A Blog Along The Lincoln Highway

So, not long after we filled our tank at that small independent gas station in Dix, Nebraska, we drove under Interstate 80 and were now zipping along on the old Route 30 as it traveled just south of the big highway. 30 had been quietly transformed into a sort of a high quality access road, [...]

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From our motel in Rawlins, the morning is bright and clear. Day 8. It’s all new landscape. It’s a giant blue sky, treeless hills, wild Wyoming. We decide to walk next door to Cappy’s for breakfast and Bob is in love with the morning light. “This is so beautiful,” he says. “I’m gonna get a [...]

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I didn’t sleep a lot in Rawlins, so I’m happy that Jarrett is willing to drive a lot today. The view out the right side of the van is amazing. The view out the left side is blocked by the big Q decal. Stupid branding. It could be on the rear side window and no [...]

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We love the service road but eventually get on the interstate again. We figure Lyman might be worth a visit because there’s a picture in Butko’s book of an old concrete Lincoln marker in a field outside of town, and Bob says “I’d love to shoot that.” He’s sitting in the back seat now, reading [...]

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We stop briefly in Evanston to see the restored train station and a little Lincoln Highway marker memorial along the main drag through town. One of the information panels lets us know that the only original concrete Lincoln Highway marker in Wyoming is just east of Lyman, about 65 miles east of here. Yep. Following [...]

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At the start of Day 8, we’re in Park City Utah in the nicest rooms we’ve had so far on the trip. And I’m thinking about The Odyssey. Wasn’t there an island that seemed a paradise to Ulysses’ men? And they didn’t want to leave? Same thing here. Bob and Jarrett are totally taken with [...]

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We wiggle into Salt Lake City following Butko’s directions on how to follow the old route. Salt Lake City from the old Lincoln Highway, or at least from the version we’re following, is not a very exciting or good looking city. Bob was expecting something more exotic, I think. He’s a fan of the HBO [...]

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After Magna, we have several options, and I think we should check out Saltair. It’s a fabled old resort on the southern shore of the Great Salt Lake, and Butko mentions it in the book as a popular stop for many early travelers along the Lincoln Highway, although it’s about a mile off the actual [...]

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So, with salt air in our lungs, we turn west again. Actually, the road from here gets really interesting. Travelers along the Lincoln Highway have some choices to make at this point. Take the straight and easy course on I-80 across the Great Salt Lake Desert to Wendover, or follow the original route to the [...]

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So, west of the Great Salt Lake, west of Saltair and Tooele, there is the Great Salt Lake Desert. Much of it was the bottom of a gigantic prehistoric lake that stretched over some 20,000 square miles about 18,000 years ago. We now call that dried up old body of water Lake Bonneville. Or the [...]

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