A Boring Day

 

 

Day 10

 

Clinton Iowa to Canton Ohio

 

 

So, obviously we didn't make it to Pittsburgh.  Wow such a long day and a long drive.  And it was a boring, yes I said BORING drive.  In Iowa there was so many things to see.  In Illinois, there was nothing except the Lincoln Highway signs.  While we were leaving Clinton, we saw their neat signs

 

 

 

 

We also crossed over the Mississippi River. It was a quick picture because Vaughn had a semi coming up on his butt, so this was the best I could do

 

 

 

This was a cute little town we went through in Illinois.  The shops were beautiful looking and just had a fun country look

 

 

 

 

 

We saw a lot of LH signs, and since things weren't going the way I wanted, I decided to take pictures of them so there would be something on the blog today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This one was on a bridge, one of these on each side, and I was caught unprepared, and I almost missed it!!

 

 

 

We went through an area in Indiana, that had alot of windmills.  They look beautiful, since the wind was really blowing, a storm was on its way in.

 





 

 

Then in Ohio it started to pour.  I even found myself watching the black clouds hoping not to see a funnel cloud.

 

 

Then I found Vaughns next project!  He didn't think so.  But it was for SALE!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

And then we found something that looked quite strange. In fact we found a couple of these

 

 

 

 

Cemeteries out in the middle of the fields.  Just right smack in the middle.  Strange.

 

 

And to end our boring day, a calm at the end of the storm.  But it really wasn't, we had more rain.

 

 

 

 

 

And so I apologize, this isn't such a fun post.  Lets hope tomorrow brings more interesting things.  We will be going through the rest of Ohio and Pennsylvania, stopping in Hawley PA, as we are staying for a few days with a friend of Vaughn's.  But keep tuned in, we ARE going to New York!

 

 

We drove about 550 miles, and it took forever.

 

 







 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 





Day 9

 

 

Day 9

 

Kearney, Nebraska to Clinton, Iowa

 

 

This morning was really different.  When we went downstairs to breakfast in our hotel, there were only a few of our friends that was on the tour with us.  Thank goodness we didn't see any of the real close ones because I didn't know if I could say good bye to them again.

 

We were headed east and a guy who was a passenger with another man whose car broke down earlier on our tour, needed a ride to Omaha, so we piled him and his gear into our backseat and took off. 

 

We found this cute little gas station on the way out of town

 

 

 

This is the history of ownership

 

 

 

And the man who owns it now

 

 

 

And of course the Lincoln Highway marker

 

 

Further down the road was another very fun station.  We drove all the way around it and loved every side.

 

 

Notice the people on the side

 

 

 

Soon we arrived in Omaha and dropped off our passenger.  It was his cousins home, and of course we had to check out the Mustang

 

 

 

Then we started out across Iowa.  Let me tell ya, I know they DID NOT miss the cornfield that Kevin Costner plowed under for the baseball field!  Miles and miles of corn fields. Then we caught sight of this crop duster

 







 

It was pretty hard to catch him through the windshield

 

 

These are pictures of some buildings we saw along the LH

 

 

 

This is where we ate dinner. It opened in 1936 for travelers along the LH

 

 

This bridge is in Tama Iowa

(The café above is also in Tama, not far from this bridge)

 

 

This is another old gas station along Route 30

also known as Lincoln Highway

 

 

This was another diner, but only open on certain days

 

 

And of course, I finally got a shot of a real "barn quilt"

 

Then we saw this awesome, totally fantastic painting on a barn.  We had to go back and take a picture of it

 

 

Somebody has real talent !

 

Today we drove 570 miles, in about 13 hours.  We are tired, but don't feel as tired as when we were traveling with the group. Go figure !

 

Tomorrow our goal is to drive to Pittsburgh. Get your rest!



 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 



 

 

Day 8

 

Lexington Nebraska to Kearney Nebraska

 

 

 

We slept in this morning!  It was so wonderful to keep hitting the snooze button on the alarm for a half hour until 7 am.  We got ready for the day, Vaughn went to wash the car and get it shined up for the parade.  At 10:30 we were sitting at the old walmart parking lot.  There we had parking assignments in order of the year of the car we were driving.  We were in number 52.  We talked to everyone, and took pictures of all of our friends and their cars.

 

 

 

 

"Rosie"

 

 

Then at about 11:00 we pulled out in follow the leader!  The Veterans of America Motorcycle Club escorted us out of Lexington, stopping traffic at all the intersections, and riding in front, in the middle and at the end.

 

 

 

 

We drove for 35 miles on the Lincoln Highway, through a couple of small towns, and into Kearney Nebraska, where we drove through the main street of town while coming from the other direction was the tour from the East.  Talk about wonderful. All the way down the street we were honking, and waving while there were thousands and thousands of people on the sidewalks waving to us.

 





 

 

 

 

This is the other GTO from the East tour, we had been in contact with the owners and planned to meet in Kearney

 

 

As we neared the parade route, we were told to stay behind the car in front of us by 3 car lengths so the announcer could tell about our car and announce our names and where we were from.  While waiting our turn, we were parked in front of this auto shop and saw this sign

 

 

Then we found ourselves driving down the parade route, and heard some from the crowd yell "YEAH UTAH" , it made us proud! 

 

 

 

 

We were told there was 100,000 spectators there.

 

 

There was also a fun car show there along with our cars.  Here are some pictures of the cars we liked best

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After spending the afternoon here, we headed to the Holiday Inn for the Post - Tour Party.

 

We were fed wonderful appetizers, and then we had some of the official tour directors speak.  Then we said our good-byes.  We made so many new friends, traded emails, phone numbers, and were sorry to see this fun time end.

 

We finally met up with John and Wendy O'Connor, who had the GTO from the east, and took some photos

 

 

 

 

 

We are headed out in the morning, headed East on the Lincoln Highway, but at a faster pace than we have been for the past week.  Stay tuned....we are only half  way to New York!

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 



 



 

 

Day 7

 

Cheyenne Wyo to Lexington Nebraska

 

 

This morning we pulled out from the hotel at exactly 7:00 am.  First time we've been on time I think.  Our first stop was the historic high school in Pine Bluffs Wyoming.  In a lot of ways it reminded me of our good old NS.  The people who greeted us were so friendly and wanted to tell us all about it.  It seems it had been condemned and the local farmers fought hard to save it and restore it.  Here are some pictures of an awesome building.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the gymnasium

 

 

 

This is the ceiling in the gym

 

 

 

 

This is the stage in the theater room, but it reminded me

of the playroom in the old elementary school

 

 

We crossed the state line into Nebraska, and the Lincoln Highway led us through these tunnels under the railroad, they are the original tunnels during the building of the LH

 

 

 

Whoops, kind of blurry, I took this through the windshield

 



 

 

Just after we left the school, we were driving through the town and saw this wonderful little building

 

 

This was an old service station

 

Next we stopped at a car show and they had this cute little grill for grilling hamburgers and hot dogs.  They wanted us to stay and eat, but we were expected in Julesburg Colorado for lunch.

 

 

 

 

And I fell in love with this cute little Studebaker truck

 

 

 

Can you just see me driving this around Coalville?

 

 

Then as we were on our way to Julesburg, we came to a cross-roads where at the time the Lincoln Highway was being decided on where to be built, Denver really wanted it to come through their town, but it was not meant to be.  So originally there were two bill boards put up exactly where these signs were, each wanting you to go to their town.  The town, Big Springs had these exact signs made and they put them up just for us!  We all had to have pictures taken.

 

 

 

 

 

Also in this town was a neat hotel and we were able to go inside. It was really cute and they still rent out the rooms.

 

 

 

 

Close by this hotel, was a building that a local man told Vaughn that had been a meth lab.  The building is next door to the police station and it took about 9 months for them to catch the guy running the meth lab!

 

 

The meth lab building!

 



 There was also a piano repair shop that had about 10 player pianos in it being repaired.  Too bad he isn't a little closer, we could use him.

 

 





 

The piano repair shop

 

 

Our next stop was lunch at the Old Ford Garage in Julesburg, Colorado.  They had some neat things in this garage and the museum next door was very interesting.

 

 

 

 

 

After we left here, we went through several small towns, one of them being Ogallala, Nebraska.  They had asked us to come to a car show and watermelon bust!  This is a car we saw there.

 

 

It is none other than a 1967 Pontiac GTO. Imagine that.  It was beautiful and the guy who owned it felt bad for us when he heard our story. I felt bad for us too!

 

This is the historic Spruce Street Station - a 1922 Lincoln Highway Standard Oil Station.  It has been restored and is now a visitors center.  And yes, that is a real live woman in front in vintage attire!

 





 

 

Then we were off again to our last stop before dinner and our hotel for the evening.  We stopped at the Lincoln County Historical Museum in North Platte Nebraska.  This was a wonderful place, as they had several buildings you could go into.

 



 

This is a house, that was beautiful inside.  It was a "Sears and Roebuck House.  Never heard of that before.  It was beautifully furnished and even had stained glass windows.  And notice the screen door! It also had a beautiful side garden and a carriage house off to the right.

 

 

This was the church, and a friend we met on the tour, Anita Hicks, from Sparks Nevada went inside and played the organ. It was beautiful.

 

 



 

 

 

This was the school. It was very small.

 

 

 

We left for Lexington Nebraska where we ate dinner at Mac's Creek Winery. Yes they gave samples of wine, but we enjoyed a Sprite and Diet Coke, along with a barbecued beef sandwich and several salads.  Then it was off to the hotel and to do laundry!

 

Our day was a very busy one, and we travelled just over 300 miles in about 11 hours.  We even changed time zones and lost an hour. 

 

Tomorrow is a fun day. We will be in Kearney for a parade of all the cars from both east and west tours. You can even sleep in.....we don't leave til 10:30 !!!!!