Trip Peek #149
Trip #167
Hiwassee Loop

Posted on October 12, 2025 by Denny

This picture is from my 2022 Hiwassee Loop trip. Railroad loops allow elevation changes in less space than switchbacks and without the need to reverse direction. The Tennessee Valley Railroad‘s Hiwassee Loop was completed in 1890. Riding the train through the loop was the whole purpose of this trip, but I drove the Tail of the Dragon, the Cherohala Skyway, and a little Dixie Highway getting there, then some US-127 and more Dixie Highway getting home. It was a three-day trip with both overnights spent in historic digs.

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.

Trip Peek #148
Trip #2
Packard Museum & Garage-mahal

Posted on August 24, 2025 by Denny

This picture is from my 2000 Packard Museum & Garage-mahal day trip. It was only the second trip documented here, and the first day trip. It wasn’t documented very well, as the idea of this as a permanent website had not yet taken root. It was an Eastgate Corvette Club outing with two museum visits separated by a lunch stop. First up was America’s Packard Museum in Dayton, OH. It’s in a former Packard dealership, and may have been going by the name of that dealership, Citizens Motorcar Company, at the time. The afternoon stop was at the home and garage of Cincinnati Microwave co-founder Jim Jaeger. I have subsequently re-visited both collections with my most recent visit to the Packard Museum documented here. Apparently, other visits to Jaeger’s garage went undocumented.

Trip Peek #147
Trip #145
Route 66 Miles of Possibility Conference

Posted on August 3, 2025 by Denny

This picture is from my 2017 trip to the Route 66 Miles of Possibility Conference in Joliet, IL. This was the third MOPCon, and my second time attending. At the time, there were still questions about whether a pay-to-attend conference could succeed in a world accustomed to free festivals, but with the tenth annual MOPCon scheduled for October 2025, those questions appear to have been answered. By coincidence, the tenth MOPCon will be right where the third one was: Joliet. My 2017 guess that the idea of a pay-to-attend conference would find no takers outside of Illinois has so far proven correct.

I drove almost no Historic Route 66 getting to and from the conference. I took US-40 through Casey, IL, and checked out some of the World’s Largest things displayed there. Then it was north on US-45 for a meal at the original Burger King in Mattoon, IL. The drive home was mostly on US-35, which I picked up at its northern terminus near Michigan City, IN. In between was the conference with plenty of presentations and a Road Crew concert at the historic Rialto Theater.

Trip Peek #146
Trip #104
Sweetheart Cruise 2012

Posted on July 27, 2025 by Denny

This picture is from my Sweetheart Cruise 2012 trip. This was my second time participating in a cruise that a group of St. Louis area road fans frequently organized near Valentine’s Day. I spent the first day reaching Mitchell, IL, to check out the recently relit Luna Cafe sign which I used for the trip’s signature photo. The following day was spent cruising in a nine-car caravan from Mitchell to Carlinville, and the next two days were spent trying to follow a straight line home. A real highlight of the cruise was my one and only meeting with Bill Shea and my only time inside his museum in Springfield, IL.

Trip Peek #145
Trip #146
Thankful in Tennessee

Posted on June 29, 2025 by Denny

This picture is from my 2017 Thankful in Tennessee trip. This was in the style of my Christmas dinners in state parks but this time the holiday was Thanksgiving and the park was in Tennessee rather than Ohio or West Virginia. On Thanksgiving day, I drove straight to Natchez Trace State Park for the holiday buffet. I spent two nights at the park but drove to Brownsville for dinner and a nighttime peek at Billy Tripp’s Mind Field on the second day. I then spent two days getting home with time on US-45 and US-50 and stops in Paducah, KY, Metropolis, IL, and Vincennes, IN. The picture of Pin Oak Lake was taken near the turnaround point of a ranger-led hike I joined on the second day at the park.

Trip Peek #144
Trip #165
JHA 2022 Conference

Posted on December 29, 2024 by Denny

This picture is from my Jefferson Highway Association 2022 Conference trip. As mentioned in the previous Trip Peek, COVID-19 had put in-person conferences on hold for a couple of years. The JHA came out of the hold with this conference in Pittsburg, KS. When I drove the full length of the Jefferson Highway in 2018, I followed what I considered the primary alignment through Missouri. There was an alternate alignment on the Kansas side of the border and I welcomed the chance to drive that on this trip. The conference included presentations, museum visits, sign dedications, and, as the photo shows, a performance of a slightly modified “How You Gonna Keep ‘Em Down on the Farm” by Loring Miller while JHA President Roger Bell tries — and fails — to keep a straight face. I managed visits to the National World War I Museum and John Brown Memorial Park on the way to the conference, then stopped at Boots Court, Gay Parita, and Uranus Fudge Factory on the way home with an overnight at Rockwood Motor Court in Springfield, MO.

Trip Peek #143
Trip #166
LHA 2022 Conference

Posted on November 17, 2024 by Denny

This picture is from my Lincoln Highway Association 2022 Conference trip. COVID-19 had put in-person conferences on hold for a couple of years and the LHA ended the hold with this conference in Joliet, IL. Between Lincoln Highway and Route 66 events, I was familiar with many of the highway-related points of interest in the area but I had never been inside the Old Joliet Prison which appeared in “The Blues Brothers” movie. The photo at right was taken inside the East Cell House. Besides the prison, tours included the Rialto and Egyptian Theaters, which I had seen before, and a farm, winery, and museum, which were new to me. Of course, there were some interesting presentations and tasty meals in between all that.

Trip Peek #142
Trip #37
An Autumn Place

Posted on November 3, 2024 by Denny

This picture is from my 2005 An Autumn Place trip. This started with an invitation from Pat Bremer to join the Impala SS Club for a visit to A Summer Place. This is the recreated 1950s town where the Bremer’s wedding had taken place just a couple of years earlier. The Parke County Covered Bridge Festival happened to be going on at the same time so since I was halfway there, I decided to do that too and make it a three-day trip.

Trip Peek #141
Trip #128
Clinching the Dixie

Posted on October 27, 2024 by Denny

This picture is from my 2015 Clinching the Dixie trip. The basis for the trip was a Cincinnati Miata Club drive to Indianapolis but the name comes from what would happen after I reached Indianapolis. I had recently reached the point where the only part of the Dixie Highway I had yet to drive was the stretch between Indianapolis and Chicago, and the Miata outing seemed like the perfect prelude to wrapping it up. Club activities included visits to a couple of museums, a few meals, and one overnight. I spent a second night in the city after meeting friends for dinner. Google Maps says Indianapolis to Chicago is a three-hour trip but driving the Dixie Highway, with a couple of side trips thrown in, was a three-day affair. Cloud Gate (a.k.a., The Bean) is just a little bit beyond the Dixie Highway terminus in Chicago.

Trip Peek #140
Trip #14
Arizona Triangle Fish

Posted on October 20, 2024 by Denny

This picture is from my 2003 Arizona Triangle Fish trip. This was a short personal trip tacked onto the end of a business trip to Phoenix, AZ. When the business trip was scheduled, I asked online for suggestions for the personal part of the trip, and Ken Turmel responded with the idea of an east-west-south drive that he called a “Triangle Adventure Trip”. When I plotted the route, it looked kind of like a fish to me, and thus the name. The picture is of Salt River Canyon on the eastbound US-60 leg. The westbound leg took me to the Wigwam Village in Holbrook on US-66. US-89 took me south through Sedona and Jerome.

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