A Blog Along The Lincoln Highway

With a sparkling clean windshield, we motor along, heading northeastward, getting amazing vistas every ten miles or so. Soon we start to see evidence of civilization and we’re in Medicine Bow before we know it.

As we approach the Virginian Hotel, we see some commotion on the right side of the street. It’s Buddy and Bob, the No Age Limit guys who are riding motor-trikes (they probably want me to say the bikes are Piaggio MP3s) across America on the Lincoln Highway! They are talking to a man in front of the Medicine Bow Museum.

I pull over just beyond them on the right, hoping they won’t zip away. They seem happy to see us, and we talk about how we were sorry to lose them yesterday around lunchtime in Lyman. They say they drove around Lyman but couldn’t find the lunch stop. They drove on to Rock Springs.

So now is a good time for our roadside chat? Yes. We set up right there on the berm on Route 30 just across from the Virginian. An on-the-Lincoln-Highway interview. We have a good talk. Buddy is a New York psychologist, and Bob is a Californian businessman who works with coatings. They talk of their friendship, their travels around the world, their love of the road, how they found out about these new Italian bikes (or trikes) made by the company that makes Vespas, and they explain how they decided on traveling the Lincoln Highway (that happens to link their two hometowns), how their wardrobes are kept to a minimum (two of each item and washing in the motel sink every night), how they never get “numb-butt,” and how now their evenings are often spent dealing with photos and video (Buddy has a little video camera that mounts on his vehicle) and writing captions and comments and uploading things to their blog.

Buddy says all this internet involvement makes him work harder than he’s ever worked in his life. I commiserate.

Bob says they carry everything they need on their bikes except their wives.

They are friendly, philosophical and down-to-earth. Our Bob the Cameraman said that he thought maybe they were being followed by a Piaggio RV or some other high-end support system, but no, they are two free spirits out on newfangled bikes, seeing the country on one of the best roads ever.

They give us lots of time. They drive back and forth in front of us. They let us follow them, they let us ride beside them when the road is open and clear for long stretches.

They stop again with us and check out the Fossil Cabin (or whatever you want to call the house made out of dinosaur bones in Como Bluffs, about 7 miles east of Medicine Bow.) It’s an odd little structure that once was an attraction featured in Ripley’s “Believe It Or Not,” but it doesn’t look like it receives many visitors nowadays. Another goofy spot to stop and check out America.

Eventually, before we get to the town of Bosler, still well north of Laramie, we pull over in a open lot and get out to say Thanks and Safe Journey.

Tomorrow we have to get on the interstate and soar, but Buddy and Bob get to continue their unusual and cool travels along the old road. We expect to see them again when they get to Pittsburgh later this month or early in July. They expect to get to Times Square on Bastille Day, July 14. That will be a celebration.