Day 2 Summer Vacation 2009

Illinois is the Land of Lincoln and so that is what we are doing today, driving on the Lincoln Highway. We will be in 2 States today, Illinois and Iowa.

We started in Plainfield IL just outside of Joliet Illinois where we finished Route 66 last summer. This is an ideal starting location for us, because The Lincoln Highway and Route 66 share a 3 block long section of the same road.

We then pushed on to Franklin Grove Illinois where we stopped at the Lincoln Way Cafe. Unfortunately it was not open today as the owners had closed up and left town on their first vacation in 7 years. They are due back tomorrow to re-open the Cafe.

Across the road from the Lincoln Way Cafe is The Lincoln Highway National Headquarters. Inside we were warmly greeted by Lynn Asp. Lynn and the National Headquarters were featured on the PBS documentary “A Ride Along the Lincoln Highway” We watched this DVD several times at home as we planned this summers road trip. It was a pleasure to meet Lynn and spend time chatting with her. We wanted to buy a couple of T-Shirts but they were low on inventory and did not have our sizes.

Here is the exterior of the building.

We drove through Dixon Illinois and saw their Victory Memorial Arch.

Then it was onwards toward the mighty Mississippi where we crossed from Illinois into Iowa. Clinton Iowa has a great sign marking this.

Iowa is often referred to as The Hawkeye State, but I would call it “The Endless Fields of Corn” State. That is pretty much all we saw as we drove along the Lincoln Highway through this part of Iowa.

In Mount Vernon IA we found an original section of the Lincoln Highway that is brick and had a neat old pony truss bridge over the railway tracks.

The Youngville Station & Cafe in Watkins Iowa provided another photo opportunity, but that was all, as it too was closed today.

There were a few photo opportunities in Belle Plaine Iowa. First was The Lincoln Cafe.. guess what… it was closed. For a Tuesday, in the first week of July when all the tourists are travelling, this is unusual to find business closed. We encountered this along Route 66 as well, I guess these business owners need a break once in a while, and I suppose that Tuesday could be considered a slow day during the week.

Also in Belle Plaine IA is the F.L. Sankot Garage & the Preston Garage.

For you John Deere tractor lovers…

We had dinner at the King Tower Cafe in Tama Iowa. It started pouring rain just as we were parking so it was good to be inside instead of driving.

Although we were having dinner, I think that what Karen had would be better classified as a dessert, A Pecan Waffle with Strawberries and Whipped Cream…

Our last stop today before heading to our hotel is the Lincoln Highway Concrete Bridge in Tama Iowa.

So we made it into Marshalltown Iowa at our hotel after driving 525 Kilometres today. We saw temperatures as high as 28 C, but that dropped quickly to 18 C when the rain started around 5pm. We will study our maps and notes this evening and head out in the morning to see more of this historic highway.

To see all of our photos from today, you can check them all out on my FLICKR site.