A Blog Along The Lincoln Highway

We are packed and out of WQED by 11:00, but I’ve arranged for us to stop at the Heinz History Center for a few quick words of advice from Brian Butko, author of GREETINGS FROM THE LINCOLN HIGHWAY. We pull into the little no-parking-anytime space in front of the big old ice-building, Brian comes down [...]

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OK. We’re tempted to stop at many places — that restaurant, that old service station, that barbershop — but we also want to keep moving, so sometimes we just have to keep driving. Folks in Illinois have done a great job of marking the original route of the Lincoln Highway, and sometimes (as in Aurora [...]

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Left: A cool old sign from the “old section” of the Lincoln Highway. Below: Historic marker.

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Last night we drove into one astounding sunset. What looked like a tiny red light in the clouds near the horizon eventually expanded to fill the evening sky with bright red and orange light in front of us. After the mighty rainstorm yesterday (see Day 3), the beauty of the sunset was a grand sign. [...]

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I’ve never considered Iowa a big state. But it’s taking us a long time to get across the 13 Lincoln-Highway counties of this lengthy (and very corny) state. Yesterday morning, I wanted to write for a while (that Day 4 entry is long) so Jarrett and Bob went back to the Mississippi River and shot [...]

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It’s overcast this morning here in Columbus, Nebraska. Ah, Nebraska! Never been here before, but we drove across the Missouri River on Route 6 from Council Bluffs, Iowa, into Omaha late yesterday afternoon. Drove past the University (where Bob yelled “Go Penn State!” out the window), zipped right past Boys’ Town, and got lost in [...]

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It’s Sunday evening, almost quarter to seven, and we’re sailing across Nebraska. Or driving in the high 70s as another beautiful summer day starts to think about the impending setting of the sun. Nebraska is flat, the road is straight, and the trains of the Union Pacific RR keep running along our left side. There [...]

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Jarrett is driving. Moving along at a brisk clip. We can’t see another car right now. Bob says, “We own this road!” We’re passing quickly through Maxwell, NE, just trying to rack up some miles. The sun will set later tonight because we’re farther west. Bob is in the passenger seat, starting to get excited [...]

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Yes, we got as far as Ogallala at about 8:25 last evening, and the towns are getting farther and farther apart, so we decided to find a motel here. We started to see some interesting looking mom-and-pop motels along Route 30 as we came into town, but all of them had their neon NO VACANCY [...]

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We went to breakfast this morning at Kathy’s Kafe at the Ogallala Livestock Auction just west of town on the Lincoln Highway. The guy at the motel had touted it as “maybe the best breakfast in town.” Big and hearty. Lots of coffee. Jarrett was trying to finish editing the video postcard we made yesterday [...]

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