This picture is from my 2009 Indiana’s Lincoln Highway trip. I joined the Lincoln Highway Association in 2000 but had yet to attend a conference. With the 2009 conference being held in semi-near South Bend, IN, I thought I just might make it but my job got in the way. While there was still some hope of attending, I had plotted a trip on both Indiana LH alignments that I planned to wrap around the conference. When the conference was ruled out completely, I used those plans to fulfill another long-delayed ambition. A lifelong friend and I had talked of making a trip together but never quite firmed up plans. With him living near where the Lincoln Highway entered Indiana and the mid-trip conference no longer a factor, this two-way crossing of the state became a near-perfect opportunity. The picture shows my friend Dale gazing in exaggerated awe at the Kosciusko County Courthouse in Warsaw.

We began by driving the short distance to the state line then west through Fort Wayne where we picked up the original alignment. This took us through South Bend (about three months ahead of the conference) where we checked out the Studebaker Museum. We encountered a little snow on our second day when we finished the westbound drive and stopped at the Lincoln Highway Ideal Section just east of the Illinois line. On the third day, we drove the newer alignment eastbound between Valparaiso and Fort Wayne which includes that impressive Warsaw courthouse.

Trip Peeks are short articles published when my world is too busy or too boring for a current events piece to be completed in time for the Sunday posting. In addition to a photo thumbnail from a completed road trip, each Peek includes a brief description of that photo plus links to the full-sized photo and the associated trip journal.