Day 02 Summer 2010 Park to Park Road Trip

This is the route that we will drive today, 920 KM

We woke up early, had a quick breakfast at the hotel and we’re on the road by 8:30 am. Immediately we are back into the construction. President Obama is re-building America, or at least several dozen miles of I-80 in Illinois.

We start seeing giant wind turbines as we drive along I-280 in Illinois. There are dozens of them on both sides of the Interstate

We crossed over the Mississippi River and half way across, we left Illinois and entered Iowa.

A few years ago we watched a show on TV about a truckers jamboree at the IOWA 80 Truck Stop. Reportedly, the largest truck stop in the world. I had forgotten about that show until I saw the sign above the Interstate. I had to stop and see this place. Definitely the nicest, cleanest, largest truck stop that I have ever seen. The place was a hive of activity because the annual truckers jamboree is being held tomorrow and the next day.

A few photos of the interior, but to see all of my photos, you can visit my FLICKR site, or click on the link above to be taken directly to the website for the Iowa 80 Truck Stop.

A few of photos of the Iowa Sky this afternoon.

Then we cross the state line into Nebraska.

Finally we see our favourite water tower. We saw this water tower on last summers Lincoln Highway Road Trip. Reminds me of a large hot air balloon.

Tomorrow we will be on the road again heading for Colorado. We have never been in the State of Colorado so this will be a first and I will get to add it to my Visited States Map.

Day 4 Summer Vacation 2009

Here is a map of todays route. 281 KM

It’s a Wonderful Life… Yes it is, and isn’t it coincidental that we are in Denison Iowa, the birthplace of Donna Reed. If you remember, Donna Reed starred in the movie It’s A Wonderful Life, along with Jimmy Stewart in the 1946 Christmas classic. The town of Denison is working hard to preserve and promote anything Donna Reed. They started with the towns water tower. Unfortunately, it is pouring rain, and I mean pouring, so the pictures of the water tower did not turn out that great shooting from inside the car.

West of Dunlap Iowa we found a roadside display standing in a corn field. The corn is at least 6’ tall and the girl stands 17’ tall. She appears to be quite upset because her dog has chewed her favourite Teddy Bear toy.

Also west of Dunlap Iowa the train tracks run alongside the road and Karen was able to snap this photo of the train as it passed by.

In Woodbine Iowa we found about a 1 mile section of brick Lincoln Hwy. One of the locals told me that the brick had all been lifted and re-set a couple of years ago. That tells me that Woodbine is proud of their section of the Lincoln Highway.

We had read about the Brick Street Station in Woodbine IA and we were looking forward to sampling their specialty desserts, however, as is becoming more common on the Lincoln Highway… It Was CLOSED. Despite the Open sign in the door, it was definitely closed. It is noon on a Thursday in July. I did find a tiny little sign out by the road that says they only open at 5pm. So we take some photos and move along.

We were looking for the Observation Deck at the Hitchcock Campground in Honey Creek IA. We read in a book that from this observation deck, you can look down upon what was original Lincoln Highway. Before we found the Observation Deck, we stopped at the side of the road at what we thought should be Honey Creek Hill, the cars on the original Lincoln highway would struggle to go up this hill. We climbed to the top, there is no way that our car was going to go up that grade. At the top, we could see the Observation Deck, so we knew we had the right place. The pictures do not give you the true sense of the degree of angle in this hill, but you can see our car way at the bottom.

We did find the paved road that takes you up to the Observation Deck and there is more of the original Lincoln up here on top of the hill.

Moving along we drove through Crescent Iowa, their little town is decked out with some nice banners on the lamp posts.

Then it was on through Council Bluffs IA and then as we were crossing over the border between Iowa and Nebraska, we got on the Interstate I-80 to skirt around Omaha NE. I have no desire to tackle the city streets of Omaha searching for segments of the Lincoln. Get me away from these large cities, I am much happier driving on the back roads of rural America.

For all of our friends at home, Did you know that Waverly had a Water Tower ?? Karen did a great job of snapping this photo as we were driving past it at 75 MPH… yes, 75 is the posted speed limit on I-80 in Nebraska. That converts to 120 KM/H We can’t legally go that fast on our highways in Ontario.

We arrived in York Nebraska where we will spend the next 2 days. There are several things to do and see in York, so it is a good place to pull over and take a break from the driving. Tonight we went to a restaurant that was recommended to us by an agent working in a travel centre that we stopped at just inside the Nebraska State border. He told us that Chances R is a great restaurant and he was not kidding. The decor was beautiful with lots of stained glass, lots of dark wood and mirrors. I had what is undisputedly the best ever Blue Cheese dressing on my salad. They make their own dressing. I don’t know if I will ever be able to eat Rennee’s or Paul Newman’s Blue Cheese dressing ever again. But once again it was the desserts that topped off a great meal. Karen had the German Chocolate Cake and I had the Cherry Cheesecake.

All throughout York the streets are lined with American Flags hanging from every lamp post. One long stretch of road is known as The Avenue of Flags. Here is one photo that I snapped with my blackberry, but I will come back tomorrow with the good camera and try to snap a photo of the pole after pole of American Flags.

York NE also has, in my opinion, the best painted design on their water tower that we have seen in any of our travels. It is going to be hard for any town to beat this one. You will have to wait till tomorrow though before you can see it, so that I can locate the best vantage point to snap the photo.

As usual you can see all of our photos from today on my FLICKR site.

Day 3 Summer Vacation 2009

Today was mostly cloudy, with some sunny breaks as we travelled Westward on the old historic Lincoln Highway.

We started from our hotel in Marshalltown Iowa and passed this water fountain of elephants playing in the water. Also came across a king size bowling pin.

Then it was onwards to Colo Iowa where there are 3 places of note here that relate to the Lincoln Highway. The L & J Service Station, Niland’s Cafe and the Colo Motel.

The L & J Service Station is otherwise named the Lincoln & Jefferson Service Station, because at the 4 corners here, is where the Old Historic Jefferson Highway which runs North South, crosses the Old Historic Lincoln Highway which runs East West. I think we may have found a future summer road trip, travelling the Jefferson Highway. I found out that it runs from Winnipeg Manitoba to New Orleans Louisiana.

Niland’s Cafe is still a fully functioning restaurant and Karen and I went in for a quick bite to eat and to check the place out. Inside there is lots of memorabilia of the 2 highways and the role that the businesses on this corner played in the heyday of the Lincoln and the Jefferson Highways.

The Colo Motel is also a fully operational motel today.

Around the 3 properties is a series of plaques that describe in detail the origins and history of the businesses. You take a self guided tour and read what the different plaques have to tell you. There is also an old concrete marker for the Jefferson Highway and a newly created concrete marker for the Lincoln Highway.

Nevada Iowa has the best welcome to town sign that we have seen in any of our travels. Sometimes we will stop and take pictures of the welcome to town signs and sometimes we do not stop. We had to stop for this one. They even had a great water tower. We take a lot of pictures of welcome signs and water towers.

In Ames Iowa Karen has us stopping for Ice Cream, but it is only 10 am, do we really need ice cream at this hour ?? I must say, it was worth the stop. 10 am ice cream isn’t so bad when you are stopping at The Hickory Park Restaurant Co. Karen had the Fudge Ana and I had the Strawberry Shortcake.

Drove on some very muddy dirt Lincoln Highway between Ontario & Jordan IA and we stopped in Boone Iowa to snap some photos of Mamie Doud Eisenhower’s birthplace home.

In Ogden Iowa we stopped to check out the Ogden Diner, but guess what… it was closed.. not only was it closed, but it was closed for the season. I wouldn’t make a good business person along this highway, I would get the seasons all wrong. Who would have imagined that the middle of July is Not The Season to be open. We also searched for the footprints that are supposed to be in the original concrete when the Lincoln Highway was poured. They are reported to be just out in front of the diner, but we could not find those either, I guess the footprints were closed for the season also. They did have a neat water tower though, and I could get right underneath of it, so that made it worth the stop in Ogden.

There is also an old Standard Service Station in Ogden IA with an art deco style of design. Further along we found a Marsh Arch bridge near Beaver Iowa. I always thought that these were called marsh arch bridges because they spanned a marsh or swampy area, but I learnt that Marsh was the last name of the architect / engineer who designed this type of arched bridge. We found several of these bridges on our Route 66 trip last summer. We came across a neat mail box between Beaver & Grand Junction Iowa.

We found the old L Bridge between Beaver & Grand Junction. Called an L bridge because it has the L from Lincoln imprinted into the design of the bridge. We have been driving on mostly dirt road today as we cross through Iowa heading Westward.

We spent some time in Jefferson Iowa, looking around at what there was to see and do. We went to the Uptown Cafe for a bite to eat.

We took the tour of the Mahanay Memorial Carillon Tower Jefferson IA. This Carillon of course rings on the hour, but it also plays different songs every 15 minutes. If you don’t like bells ringing all day, don’t live in Jefferson Iowa. The view from the top was great, you can even see the Jefferson water tower.

We found the remains of the Hillcrest Motel, just West of Jefferson and near Scranton IA, we found the Moss busts of Lincoln. Moss was the owner of the farm land and he had these 2 concrete markers made to show the boundary of his property on the corner of the old Lincoln Highway.

We had been seeing these barns throughout Iowa that had quilt style patterns painted on them. Further research revealed that there are many barns scattered through out Iowa and they are quite simply known as The Barn Quilts of Iowa. In order to qualify as an official barn quilt, the barn must be over 50 years old and the quilt pattern must be 8’ x 8’

We will watch out for more barn quilts as we travel. As I said earlier, most of today we have been travelling on dirt road segments of the old Lincoln Highway. These shots were taken east of Westside Iowa.

Then we arrived in Denison to check into our hotel. We ate dinner at Cronk’s a well known and highly recommended restaurant. The meal was delicious but the dessert was even better. We both had pieces of homemade Peach Pie with Vanilla Ice Cream. Sorry, I forgot to take photos of the desserts.

Here is a map of the route that we took today. We drove 235 KM today, and as you can see, there was lots to see and do along the way.

This of course is not all the photos that we took today, if you wish to see all the photos you need to click on the link to my FLICKR site where you can view all the photos.

See you on the road tomorrow. We will be heading as far as York Nebraska.