom in, and see how far he’s gone in a half minute!
Above is a stop in Indiana from last year’s trip. Here’s the 2010 itinerary:
Day 1 Pittsburgh to Chicago
Day 2 Chicago to Ames, IA (via Dyersville and Clear Lake)
Day 3 Ames to North Platte, NE 426
Day 4 North Platte to Rawlins, WY 384
Day 5 Rawlins to Salt Lake City, UT 300
Day 6 Salt Lake to Ely, NV 300
Day 7 Ely to Reno, NV 320
Day 8 Reno to San Fran, CA 300
Van & Bev Becker send word from Iowa that the Lincoln Cafe in Belle Plaine is set to reopen in September. The Cedar Rapids Gazette reported today that Gzim “Jimmy” Limani, owner of the likewise famous King’s Tower Café (also along the Lincoln Highway in nearby Tama) is working to rehab the shuttered cafe. When it opens in September, Limani promises home-style cooking every day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
“My customers from Belle Plaine told me I should buy it, so I did,” Limani, who’s originally from Albania, said. “It’s a historical building and the people in town are really excited about it. They have been very supportive.”
The previous owner of the Lincoln Café, Curtis Bailey, of Marengo, was murdered in his home last summer and the café closed….
Limani, his son Arijan, 14, and another worker have almost gutted the inside of the building…. “The place is old and needs cleaning and we’ve ripped it down to the bones, to the bricks. It’s down to the bricks in the kitchen….”
Limani said almost everything like the floors, ceiling and lights will be replaced or repaired and there will be new tables and booths. The outside of the café will also get updated with the help of KB Construction in Belle Plaine.
“I want to keep the original sign and it will stay the Lincoln Café,” Limani said smiling. “I don’t want to change that.”
The Travel Guys radio show out of Sacramento featured a special Fourth of July episode along the Lincoln Highway. One of the guys is radio personality Tom Romano, while Mark Hoffmann operates Sports Leisure Vacations, which offers tours of 2-lane roads like Route 66 and now the Lincoln Highway. Your blog host, me, Brian Butko chimes in with a few favorite stops along the Lincoln. Listen HERE. You can also download archived mp3s here.
Olga A. Herbert, Executive Director of Pennsylvania’s Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor, just alerted me that Mister Ed’s Elephant Museum in central Pennsylvania has been destroyed by fire. Owner Ed Gotwalt has spent decades amassing his collection of elephant-themed objects joined to a candy and gift store; he also serves on the Corridor board of directors. Olga said it “burned to the ground late last night, including every elephant. He plans to rebuild and be open by September 1.” Although the news is horrible, it’s equally astounding that he’s ready to rebuild and so quickly! The York Distpatch covers it here and the York Daily Record ran a story about Ed vowing to rebuild.
Vinton Today ran a nice feature about Iowa attendees to the Lincoln Highway Assn conference. It includes some beautiful images from husband and wife photographers Mike Kelly and Sandra Huemann-Kelly. It also reports on LHA awards bestowed:
The annual banquet June 25 included awards presentations. Van and Bev Becker received an “Exemplary Friend of the Highway Award” for their work in hosting an annual amateur radio event at the Youngville Café in Benton County. The Beckers secured the permanent call letters “NY2SF” – New York to San Francisco, the route of the Lincoln Highway.
Sandii also sent some pictures to me, including those above. In the first, Illinois chapter Secretary Sue Jacobson’s daughter and grandkids greeted the west tour bus. In the second, LHA past-president Bob Ausberger with Sean and John Fitzsimmons at the Lincoln Highway Art & Photo Show on Wednesday evening.
At the LHA conference I had the pleasure of meeting John and Joyce Jackson of Delaware, Ohio, who were following the Lincoln Highway westward using my LH Companion guidebook! What’s more impressive is they are stopping at every place mentioned AND getting signatures when they could!! Turns out they too have a blog that’s a fun-to-read adventure at blog.jacksonlhtour.com/. After driving from NYC to Indiana last year, they’ve added a 12-foot Ridgeline travel trailer to hitch to their Lincoln Town Car for 2010 as they head to the Pacific. Here they are on gravel Lincoln Highway between Ogden and Beaver, Iowa.
I was only able to attend the first day of festivities at the Lincoln HIghway Association conference in Dixon, Illinois. For a nice daily description of events, check out Road Dog’s blog at downdaroadigo.blogspot.com/. Oh, and I can’t forget that Denny Gibson has his usual amazing photo documentation at dennygibson.com/lhfest10/. Here are some images from opening night, including Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln, Lincoln Highway Lovebirds Esther and Bernie Queneau, and roadtrippers Road Dog and Denny Gibson stocking up on book room materials.
Click the map above for a full-size view of the Lincoln Highway.
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