Day 3: Oct. 24, 2005
One More Bridge


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A shot of my motel and restaurant from last night starts things off. The Mark III is a decent $32 motel and I'd stay there again. But I've seen better and will stop a little short of a recommendation. Momma's Restaurant was literally next door. Good food and reasonably priced. The court house is in Brownstown. It's pictured here largely because it was right next to Brock's which was my breakfast stop.
Somewhere near Hayden, I was stopped for several minutes at this construction site. I didn't really mind though. I was in no particular hurry and there was some pretty good entertainment through the whole stop. The show was off to the left and featured the large white van. I missed the very beginning of the show which obviously consisted of the truck attempting to cross a pretty severe dip. The rear bumper got a good grip on one side while the front wheels were climbing the other and that left the rear axle spinning in thin air. By the time I arrived and took notice, the tractor and scoop were in place and were trying to lift the rear of the truck. There were some false starts and some more mid-air spinning but truck and tractor eventually managed to move backwards in unison and get the truck's drive wheels back on earth. With a series of very short moves, the driver then got the truck entirely free of the dip while simultaneously turning it to face east. After a few shouts of "encouragement" from the flagman, the truck pulled out on the road and the held traffic was released to follow it. Providing a show like this for every lengthy construction delay would definitely go a long ways toward eliminating driver stress.
I suppose the Parke County festival left me sensitized to covered bridges so Holton's welcome sign naturally caught my eye. When I saw an identical sign on the other side of the small town, I decided to see if it really did mean that a bridge was nearby. At a convenience store I learned that it did and also got directions. I enjoyed the drive along the tree lined road that lead to the bridge but it would have been even nicer if it had been drier. Closed to vehicle traffic, the 1884 bridge has a rather nice setting.
Turning back for the bridge at Holton lead to this discovery, shown here out of sequence. It took me awhile to actually decide to turn around. I finally reached a decision at this narrow road more than a mile east of Holton. I turned around in a gravel driveway and only spotted the historical marker as I waited to pull back on Route 50. There is little paint left on the marker so it is not easy to read. I saw the word "road" with one longer word in front of it. "National Road" I thought and almost dismissed what I took as something familiar. But it eventually registered that the first word was not "National" and I was on US-50, not 40. I pulled over to check it out. "Michigan" was the mystery word and that narrow strip of asphalt marks the path of a road credited with having "Opened northern part of state to settlers". I haven't been able to find much about the Michigan Road but I will continue looking for information on this lucky, and very accidental, find.
This faux gas station sits behind "Model A Crossing" signs that mark the driveway. There are bits and pieces of Model A Ford's sitting around the place and I have a strong hunch that the buildings behind the decrepit pickup contain some complete examples of Henry's second big hit.

With both traffic and rain increasing, I entered I-275 a couple of miles shy of the state line and took the expressway home. All remaining bridges were uncovered.

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