Work hard and hire people who are a good fit for your business. You have to love what you do. It reflects back on to your business. People like doing business with happy people. They want to be part of it.
Shisler’s Cheese House is on the corner of US 30 & Kidron Rd., Orrville, Ohio, (330) 682-2105.
I managed to catch pink eye – ouch – so can’t type much but thought Lincoln Highway fans might be interested in seeing how ABC News weekend anchors are traveling Route 66 west (unexplainedly skipping Illinois, Missouri, and Kansas). Kate Snow and her sister drive the first two segments in a 1958 Ford Fairlane hardtop convertible (seen here at the former U-Drop Inn Cafe, Shamrock, Texas). Read the story HERE.
NOTE: ABC has disabled embedding. Below is the first segment from another source.
Here are the ABC links, including the second video: ONE and TWO.
The final two segments will feature the two male anchors heading further west.
Photographers Eric Mencher and his wife Kass have been photographing the Lincoln Highway since 1997. Eric is staff photographer at The Philadelphia Inquirer. They began with Pennsylvania and last year completed the entire length from coast to coast. They’ve just begun another two-week trip that will take them from Wyoming into Utah and Nevada.
You can follow their adventures at lincolnhighwayseen.blogspot.com which Eric will update every day or so. The first entry doesn’t have much yet, only four images shot from their room at the Plains Hotel in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Last year he posted a handful of photos from their trip through Wyoming and Nebraska. You can find them, along with other photos mixed in, at: thisurbanlife.blogspot.com/2008_05_01_archive.html/.
An article in the Quad City Times reports that a Lincoln Highway marker was unearthed during sewer work in DeWitt, Iowa. It is one of a couple thousand concrete posts planted in 1928 with help from the Boy Scouts that marked the route, but most have gone missing.
I checked with Van Becker, LH expert in Iowa, who told me that Iowa LHA state director Jeff LaFollette was contacted by Matt Proctor, DeWitt Director of Public Works. Proctor provided the above photo of the marker after a power wash. Matt wrote, “It was knocked over in the 300 block of 11th Street (old Rt 30, north side). Before I could get there, the contractor and inspector pulled the [brass Lincoln head] off. I raced there and saved the concrete marker. I am going to get it cleaned up.” From the article:
City Administrator Steve Lindner said the city plans to have the marker restored and placed along 11th Street, the Lincoln Highway route through DeWitt…. The marker was sitting on a hand truck in the middle of the City Council chambers during Monday night’s regular meeting.
Van Becker adds:
Once it is restored and placed I will get a photo and GPS location. With this addition, I now have documented the existence and location of 94 (YES, 94) known 1928 LH markers in Iowa. This is a Left Turn marker [and] there was only one marker placed on 11th Street, and, it was a Left Turn marker. Probably safe to say it is number 972. Old number 972 was originally placed “100 yds E of 5th Ave. & 11th St” in DeWitt as instructed by Gael Hoag, Field Secretary of the Lincoln Highway Assn.
The post numbering was devised by the LHA’s Russell Rein, who transcribed Hoag’s log. Contrary to popular belief, there were not 3,400 concrete posts at about one per mile; Russ counted just 2,436 posts. There were also some 4,000 signs for city streets, which rarely are mentioned (though Russ and his marker counts are in my Greetings from the Lincoln Highway book).
Don’t forget that this Saturday, May 9, will be the last chance for the public to visit Clarksville, California, and one of the longest (and off-limits) sections of original Lincoln Highway between Sacramento and Carson City, Nevada.
As reported here earlier, the long-abandoned town of Clarksville, just outside of El Dorado Hills, California, is set to be cleared and developed in the next couple years. The property is now private land but the owner has agreed to open the site for the annual Clarksville Day historical celebration. About dozen structures remain from the town that, if not large, was once thriving. Cars will be able to drive the Lincoln Highway this one last day; click HERE for a full schedule of events.
Above, the Clarksville Region Historical Society crew, preparing the site for the festival, stands on the Lincoln Highway. Photo by Pat Thomsen, Secretary, CRHS.
Update: The local newspaper just did a preview story.
The fifth annual Lincoln Highway BUY-WAY Yard Sale is being planned for August 6, 7, and 8, 2009. Sales will stretch from Chester, West Virginia, across the Ohio River through Ohio and on into Indiana and Illinois.
Ohio, the originator and most active promoter, announced that although the “Lincoln Highway Historic Byway” designated by ODOT is the 1928 route across the state, there are several earlier alignments that will also have sales and will celebrate the history of the road, almost doubling the 241 miles of sales across the state. Last year there were an estimated 750 sales.
For the past two years, a Travelers Guide with maps and info on sales and activities has been distributed free along the corridor. Executive Director Mike Hocker encourages churches, restaurants, or any organization to participate and take an ad. Call him at (419) 468-6773 for details before May 15 or visit http://www.historicbyway.com/.
The Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor has announced that the first of the Roadside Giants student sculptures has been installed along the Lincoln Highway west of Ligonier, Pennsylvania. The Roadside Giants program encourages students from vocational and technical schools along the Lincoln Highway (US 30 in PA) to design and create sculptures that will line the road. They are named for the larger-than-life buildings and statues that are used to attract travelers to stop and spend some time and money, documented in such esteemed books as Roadside Giants — yes, written by me and my wife Sarah.
The first Giant, from the Eastern Westmoreland Career & Technology Center, is a replica 1940s Bennett Gas Pump at the future site of the Lincoln Highway Experience, a welcome center and attraction in Ligonier Township. It’s at the intersection of US 30W and Route 259, near the Idlewild Park entrance. Ligonier Livingalso wrote a story about it.
Four other schools will also soon install giants:
• Somerset County Career & Technology Center designed a vintage Bicycle Built for Two
• Bedford County Technical Center students created an oversized quarter including a profile of Washington
• Franklin County Career & Technology Center built a replica 1921 Selden Apple Truck like the ones used to haul produce at Chambersburg’s orchards.
• Central Westmoreland Career & Technology Center wanted to design a Lincoln Highway-era figure, so they chose a Packard Car with Driver.
“I love art and education,” said Olga Herbert, Executive Director of the LHHC. The Roadside Giants of the Lincoln Highway project combined the two, and involved the community. It will create another great photo op for all Lincoln Highway road trips this summer.”
It’s always a surprise — and a relief — when a book you’ve been working on for years finally arrives in finished form. Today I was finally able to hold and look through a completed Lincoln Highway Companion, sent on ahead by the printer. Ahh, the smell of fresh ink and new paper!!
Like my last book, Roadside Attractions, this one incorporates written contributions from dozens of friends and fellow old road enthusiasts; it’s an honor to include their roadside recommendations.
No matter whether others like your book or not, you know every image, every fact, every comma had to be chosen, tracked down, and approved. It’s like your child — you love it no matter what. I filmed a little video preview of Lincoln Highway Companion for YouTube that you can play here too.
With Spring travel not yet here and snow surprising many of us, there’s not much news from the road, but my editor just sent some good news – a few honest-to-goodness samples of my Lincoln Highway Companion book have arrived! These go out to booksellers that want a look before ordering, and perhaps reviewers. I’m hoping to see one too — he says “Looks great!!!” but I’ll still be anxious till I see it myself. Here’s a photo from it of the Frazer Diner that Stackpole Books posted on Facebook. Click it to see it a bit larger.
I’ve been spending lots of time writing the Ship Hotel book, due out in 2010. More than 2 months after my request for info, I still get letters and photos daily — it’s getting hard to wrap up! Here’s a nice photo I just color-corrected. As you’ve probably seen in your own family photos, pigments fade from old Kodacolor prints, leaving them pink. I really enjoy working to bring them back to how they should look.
Lincoln Highway Companion is still at least a month away from release but Stackpole Books just added it and my other books to their web site. For LH Companion click HERE; Greetings from the LH can be found HERE.
Companion is already printing so no more changes can be made, but the road is always in flux. Here’s a draft page from Iowa — a popular stretch that includes Preston’s station in Belle Plaine and the bridge at Tama with the highway’s name in its rails. Creating and correcting the maps for this book added many, many months to its production.
Click the map above for a full-size view of the Lincoln Highway.
Like this blog? You'll LOVE my books!Lincoln Highway Companion features detailed maps and places to eat and stay. Click the book to buy it on Amazon.
Click the Greetings book below to purchase the ultimate guide to the history and route of the Lincoln Highway!
Another fun book! The Ship Hotel: A Grand View along the Lincoln Highway recalls the greatest roadside attraction along the coast-to-coast road.
And for those who LOVE diners, click the book below to purchase our completely updated guide to the history, geography, and food of Pennsylvania's Diners!
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