Day 17 Texas Vacation Xmas 2011

We are awake and on the road early this morning.  We had to go to McDonalds for breakfast because the $180.00 per night Best Western does not offer a breakfast…  I don’t recall ever staying at a Best Western and there not being a free breakfast.  Shame on you Best Western Premier Mariemont.

It is a beautiful day for driving, in fact the whole trip home has been a pleasant drive.  There have not been any winter storms to deal with.

 

Ohio likes to paint their barns and storage tanks.

 

Soon we were entering Michigan, the Canadian Border is not far now.



There is still ongoing construction at the I-75 exit to the Ambassador Bridge, this area has been under construction for the last 4 or 5 years.  Don’t follow your GPS through this area or you will surely get lost, just follow the roadside signs that direct you to the bridge.

  

We had expected a long line of cars at Canada Customs, but there was hardly anyone there, we were through in under 20 minutes.

  

We arrived home at 6pm.

To see all of the photos that we took today, you can see them on our FLICKR site.

Day 16 Texas Vacation Xmas 2011

We awake early and have a quick breakfast before hitting the road home.  It is another foggy start to the day.  We have another long day ahead of us.  A 600 mile / 1000 km day.   Our destination for tonight is Cincinnati Ohio.

 

Soon we are leaving Arkansas and entering Tennessee.  We cross over the Hernando De Soto bridge and pass by the “Great American Pyramid” in Memphis Tennessee.  This pyramid has a few other nick names.  The “Memphians” call it the “Tomb of Doom” or the “Pyramid Arena”

  

A few hours further along, we see the familiar skyline of Nashville ahead of us.  We easily recognize this skyline because of the iconic “Batman” building.  This is the AT&T building in downtown Nashville TN.

 

The skies are clearing as we enter Kentucky.

 

We pass by a quilt barn and the National Corvette Museum as we race along I-65.

 

This RV caught our eye, there were lots of licence plates and bumper stickers plastered all over the back end.

The moon was rising in front of us and the sun was setting behind us as we drove the final miles to Cincinnati.

  

The Cincinatti skyline at dusk.

  

We arrived at the Best Western Mariemont shortly after 6pm.  This Best Western is rated the number one hotel in Cincinnati on Trip Advisor.  This is an old Tudor style hotel and we really enjoyed our stay here and when in the area, we will stay here again.

Usually we would stay at a hotel closer to the border or drive straight home, but a few days ago we got in touch with an online blogging friend of ours and agreed to get together for dinner.   We have followed Denny Gibson’s blog these last several years because of his association with the Lincoln Highway and Route 66 and other scenic / historic roads that we have travelled.  We read each others blogs and we have chased each other around the country on these back roads, but we never were in the same place at the same time.  This was the perfect opportunity to finally meet because Denny lives in Cincinnati.

We met Denny in the restaurant on the main floor of the hotel, where we enjoyed a couple of beers and burgers and some great conversations about road trips past and planned.  Thanks for your hospitality Denny, it was a great evening and very nice to finally meet you.  I know our paths will cross and we look forward to seeing you again.

After dinner Denny recommended that we walk a short distance to a small ice cream shop.  Graeter’s Ice Cream… the richest, creamiest ice cream that I have ever tasted.  Even Karen would agree that it was very good and delicious, but for her nothing beats Baskin Robins Chocolate Fudge Ice Cream.  We were still very full from dinner, so it was single scoops for each of us.

Here are some pictures of our room. The room even had a fireplace.

  

I spent a few minutes trying to figure out where the TV was and then I saw this little note.

With the push of a button, the portrait in the frame rolled up and there was our TV.

  

Tomorrow we will drive the final miles to home.

Day 2 Texas Vacation Xmas 2011

’Twas the day before Christmas, we are up with the dawn, there is no time for sleeping in, we really need to be gone.

We got up at 7am and had breakfast and got ready to leave the hotel.  Our hotel is just minutes from the border so we arrived at Customs by 8am.  There were no cars lined up this morning, we just drove right up to the booth.  The Customs agent asked us several questions, Do we have any food, alcohol, tobacco, how much money do we have and do we have any rice.   That’s the first time for being asked the rice question.

  

The Customs agent waved us on.  The road construction that we encountered the last time we crossed at Windsor / Detroit has all been completed and there is now a short ramp that takes you directly onto I-75    That is a big improvement to the old way of getting to I-75

The Detroit factories were belching smog as we drove past them.  The billboard in the 2nd photo is very appropriate, the young girl won’t live long breathing in all that smog.

 

By 9am we were crossing into Ohio.



1pm we crossed into Kentucky.



By 3:30 pm, (thanks to the time zone change) we enter Tennessee.  



We stopped for the night in Nashville.  We drove 900 KM today.  This is a good days run and puts us in a good position for the rest of the journey. 

We had planned on having Christmas Eve dinner at a nearby Shoney’s and I had even called ahead a few days earlier to make sure that they would be open Christmas Eve for dinner.  The person answering the phone assured me they would be open.  Well they were closed when we got to their door at 5:10 pm, the sign in the door said closed at 5pm.. so much for planning and phoning ahead.   Instead we had Christmas Eve dinner at a Jack in the Box next door. 

Early to bed this evening, we have a 1000 KM day planned for tomorrow.

If you would like to see all of the photos that we took today, you can click on this link to our FLICKR site.

Day 45 Summer 2011 Road Trip

We are progressing at a much slower pace these last few days.  Only driving about 100 miles each day.  We slept in, had a late breakfast and left the hotel at 11 am.

Back on the Lincoln Highway, heading North and West, we drove through the town of Elida Ohio.

 

We stopped in Delphos OH to see the murals that relate to the Lincoln Highway.

 

In Middlepoint Ohio we stopped to take photos of the Van Del Drive-In Theater.

 

Plenty of signs mark the old route and we are confident that we are indeed following the Lincoln Highway.

  

Another Ohio Centennial Barn.



In downtown Van Wert Ohio, we stopped for lunch at the Balyeat’s Coffee Shop.  The coffee shop has been serving travellers along the Lincoln Highway since 1924.

  

The Van Wert County Court House is quite an impressive building.



There is a Lincoln Highway concrete marker and a mural very close to  the Balyeat’s Coffee Shop.

  

Heading out of Van Wert, we stopped at the B & K Root Beer just to take some photos, we are still full from our meal at the Balyeat’s.

  

Outside of town the 1930 alignment of the  Lincoln Highway comes to a dead end so we had to take some photos on the bridge.

  

We get ourselves turned around and onto the US30 version of the Lincoln.



We cross the State Line from Ohio into Indiana.



In Besancon IN is this old 1846 Church and an 1892 School House.

 

As viewed from the school yard, you can see 3 different alignments of the Lincoln Highway.  Far far off in the distance is the US30 alignment, we are standing on the 1913 alignment to take the photo and between us and the US30 alignment (you can just see the front of our car) is the 1929 alignment.



We drive through New Haven Indiana, and then we enter the city limits of Fort Wayne Indiana.

  

We are staying tonight in the Best Western and there is a small pond behind the hotel where Karen found some mallard ducks.

  

Tomorrow we will head further North and West along the Lincoln Highway.

To see all of our photos from today you can click on the link to our FLICKR site.