Day 17: July 5, 2013 Moving on West

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Although I know it hasn't always been the case, the final event of every LHA conference I've attended has been a combination breakfast and general membership meeting. I believe there has been just a whiff of contention in every one and I consider that, along with a decent treasurer's report and a decent supply of new ideas, to indicate a living and breathing organization. Kay Shelton presided over the meeting and, having been reelected, presumedly gets to do it again next year.

We started west around noon with a small caravan consisting of one Mustang, one Valiant, two oxen, one wagon, one Packard, and one Pontiac G6. One of these is still in production.

The nicely painted old bridge is just east of Overton, Nebraska, and the other pictures are in the town itself. Many small towns greeted both centennial tours with signs and banners. Hopefully others following the Lincoln Highway this year will feel just as welcome. Note the 1928 LH marker protected by a cage.

I've been looking forward to visiting Cozad ever since I learned of a connection between the Nebraska town and the Cincinnati, Ohio, area. I discovered another connection today. The newly discovered connection is this Yellowstone stagecoach in which Cincinnatian William Howard Taft rode in September of 1907. He was then Secretary of War and would be elected President the next year. The coach is inside the 100th Meridian Museum which also contains the likeness of the other Cincinnati area connection, John J. Cozad. Cozad was quite an interesting character who founded Cozaddale, Ohio, prior to founding Cozad, Nebraska. I made this the subject of my weekly blog post for July 7 and anticipated just mentioning it here. But, thanks to my being behind in my trip journal, that entry is already posted so I can actually point to it here. One of John's sons became the well known artist Robert Henri whose childhood home is now a museum just down the street (a.k.a. Lincoln Highway) from the 100th Meridian Museum.

Our little group stopped for lunch at a small restaurant in Cozad. That's Milton, Carolee, Rollie, Beth & Paul.

The Lincoln Highway originally followed section lines in this area which meant a lot of right angle turns. Modern routings have essentially eliminated this but the "Gothenburg Stair Steps" still exist and we drove them. The Fort McPherson National Cemetery is on this section.

After checking into the hotel, I drove out to the Golden Spike Tower. The eight story tower offers an impressive view of an awful lot of trains. I'm sure the huge rail yard can be fun to watch when cars are being sorted but there wasn't much activity while I was there.

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