Trip Peek #35
Trip #61
Sweetheart Cruise ’08

Posted on February 28, 2016 by Denny

This picture is from my 2008 Sweetheart Cruise trip. This was my first time joining the annual (weather and other stuff permitting) cruise organized by a small group of Missouri road fans. The name comes from its proximity to Valentines Day and the fact that it usually includes sweethearts Kent and Mary Sue Sanderson. This particular cruise ran north along the Mississippi River from St. Louis to Hannibal then crossed over and returned through Illinois at some distance from the river. There were lots of bald eagles and pelicans to be seen on the way to Hannibal with the area around Lock 25 near Winfield, MO, where the picture was taken, being one of the hot spots. The second day featured some Sanderson childhood memories including a look (from the outside) at the Lustron house that Mary Sue remembered her father assembling after it arrived on a truck. Weather was fine for the two days of the actual cruise but I did encounter snow on the way home which prompted me to move from two-lane to expressway much sooner than planned.

Two aspects of this trip, one good and one bad, were photo related. On the good side was the move to posting 800 x 600 pixel photos after more than eight years of sticking with 640 x 480. On the bad side was the failure of a memory card containing lots of snowy National Road pictures on the third day. I’m sure they would have looked marvelous in the new larger format.

Trip Pic 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 trip journal it is from.

Trip Peek #34
Trip #32
IL 66 Run

Posted on October 4, 2015 by Denny

This picture is from my 2005 Illinois 66 Run trip. The three day outing started with an early morning wet drive to Indianapolis that led to a somewhat drier drive to the Luna Cafe in Mitchell, Illinois, to connect with a group of Route 66 fans to drive to Springfield, Illinois. Pre-planned activities more or less ended with an overnight in Springfield but a portion of the group continued north the next day and that is when the picture was taken. It shows some of the remnants of a bridge that once carried US 66 over Salt Creek near Lincoln, Illinois.

Trip Peek #33
Trip #95
2011 OLHL Meeting

Posted on July 26, 2015 by Denny

This picture is from my trip to the 2011 Ohio Lincoln Highway League meeting in Ashland, Ohio. The meeting took place on the second day of the four day outing. The Lincoln Highway cigar box was part of a memorabilia display at the meeting. I worked in a tour of the nation’s only metal whistle manufacturer on the way to the meeting and stopped at the former Ohio State Reformatory and the Armstrong Air & Space Museum on the way home.

Trip Peek #32
Trip #105
Sixty-Six the Hard Way

Posted on July 19, 2015 by Denny

This picture is from my 2012 Sixty-Six the Hard Way trip. It’s of a humpback whale taken on a day when we saw 25-30 of the creatures along with numerous other whales, dolphins, and birds. I had driven to Boston then, after spending a day there, to Provincetown on Cape Cod where I spent a couple of days and got in a whale watching cruise. There are just three even-numbered (i.e., east-west) twin-digit US Highways. One is, or rather was, the famous but decommissioned Route 66. The others are US 22 and US 44 which, when added together, total 66. Ergo this trip’s name and its route. Along the way, I stopped in Pennsylvania at Allentown’s America on Wheels museum and the Martin guitar factory in Nazareth.

Trip Peek #31
Trip #90
Skyline and Blue Ridge

Posted on May 31, 2015 by Denny

This picture is from my 2010 Skyline & Blue Ridge trip along Skyline Drive and Blue Ridge Parkway. The two more or less connect a little west of Charlottesville, Virginia, to provide a nearly 575 mile long scenic drive. The picture was taken near the southern end of the Parkway looking down from Waterrock Knob. I prefaced starting down Skyline Drive with a touch of Darke County Fair, some cardboard boat racing, and a goodly amount of scenic roadway in Ohio and West Virginia. I paused between Drive and Parkway to tour Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello.

Trip Peek #30
Trip #71
Thanksgiving 2008

Posted on May 3, 2015 by Denny

This picture is from my 2008 Thanksgiving trip. It was my fourth and last (so far) Thanksgiving Escape Run. I believe it was the first trip on which I got serious about traveling the Dixie Highway and I followed it all the way from the Ohio River to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina. The estate was decorated for Christmas and that’s what is in the picture.

Trip Peek #29
Trip #94
Buzzards with Syrup

Posted on March 29, 2015 by Denny

This picture is from my 2011 Buzzards with Syrup trip. The name comes from combining a trip to see the buzzards return to Hinckley, Ohio, with the Maple Madness Drive-It-Yourself Tour to visit several producers of syrup and other maple based products. The buzzards officially return on March 15, the Maple Madness Tour is a weekend thing which I tackled on Saturday the 19th, and the Buzzard Day Festival took place the next day on Sunday. That left the days in between to visit Center of the World, a couple museums, and the shore of Lake Erie plus celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day. The picture is from the festival when experts from the Medina Raptor center were present to show and talk about the birds.

Trip Peek #28
Trip #76
Memorial Weekend 2009

Posted on February 15, 2015 by Denny

This picture is from my 2009 Memorial Weekend trip. The purpose of the trip was to research a magazine article on the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad. That made the journal a little strange since I didn’t want to include photos or other items intended for the article. As the article was never published, the fact that the journal contains so little about the trip’s primary target may seem even stranger now than when it was posted. The photo was taken inside the Princess Restaurant in Frostburg, Maryland. The restaurant was celebrating its 70th anniversary then which means it is turning 76 this year.

Trip Peek #27
Trip #23
Kentucky Short Loop

Posted on January 4, 2015 by Denny

This picture is from my 2004 Kentucky Short Loop day trip. The trip was prompted by good weather and was fairly spontaneous although I did have a few places in mind to visit. It was basically a day spent driving around Lexington, Elizabethtown, and Versailles, Kentucky. The picture is of a horse farm near Versailles. Apparently this was the trip where my attraction for US-62 began.

Trip Peek #26
Trip #62
Original OH LH

Posted on October 12, 2014 by Denny

This picture is from my 2008 Original OH LH trip to attend the Ohio Lincoln Highway League annual meeting in Galion. The route initially announced by the Lincoln Highway Association, now known as the Proclamation Route, included the cities of Kenton and Marion. When a revised route was announced a few weeks later, the route was moved to the north and these cities dropped. I decided to take a look at Ohio’s part of the Proclamation Route on this drive which is how I ended up in Kenton where this Gene Autry Mural is located. The drive continued through Marion and other Proclamation Route towns. The manufacture of Gene Autry toy pistols is a big part of Kenton’s past and that’s why the big mural is there and why there used to be an annual Gene Autry Days festival. As I prepared this post, I learned that the 2013 festival was the last.

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