DennyG

I believe your S No More bridge is the Cooks Run bridge listed here. It's about the middle of the page and you'll probably have to search for it. It's also mentioned on page 17 of the Ohio NR Travelers Guide. I was unaware (or had forgotten) that this was now on line. The ONRA site also has provisions (bottom of page) for ordering a free hard copy.

The Lincoln Highway Association conference has kept me busy so that I've not been able to keep up a meaningful conversation here and I'm continuing to slip further behind on my own website. I've a couple more days of guided touring here then I'm off on my own. It will likely be to the coast though I'll keep watching here in case an expedition develops that (tongue in cheek) depends on my participation. The Ruts Of TATs are really intriguing and hopefully, if they remain unvisited when I'm next west, we can plan an assault then.

Hmmmmm... You've certainly got my attention. The highballing is no longer absolutely required but, if I don't turn back immediately, I've been thinking of the PCH south. I've yet to do it between SF & LA. It will be especially inviting if I go to SF to visit my son. We might meet half way in Sacramento. My reasoning/justification for the PCH includes "I don't know when I'll get another chance." That, of course, also applies to the rut safari. I shall ponder.

Barely. I mean barely west of Ibapah. Aside from a couple of cars and a waving cowboy on a horse (Who was actually in a field and not on the road.) just west of the Nevada line I don't believe I did see any one though I wasn't actually paying enough attention to that to say for sure. I do recall passing a white van that had pulled to the side of the road but I could see no one in it. Whether the driver had been abducted by aliens, was wandering through the hills, or was in the back making meth or whoopie I can't say. Other than that, I believe the next vehicles I saw actually on a road was when US 93 came within range.

Naw. It's not identified. Just used as a banner.

Were you aware that the area right behind your car in the second photo is the haunted Lady Bend Hill? The spirit of a woman killed in 1833 is reportedly seen about the place from time to time. Had your brakes failed all those years ago your ghost would have had to share spooking duties. A picture of the hill, with picnickers rather than ghosts, currently tops Our National Road in ARM.

That's mighty tempting but I kinda got my heart set on seeing Dugway and Ibapah.

I'm headed to the Lincoln Highway Conference at Lake Tahoe or at least I will be soon. Yesterday I drove east to reach one end of US-36 so I could drive it to the other one. Then it's onto Tahoe along sundry roads. It was a short day yesterday so there's not a whole lot there yet but the tale will unfold here.

Wonderful! Pianos/real estate, Sampson Trails/Dixie Highway. Sounds like George was the Carl Fisher of the west -- without all the fund raising.

Good stuff! This is probably my second favorite bridge on the National Road (and #1's not far away). Maybe there is more to it than one afternoon with a bucket of Round-Up but it always bugs me to see grass and worse growing in otherwise solid brick sections. I haven't been there this year but in summers past the "park" area was fairly well maintained with some flowers, etc, and it looks like the area around the bench has at least been mowed not too long ago. I've always liked the steps that lead up to the newer bridge. I've only climbed them once but I "like" them every time. The mile marker that was originally embedded in the bridge currently stands where the old road, now called Pasko, joins up with US-40. You can pull over from Forty. Since I didn't see any pictures of it, I'm assuming you didn't stop. Just another reason to return.

I didn't realize that the old US-40 bridge was coming down this summer. When the new one went in around 2000, they just removed the deck and chopped the ends off. Since then it's kind of been like a one bridge museum. I know the safety issues are real and it's time for the ol' gal to come down. She was a looker in her day.

Is there something in particular that needs correcting? As someone (who may or may not have been Voltaire) once said, "I may agree completely with what you say but I'm not gonna spend a heck of a lot of energy arguing for your position." Well, maybe that's not quite how the original quote goes but it is how I feel. The original Cumberland-Wheeling segment was indeed officially known as the Cumberland Road at its birth but much of the general public was calling it the National Road before too long. That doesn't bother me much more than people calling that big thing circling our planet the Moon instead of Luna. I don't doubt that Cumberland was also part of the official name of the road west of Wheeling but I don't recall ever thinking of it that way. I -- and Wikipedia -- call the thing that ran from Cumberland, MD, to Vandalia, IL, the National Road. I mention Wikipedia not as a scholarly authority but as an example of commonly held ideas. Neither I nor Wikipedia consider anything east of Cumberland to be part of the National Road. But I don't think of it as a single other thing either. Connecting Baltimore to Cumberland was a piecemeal operation combining roads like the Hagerstown & Conococheague Turnpike, the Cumberland Turnpike, the Boonsborough Turnpike and others. Lumping them into something called the Baltimore Pike could upset folks in Hagerstown or Boonsboro. Actually, I wasn't familiar with Baltimore Pike so resorted to Google which led me to Wikipedia and an article on a road by that name that connected Baltimore with Philidelphia. Not what you were thinking of, I'm sure. It's important that the original and proper names are not forgotten but it's also important that a family can enjoy a history tinged drive without getting tangled in details. The only place I think I've seen a route from Baltimore to Vandalia given a single name is with the Historic National Road Byway which actually runs all the way to St Louis. I'm prepared to give some leeway to things with "Historic" or "Byway" in their names so it doesn't really bother me that this byway includes bits that were never technically part of or officially called The National Road. Maybe I'd feel different if I lived in Cumberland or Boonsboro or Luna.

That explains the "Hoosier Survives Trip Across State" headlines on all the major Ohio newspapers . Glad you had good weather and cooperative cross traffic and hope you'll return to our chunk of America someday. The stone bridge at Blaine is from 1828 and the concrete bridge beside it is from 1933. When the foliage is absent, you can sort of see the I-70 bridge even higher up. Even with foliage, you can see semi-trucks -- at least the brightly colored ones -- on the interstate. From Zanesville west, there were no existing roads or trails to incorporate into the NR so it could start being the straight connector the government wanted. Federal money dried up at Springfield, long "the town at the end of the pike", and things got even straighter and sparser. I'm definitely looking forward to your pictures and comments.

I subscribed to the blog's RSS feed shortly after seeing your post. There is, of course, no feedback regarding RSS readers and there doesn't appear to be any provision for commenting on the blog itself. Hopefully Mark will see an "I'm following you" post here.

Regarding "...bits of the old road..." north of Dayton, you're probably thinking of Patty Road in Englewood Park and the remnants of Tadmor in Taylorsville Park. Getting to Tadmor involves a mile plus walk on a paved path. You'll drive over a small bridge on old stone abutments on Patty Road but you will want to park and walk to the bridge to really see it. It's on a one way loop and you need to stop before reaching the bridge as there is no place to park beyond it. My online chatter about these bits is here and here.

This has the marks of an excellent adventure; Perhaps one involving the "new" F-150? I, too, really enjoy the guide's casual tone. In addition to the phrases you've mentioned, I liked "Roads continue both roughish and sandy." Apparently at least one of those 32% pitches is in the middle of a hair-pin turn. Best practice for that. You may want to practice for the "inverse blind left fork", too. I'm guessing you're a little rusty on both.

...and I'll make every effort to hold up anything that gets past Dave at the state line. I'm at a bit of a disadvantage as to your original request since I recently sold my "good Vibe" but give a shout if there's anything else I can do to help.

Pete isn't the first guy to post questions here and forget to come back for the answers but, unlike many of those who passed this way but once, he is following up on his plans in a big way. With some real luck and some real sponsorship, Pete reached the United States on the 14th and has already ticked off the first 5 of the 34 Manchesters on his route. His blog is here.

Alrighty. I now have a new Garmin GPS with voice navigation that supports route downloading though selecting it was far from straight forward. I can't really put together a coherent answer to my own question so I'm just sharing a clump of ramblings and grumblings. I didn't seriously pursue the non-Garmin part of my question. Even though DeLorme makes my favorite routing software, they weren't really a contender since no GPS unit they sell has voice navigation. Their software does offer voice navigation though computer hardware but even a netbook seems unwieldy to me in a car and they really don't have the volume to be heard over open-window road noise. Both TomTom and Magellan must support route download since packaged routes such as Route 66 are available for them. A casual look for how these routes are prepared didn't tell me much but the same thing is pretty much true for Garmin. There's a good chance that there is a method for plotting and downloading routes for TomToms and Magellans that meets my needs. I know there is a method for plotting and downloading routes for Garmin that meets my needs. I stopped by the local brick & mortar Best Buy store and spoke with a flesh & blood salesperson. That person was fairly knowledgeable about the Garmin units the store carried. I'll admit to being a bit surprised by this but it was a nice surprise. I was not surprised that they knew nothing about downloading routes. I'm learning that folks who want to do that are a very tiny piece of the GPS market. I submitted the "which units" question to Garmin and got an answer. Then I asked for a small clarification and got a different answer and, not very surprisingly at all, got yet a different answer when I asked for a clarification of the difference. The sad thing is that I don't think any of the answers was entirely wrong. Garmin, like other GPS manufacturers and every cell phone maker not named Apple, seems intent on making enough different models for everyone to have their own. Most, if not all, have updatable software so that specifics can change over time. Apparently the model I ended up buying was one that was released without the ability to accept downloaded routes but had it added later. Those currently shipping have it and I believe older ones can get it with a software update. I ended up buying a 2360LMT which, despite assurances, I wasn't sure would accept a route until I successfully jammed one down its USB port. After all, I'd also had assurances that it wouldn't. I'm quite happy with it and I'm also quite happy to report that the Product Support people at Garmin are friendly and responsive. If you're thinking of a Garmin, and have some doubts or questions, give them a call or send an email. The more specific the question, the better the chances of getting the right answer the first time.

I'd already plotted my route to connect with that stretch at the midpoint as you did. Whether I attempt to drive or even walk it will depend on time, weather, and mood. I'm not as much of a detective as you but I do enjoy taking advantage of your work. Thanks.

Wonderful. What a delightful glimpse of the reality of auto travel a century ago. With all those 18 & 20 percent grades, I imagine many cars were "wide open" in many places other than the sand bank. I hope that, as you go exploring in your new/old pickup, you remain aware of the difference between "wide open" on a Ford Model TT and F-150. Too aggressive a zig might not leave room for even one zag. Incidentally, the original text uses the plural "steering wheels"; A small but possibly meaningful difference. For one thing, zig zag seems to make a little more sense when describing the motion of wheels on the ground plus the writer probably didn't want to exclude travelers with tillers from potential sales.

So, Dave, in order to "take junk to the dump", you bought more... Seriously, I can well appreciate the "liberated" feeling you describe. Between 1996 and 2002 I owned, as you say, a "very well used" 1986 Ford Bronco II. Apparently real paint was an option that year and it was omitted on my copy. But it went anywhere with nary a worry about dings, scratches, or limited clearance. I've never owned a Jeep but a pair of buddies owned CJ-5s in the late 1970s and I enjoyed lots of mud slinging good times. I know you'll have some good times bouncing over old roads and such but here's an oft repeated observation of mine: The only trouble 4 wheel drive ever got me out of was trouble that 4 wheel drive got me into. Jim: By coincidence, I was looking over your US-36 outing not long ago in anticipation of driving it in about a month. I know I won't have a clearance problem on this pass but I doubt that a Miata would have a serious one, either. Unless a gravel road is badly rutted, they can usually be driven by fairly low clearance vehicles as long as they're moving v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y.

I briefly considered listing all the cars I could remember but realized that, if Alex and KtSotR did it too, American Road would have to buy more disk space. So here's the top entry in each category: Fun - 1998 Corvette Convertible Utilitarian - 1985 Buick Century 4 Door

The only picture of the new car I've put on line is one from the Ohio Lincoln Highway League outing. It's here. Subarus have grown over the years and, although a Forester is small as SUVs go, it feels somewhat large to me. Gas mileage on the OLHL trip was between 25 & 26 and on the NR Bells Caravan was right at 28. I was probably more conscious of mileage on the NR trip plus the caravan made fewer stops than I did on the LH.

Faulting a GPS receiver for not seeing a bus doesn't seem entirely fair. Printed road atlases rarely see them either. I apologize for the flippant tone of that comment but I happen to be a fan of GPS receivers. They certainly have limits and faults but most things do. My first GPS did little beyond telling me where I was and where something else was relative to that. I thought that was pretty useful when I was in a strange land. It couldn't even guess at how to get to that something. My current GPS can guess at how to get to point B. By pre-plotting a route I can even have it try to make that connection via, for example, the modern equivalent of the 1913 Lincoln Highway. I'm not about to hand my GPS unit complete control of my steering wheel but I do appreciate it relieving me from stopping to study a map as often as I otherwise might. Tom, I'm thinking you might not really be a luddite but rather someone who expects a lot from technology and is disappointed when it doesn't quite deliver.