Trip Peek #79
Trip #97
Lincoln Highway Conference 2011

Posted on February 24, 2019 by Denny

This picture is from my 2011 Lincoln Highway Conference trip. It’s a trip that was in doubt almost to the day it started. Dad’s health was not good and I worried about traveling for any length of time. I apparently decided I could probably at least dash to and from the conference and sent in my registration just ahead of the deadline. Dad’s health took a bad turn near the end of May and I cut short a St. Louis trip to hurry back. He improved a bit but never really recovered. He died on June 2. When I eventually returned to thinking about the trip, my initial thoughts were to cancel it. Then I realized there was no reason. There was nothing for me to do after the funeral and long solo drives sounded much more useful than sitting at home.

With no reason to dash, I may have gone overboard. I left home on June 9 and drove the full length of US-36. I camped — in a tent! — in Rocky Mountain NP for a couple of nights.I picked up the Lincoln Highway in Utah and drove the unpaved stretch around Dugway to Ibapah. I met a group in Fallon, NV, for a pre-conference caravan. I hooked up with two groups for two different post-conference outings. One was my first visit to Donner Summit and the second an aborted attempt to drive Kings Canyon. Of course there was the conference in Tahoe with a bus tour west into California and another east into Nevada. When all that was over, I followed the Pioneer Trail alignment of the Lincoln Highway on to San Francisco and a visit with my oldest son. Then it was down the coast on the Pacific Coast Highway to Los Angeles. I’d have gone on to visit my younger son in San Diego but I knew he was at sea with his Navy buddies. I had actually visited him and his family in January. I headed home from LA but took in assorted pieces of Route 66 on the way. I reached home on July 3.

And the picture? It’s from the California conference tour. At our stop in Clarksville, a group of local Ford Model A owners provided rides on the 1914 Lincoln Highway Pavement. The picture was taken from inside a 1928 “leather back”.

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 #78
Trip #122
Christmas Escape 2014

Posted on January 13, 2019 by Denny

This picture is from my 2014 Christmas Escape trip. This was a nineteen day affair that involved plenty of motel rooms but also included a night with friends in Savannah, Georgia, another with a friend in Saint Augustine, Florida, and a couple nights with my uncle in Lake Alfred, Florida. Christmas Day was spent in Saint Augustine. While staying on Marathon Key, I made a day trip to Key West and that’s when the sunset photo was taken. I worked in several new-to-me Dixie Highway segments on the trip and made a point of visiting all ten known Robert E Lee/Dixie Highway markers.

Trip Peek #77
Trip #13
To & From Two Johns

Posted on December 23, 2018 by Denny

This picture is from my 2003 To & From Two Johns day trip. Even though it was categorized as a day trip and documented on a single page, there were actually two days involved. The first day was spent driving to Indianapolis on back roads. After a night in the city, we headed south to visit Columbus and Madison, Indiana. The reason for the trip and the source of the title was a concert featuring Johnny A and John Hiatt. That’s Johnny A in the picture.

Trip Peek #76
Trip #52
Blues, Books, & Battles

Posted on October 28, 2018 by Denny

This picture is from my 2007 Blues, Books, & Battles trip. It was, as indicated by the title, a three parter. The blues part was a Patrick Sweany show at The Purple Fiddle in Thomas, West Virginia. I got there on the rather scenic US-50. Following a night in Thomas, I headed to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for the book part. The target was a promotional event for a new book, The Lincoln Highway: Coast to Coast from Times Square to the Golden Gate, from Michael Wallis and Michael Williamson. I’ve met Wallis several times before and since but this was my first and only time meeting Williamson. Although I enjoyed that and wandering through the Heinz History Center, the real highlight was meeting Brian Butko and Bernie Queneau for the first time. I did not charge into battle for part three; I visited the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial where lots of military history is on display. Of particular interest and the reason for my visit, was a section devoted to the 78th Infantry Division. That’s the unit my dad was with in World War II.

Trip Peek #75
Trip #78
Chattanooga Queen

Posted on October 7, 2018 by Denny

This picture is from my 2009 Chattanooga Queen trip. The Delta Queen steamboat had been forced to stop cruising about six months before and was docked in Chattanooga, Tennessee, as a stationary hotel. I’d never felt like I could afford a cruise on her, and the odds that I ever will get an opportunity are not good. This might very well be the closest I’ll ever get. The minimum stay was not determined by the length of a cruise , and rates for the non-moving rooms were less than they had been for the moving ones. I reserved one of the cheapest rooms for two nights over Independence Day.

The experience was far better than I had any right to expect. Even though hopes of a reprieve from the cruising ban were dimming, they weren’t entirely extinguished when the Queen first arrived in Chattanooga. Although virtually all of the existing crew/staff had or were working on plans to leave, the majority were still in place during my July stay. I was treated to food and lounge service, and even entertainment that differed little from that offered during cruises a few months prior. I stayed twice more on the Delta Queen while she was in Chattanooga, and, while I truly enjoyed both of those stays, neither compared to that first one.

The photo used as this blog’s banner was taken on the Delta Queen‘s next to last stop (so far) in the Queen City. She paused in Cincinnati, her home port, twice during the wind-down to docking in Chattanooga, and I was at both. My report on those visits is here.

Trip Peek #74
Trip #36
Five Bridges Road

Posted on August 5, 2018 by Denny

This picture is from my 2005 Five Bridges Road day trip. The title is obviously a rip-off of Steve Young’s Seven Bridges Road, and I must further confess that, while I did indeed visit five bridges — all covered — on this trip, they were not all on the same road and they are not the reason I began the trip. The reason for the trip, and the source of many of its photos, was the Pumpkin Run car show in Owensville, Ohio. I did have one bridge on the day’s itinerary, and I stopped there after spending time at the car show. While chatting with another visitor to the bridge, I learned that a total of five covered bridges remained in Brown County and I proceeded to visit them all. I suppose calling this the Five Bridges County trip would have been more accurate but not as catchy.

Here’s hoping that I can regain a portion of the credibility lost in revealing just how much of a lie this title is with my visit to the real seven bridges road just two years later.

Trip Peek #73
Trip #67
Lincoln Highway East

Posted on July 22, 2018 by Denny

This picture is from my 2008 Lincoln Highway East trip. I used a business trip to the Philadelphia area as the lead-in to a drive on the easternmost portion of the Lincoln Highway. That’s Times Square, where the LH begins, in the picture. After braving Manhattan, I spent the next day in Philadelphia looking over the Liberty Bell and other pieces of history before finally moving beyond the east coast congestion. I stayed with the Lincoln Highway to Greensburg, PA, then shifted to the National Road, which I followed to Zanesville, OH. When I reached Wheeling, WV, on July 5th, I learned that the Independence Day fireworks had been rained out and rescheduled, so I stuck around to see the show that was launched from the 1849 suspension bridge.

Trip Peek #72
Trip #111
2013 OLHL Meeting

Posted on June 17, 2018 by Denny

This picture is from my trip to the 2013 Ohio Lincoln Highway League Meeting near Mansfield, Ohio. The meeting itself filled just a few hours in an evening so most of the journal involved the going and coming. On the way there, I spent a night in Columbus so I could see the Lone Bellow in the process of becoming stars. On the day after the meeting, I headed to Georgetown, Ohio, for Ulysses Grant’s 191st birthday. I spent the night at a B & B across the street from Grant’s childhood home where I shared a bathroom with Abe Lincoln. This particular Abe Lincoln’s real name is Fritz Klein and I not only got to chat with him over breakfast, I got this picture taken with him in front of Gran’ts home.

Trip Peek #71
Trip #6
Bikes & Stuff

Posted on May 13, 2018 by Denny

This picture is from my 2002 Bikes & Stuff day trip. It shows the target of the trip which was the Bicycle Museum of America in New Bremen, Ohio. I made a few interesting stops along the way with the most interesting to me personally being a funeral home in Centerville, Ohio. My g-g-g-great grandfather, Benjamin Robbins, was a co-founder of the town and the funeral home is built around the stone house he constructed in the early 1800s. I’d stopped by the house before but this time was different. As I approached the building taking pictures, a door opened and I was invited inside.

Trip Peek #70
Trip #139
Road Crew Redo

Posted on April 29, 2018 by Denny

This picture is from my 2017 Road Crew Redo trip. I’d seen the Road Crew perform their Route 66 themed songs at Route 66 events but never in their home state of Tennessee. I tried in January of 2016 but a snow storm played havoc with my plans. This time I was successful. The trip’s first day was spent getting to Nashville, doing some honky tonking, and attending the Grand Ol’ Opry in Ryman Theater. The picture is of a modern neon sign inside Robert’s Western World. On the second day I moved on to Franklin and did some sight seeing before catching the Road Crew at Jack and Jameson’s Smokehouse. A leisurely drive home filled the third day.

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