Day 11: June 29, 2013
Last Full Day of the Tour

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The eighty-four year old human footprints in the pavement of Ogden, Iowa, are still there.

Coffee and donuts were available at Bob and Joyce Ausberger's museum in Grand Junction.

Beyond Scranton, the Moss and Gregory families marked their farms with concrete monuments. I captured Mike Curtis driving by one of the Moss markers then was stopped with him at one of the Gregory markers. I hadn't even noticed the cool tree behind us but Mike did and that prompted me to take a picture, too. Those clouds make a pretty nice background.

We stopped on the well maintained brick streets of Woodbine, Iowa, for lunch. Iowa is the birthplace of Maid-Rite so it was fitting that we were served a homemade version of the loose-meat sandwich. Tour leader, Jim Peters took advantage of the little outdoor amphitheater to pass along some information about the arrangements for tomorrow's arrival in Kearney.

Our afternoon stop was at this former Ford dealership and assembly plant which now houses Dusters Restaurant and The Gottberg Brew Pub. Refreshments included cream soda and root beer from the brewery along with samples of real beer.

This is the Avenue of Trees in Duncan, Nebraska. The Lincoln Highway used to pass between those two lines of trees. That barely visible yellow spot in the center of the second picture is Chuck Elderton's Model A Ford which I thought might just drive on up the "Avenue" but it didn't.

Shortly before reaching Duncan, I passed a parked pickup truck with a man standing beside it and pointing toward a side road. I waved but continued on the pre-programmed route. When I pulled into town and parked, a lady approached, to photograph the car and asked, "Are they behind you?" After I learned that she was asking about "the Lincoln Highway cars" I told her some were behind me but most were ahead. I listened in disbelief as she told me that I was the first marked car she had seen. A few more cars, including the previously mentioned Model A did come into town while I was there but none stopped.

As I walked back towards my car, the fellow I had passed along the road pulled in and approached me. Over the next few minutes I learned that he was responsible for the big 'L' banners on the trees and other markings and had really been looking forward to Duncan being visited by a bunch of fellow Lincoln Highway fans. His disappointment and frustration were obvious and understandable. His name was Mark Nyffeler. I stopped by the second LH marker in Duncan (this one with medallion) then followed Mark down the dirt road. I visited this bridge, which carried the LH between 1913 and 1928, in 2009 just a couple of months before the markers were placed in the little parklike area. When Paul Schubert saw us heading down the dirt road, he decided to follow so at least Mark had an audience of two for this part of his mini-tour. The marker might be readable here and I did get a shot of Paul & Mark.


I managed to time things so I could safely ask Dick Grudzinski to put in 10 gallons at the 1936 Kensinger's Gas Station in Grand Island. Then I strolled to the rear of the station to take a look at the last unmolested bit of seedling mile pavement in the country.

A bus took us to dinner at the historic Shady Bend. What was once a popular one-stop by the highway has recently reopened as an Italian restaurant.

The original plan had been for the bus to stop at Kensinger's before dinner but circumstances caused the stops to be reversed. That stroke of luck allowed me to see the neon glowing for the first time and a bigger stroke of luck brought that 1948 Tucker to the station while we were there. That last picture may not be particularly good but it certainly is rare. It's Kensinger's neon reflected in the hood of a Tucker as seen from the seat of a bus.

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