Pendemonium on the Road

Stopping by to say hello and introduce myself which seems to be customary here and what a nice custom it is. Enjoying reading about everyone's road adventures. The quickie condensed version road related intro ..... I grew up 2.5 blocks from the Lincoln Hwy in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, even though I knew it was the Lincoln Hwy/Hwy 30, it was just the road to take to get wherever you were going. Friday night dinners were almost always at Ced Rel or the E&R Cafe. Lots of jaunts to Montour over the Bohemie Hills (sorry, no offense, that was what the hills were called then!). Many summer journeys - Iowa to Wyoming and back and forth on Hwy 30 and Hwy 20. Got married, moved to the east coast - DC area, stayed there for 25 years until we just didn't need to be there anymore. Ten years ago we ended up in Fort Madison, Iowa by chance to visit friends and we're still here. So, now Hwy 61 and the Mississippi River run 2 blocks from my front door. Also about 10 years ago discovered driving an annual winter trip to LA was much more fun on Route 66 than flying. So we've traveled various alignments of Route 66 between St Louis & LA multiple times, as far north as Joliet, but still need to spend some more time on the part of Route 66 that is closest to home. Why is it that sometimes the things closest to home are the things we tend to put off? LOL Have a jaunt to DC coming up this month and will travel bits and pieces on the National Road, but it's a quickie biz trip, so not much sightseeing time. We're still on the Lincoln off and on since I still have the house in CR. Lots of lovely Iowa byways nearby. Route 66 in February. But our big plan that we think we'll be able to pull off is to drive the Alcan Hwy summer 2011. Very S L O W L Y because I don't think we'll get to do it often & I want to see as much as possible. Plus, Alaska is the only US state I haven't been to and it's time to check it off the list. Sam