Nov 16 2009
Surprises along the Road: The Lincoln Highway in Grand Junction, IA
Returning from the I_Blog Conference in Perry, Iowa, I attempted to find the most direct route home. For me, as long as it’s paved, it’s a possible route, and I’ll even take a few miles of gravel if it saves some backtracking. I looked at my map, ignored the pleading of my GPS to stay on the more primary routes, and headed north out of Perry.
I was on a north-south road, Iowa Route 144, in the not-so-grand town of Grand Junction when, to my great surprise and delight, I saw this:
Do you see what I see? Yes, there, next to the arrow and the 144 marker. It’s a Lincoln Highway sign.
What I didn’t notice as I was mapping my route was where I would cross U.S. 30, which now has replaced and/or parallels the mostly east-west Lincoln Highway across the central United States. In Grand Junction, the new U.S. 30 is a busy road that passes just north of town. Route 144, however, for about three blocks, shares the road with the original Lincoln Highway that runs through the midst of Grand Junction.
I circled the block and stopped to snap a photo of the sign, since when we traveled parts of the Lincoln Highway in Pennsylvania, it was hard to stop for a picture along the busy road. As I got closer, to my delight, I saw something even better than the modern Lincoln Highway replica sign.
There on the pole, can you see the old paint? The red and blue stripes, the blue “L”, and the white arrow indicating where the Lincoln Highway route goes?
You might think me crazy, but I was excited as can be. I continued down the main street of Grand Junction, ignoring where my intended road once again turned north, and found several other indications of the Lincoln Highway in this small town.
It was all I could do not to follow the road east out of town. For the rest of my trip, I dreamed of the day when I can travel the Lincoln Highway from coast to coast. There’s just something about the road–the narrow, winding lanes, the small towns it passes through, the history that it’s seen–that intrigues me.
I’ll save that longer journey for another time, but for now I have memories of a pleasant surprise that I found in Grand Junction, Iowa.
For more information about the Lincoln Highway, I recommend Brian Butko’s Lincoln Highway News site, which includes links on books he’s written about the Lincoln Highway as well as current happenings along the historic route.
What a wonderful observation!
There is joy in noticing the details.
Don’t move through life so fast that you stop noticing!
Great photo! Great eye for detail.
Enjoyed sharing with you at i_blog conference.
Too dark to take any photos on our way home,
but I am trying to set up a Flicker Account
with the photos I took of Hotel Pattee.
The little surprises are what make Iowa such a wonderful state to explore. Terrific post.
Jody´s last blog ..Thoughts from I_Blog Conference
That is so cool! I discovered Route 66 this summer (I know it was there already, but it was new to me!) And, I was so excited to think about traveling across the country, actually seeing human ingenuity instead of anonymous highway. But, that lasted only so long before I was ready to go back to 75mph.
Sandra Foyt´s last blog ..Service Is The Heart of Citizenship
I love this! Small towns are rather charming in themselves, I think, but to find something so historic is super cool! I love that you stopped and took photos. I love traveling off the beaten path when we can. That’s when you find all the good stuff!
It was sooo nice to finally meet you this weekend! Can’t wait to see you again!
Paula´s last blog ..Deep Thoughts by Paula . . . At AG Ministries Today
I enjoy traveling the back roads whenever possible. I have five more posts planned about things I found (and stopped and photographed) along my trip home.
Although I love traveling with my kids, it certainly is easier to make fourteen photo stops when going solo.
[...] Driving through Iowa, I found a lot of surprises along the way. [...]
I happened to catch a special recently on the Lincoln Highway and thought to myself – that would be a great family trip. We’ve traveled parts of the highway through PA, but never a significant portion…I think this gets slated as a must do for next summer.
The special was called A Ride Along The Lincoln Highway. I found a teaser for it on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qxuB3YGvkY
You can buy it on DVD or rent it from NetFlix too. It was a very informative program.
Randy´s last blog ..Christmas Train Events
[...] Instead, I turned when a sign pointed to the town of Adel, not sure of my plan any more. I came into Adel from the west and, lacking any other signage, followed the truck route into town, not sure of what I’d find. [...]