Day 1: June 16, 2016
Staging
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As I often do, I let DeLorme plot the initial route then tweaked it to suit. I was a little surprised when I saw the route reaching the Canadian border on US-52. I've driven this highway, which goes through Cincinnati, as far west as Dixon, Illinois, and this seemed the perfect opportunity to cover its most western portion. I plotted a path that hurried to Dixon then followed US-52 to Canada. The first picture was taken in Mendota, Illinois, where I first moved onto US-52. Between there and near Dixon I drove over road I originally covered in 2010 while driving eastward. Near Dixon, the road became even more familiar as it joined IL-38 and what was once the Lincoln Highway. I left Dixon on new-to-me US-52 and that's when I consider the trip to have actually started. Everything before was just staging.

My reason for being in Dixon in 2010 was to attend my first Lincoln Highway Association National Conference. That was the start of a streak that's ending essentially as I type because I am missing the June 13-17 conference in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to make this trip.

Entry to Iowa was over this 1932 bridge at Savanna, Illinois. There was a somewhat confusing arrangement of barrels, arrows, and signs near the bridge's entrance and I could see the cranes and other signs of construction or deconstruction as I approached from the south. All this made me a little nervous and I'm not sure I'd have driven onto the bridge if I hadn't seen an eastbound car come off of it as I neared. The bridge is being replaced and new piers stand beside it. To my eye, the replacement project seemed quite justified and I believe I actually felt a little fear as I drove onto the grated deck. I had the bridge all to myself as I crossed although I had to speed up a bit to make sure I was off the deck before the big truck in the last picture rolled onto it.
A combination of Garmin and TripAdvisor had me thinking that a motel in Guttenberg might be a good place to end the day. A small sign for the motel appeared at just about the same time as one for a scenic overlook. I pulled into the overlook and grabbed a few pictures of the Mississippi River then turned around and grabbed a picture of the motel. The overlook where I stood to take the first photo can be seen near the bottom of the second. The Eagle View Motel has a nice room, friendly owner, reasonable price, and marvelous view.
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