DennyG

Very nice. Are those your footprints in the sand? We're here for you Michele. The interstates do have their place. They may occasionally be used because of time or (as I experienced recently) weather but if you ever find yourself even considering using one for anything other than absolute necessity, drop this group a note. Someone will talk you out of it

I stayed at the Golden Inn, near Richmond, in 2006 and liked it. It's about 4 miles east of the Madonna on US-40. The motel's web site is here and a glimpse of my visit is here. In Vandalia, my favorite is Jay's Inn but it's been full on my last two visits so I've stayed at the Travelodge right next door. I have no complaints with either but think Jay's is a bit nicer. Rates for all three of these motels are in the $40s so the Ritz they ain't but all three have been clean and seem well maintained. By the way, when I first tried to reply to this post, I got an "internal server error". This sometimes happens when the terminator is left off of a quote. That was the case here so I edited the post to correct that and was then able to reply. I'm not picking on you, Bob, but you (and others) might want to look here.

Oops. Sorry. I think I was so surprised to see Gherkintrude's pictures had been there, without fanfare, since December that I just assumed that others I hadn't seen were "secret", too. I liked what I saw from both of you and really am sorry for messing up your plans.

The recent spamming that came though the photo gallery here resulted in me looking about the place much more than usual. To my surprise, I found entire albums that I didn't know were there. The most recent is a group of Door County Wisconsin photos posted by mmarkley and Chris Rowland has several photos from a 2007 Florida trip. I was really pleased to see that Gherkintrude posted pictures from her autumn trip to the US. I sometimes wondered how the trip she discussed here unfolded. Apparently someone knew of these pictures because most show quite a few visits but I had no idea they were there. Maybe I missed some announcement or maybe folks just stumbled upon them. If I missed announcements, I apologize but, just in case I didn't I'll mention that there are no automatic notices of gallery additions. Please drop a note in the forum when something gets added. Here I was worrying needlessly that poor Gherkintrude had become lost on the way to Ohio.

Having just lost part of one day's pictures I can only begin to imagine what losing a year's worth would feel like. Super bummer. On the Sweetheart Cruise, I learned that Kip had a recent crippling disk crash, too. I'm guessing you're both prime targets for the next backup salesman to come through. Glad you're back and glad you're planning on joining the spring outing. Hey, Pat, how's that date poll going?

Which means you'll be passing north through Cincinnati at some time. If I'm anywhere in the area, I'd be honored to buy you a Christian Moerlein (It's a beer, not a religion:-) or two. P.S., Ever read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance?

I'm reading this in my room at the Holiday Inn in Worthington, Ohio, while, downstairs, the opening acts are just starting for the 2008 Traditional Acoustic Blues Festival with headliner Honeyboy Edwards. Alex Burr sent me a copy of Honeyboy's autobiography as a surprise thank you for doing a bit of chauffeuring late last year and the book arrived the same day as the Cincinnati Blues Society passed along the announcement for the festival. That was just too much of a coinincidence to be ignored so... here I am.

picaverbal???? Is that Latin?? I've heard of folks who make a game of constructing searches that get exactly one hit on Google. "picaverbal" does it. Of course, as soon at this thread is indexed, I guess there'll be two. I really enjoyed the cruise and the cruisers. For those who weren't there, Kip gave everyone a copy of the Missouri 79 graphic that starts his album. Some folks had tape and placed theirs in side windows. I laid mine on the dashboard. I intended to keep it as a souvenir but it's nowhere to be found. I recall a gust of wind at the cemetery and some papers blowing around in the car. I'm guessing that one escaped to remain there and mark the occasion. Great job -- on the pictures and the trip.

That is a shame. To my unqualified eye, that damage looks pretty serious. I'm thinking there's a good chance all of those building will be brought down.

It turns out a Secure Digital cards aren't all that secure when you break them in half. I didn't quite do that but I did bust one. After some serious attempts to recover the pictures from Monday morning, I've acknowledged that they are gone and have posted a short day 3 page with a few photos from the afternoon. Stop by http://www.dennygibson.com/shc08/index.htm for the finale. KtSotR, I was recently struck by something similar to your cost comparisons. In reading about some early 19th century politics, I learned that Illinois congressmen of the 1830s were paid travel expenses of $4 per 20 miles. Now their 20 miles included a meal or two and anything much longer could have involved lodging but I was really surprised that the allowance per mile, which must have had some relationship to actual cost, wasn't nearly as far from today's rate as I would have guessed. BTW, the least I've ever paid for a motel room was $5 in 1965. Single bed and no TV, phone, or other luxuries, but it did have a small bathroom and a coin operated radio.

I've never thought much at all about Yoakam (except to note that he has a really great name) and I guess I didn't even realize he wrote "Guitars, Cadillacs, & Hillbilly Music". But those Route 23 comments made me look and I learned he's got a song about it ("Readin', Writin', Route 23"). I don't know that I've ever driven Twenty-Three south of the Ohio. Guess I'll have to do that someday -- with "G, C, & H M" blasting from the stereo.

Great story. While I think that following along the "daily" posts would have been nice, there are advantages to getting it in a complete "after the fact" package with the photo album in place. I can relate to your experiences but doubt that I would have enjoyed many of them. Even on my best days I was a fair weather (or at least a dry road) rider. I wanted to reply to this thread earlier but not before I finished the read and that's taken me a bit. But now I can say welcome. Are the dates set for your Dixie Highway ride? I'm looking forward to following that one as it happens. Extra! Extra! Just as I was typing this reply, a call came in on the other line. Actually it was an email message from the Route 66 Yahoo group. One of the members (who happens to live in Australia) was asked by a friend about a liquor, available in some airport duty free shops, named "Route 66". The person asking thought it might be a product of Holland. As I was in the midst of replying to a thread started by a fellow who lives in Holland and has traveled Route 66 in the recent past I figured I was duty bound to ask. Know any thing about Route 66 brand whiskey, Harold?

Good stuff. Especially liked the bridges. I'll have to check those out myself some day.

Loved it. I'd never seen Across Indiana but it looks like a first class operation. The reuben episode was certainly well done. Congrats on the appearance and thanks for the link.

In case anyone is wondering where the forum's administrators are, They're safe in Missouri. The Bremer's couldn't make the first day of the Sweetheart Cruise but braved rain and ice and snow and sleet and dark of night to hook up with the group in Hannibal. I'm not 100% sure of all that weather stuff but I know it was starting to freeze and it was dark last night. The group drove MO-79 to Hannibal in clear weather then some rain started to fall. For me, the big surprise of the day was the birds. And I don't mean a few dull sparrows or bickering starlings. I mean bald eagles and pelicans! In Missouri!! Pelicans in Missouri??? Yeah, hundreds of them. I've got day one up at http://www.dennygibson.com/shc08/index.htm By the way, this might be my only chance to use that little heart icon and I'm going for it.

mmarkley: This has nothing to do with Route 6 and is posted here only because it's less inappropriate than some other possibilities. I stopped by splittingthe6.com and noticed your "Recommended Books" list. I've only read two of them (Charlie & On the Road) but that's enough to recognize the books as "getting in the mood" books and not guide books. Another one has been on my "the read" list for a long time and I appreciate the reminder. I've read (actually listened to) Bryson's "Walk in the Woods" and have been meaning to read his "...Small Town..." ever since. In exchange for reminding me how far behind I am in my reading, I'll suggest another "get in the mood" book. William Least Heat-Moon's "Blue Highways" could be compared to "Travels with Charlie" but, in my opinion, John would get the worst of the comparison. I'm looking forward to following your trip.

I think that would work for me. There could be a conflict with members who have already scheduled big Lumpy Rug Day celebrations.

First off, after those reports and photos, your participation is essentially essential. As soon as you can sort out the available weekends, feed them into the planning. Along those lines, I'll throw out that I've got the first and last weekends of April filled. If you and Chris both go, I'll drive my Matrix wannabe and we'll have a fleet. Pat, that "route" sounds good to me. I will mention that, with another 60 "crow miles" we could add a third Madonna (I believe that the OH & IN Madonnas are the closest pair in existence) but, at our typical real world speed, that could add a lot of time. I suspect sticking with the two Madonna agenda is a good idea. I've mentioned my two known "bad" weekends for April and May and, as far as I know now, all the rest are available. Let the bidding begin.

Good stuff. I find the Illinois brick sections particularly interesting since I'm not at all familiar with them. I may even try to get a tiny peek this weekend if the snow don't fall and the creek don't rise and I get to do the Sweetheart Cruise with Bliss, Kip, and whoever shows. I don't want to hijack the thread but it seems a perfect opening to again bring up the possibility of a spring time National Road cruise in this area. Bliss & Pat & RoadDog & others have casually mentioned this before and we probably ought to start doing some chatting and planning if it's going to happen. Of course, any such trip will have to have mobilene as a guide. (Even if he has to go without hot water ) Pat, how about starting a thread for planning a spring trip so we don't drag this one all over?

Man!! You guys have some really tough cops out there! Yep, the Kammback was the wagon style body. I really liked the looks, too, although mine didn't have a roof rack. Dark green, white letter Uni-Royal Tiger Paws (I bet Bliss remembers ), and 4-on-the-floor (4-under-the-hood, too). I once drove it to Long Island with most of the trip back being on US-22.

Hilarious. You took the words right out of my...ahh...paragraph.

As I suspect you know, the Columbus Visitors Bureau offers a bus tour of many of the city's architectural gems. Your post was a somewhat shocking reminder that it was nearly five years ago that I took half of that tour and a needed nudge to get me back for a complete tour. For those who don't know, Columbus, Indiana, is an architectural showplace due largely to the generosity of the Cummin's Diesel Company. Yep, I gotta get back there.

When posting to an existing topic, we can either reply to the overall topic via the "FastReply" or "AddReply" buttons at the top and bottom of the page or to a specific entry via that entry's "Reply" button. In the latter case there is a "Quote" button that implies the ability to optionally either include or exclude a quote of the post being replied to but that seems not to work. It looks like all replies to individual posts include the original post regardless of the setting of that button. While that option might be nice, we can certainly live without it and it's not the reason for this post. There is a way to quote all of a post and a way to quote no post at all. But there isn't a way to quote part of a post and that would be true even if the button worked (although this post would be shorter ). Partial quotes really are useful when we are responding to a specific point or don't want to unnecessarily repeat a big group of photos or some such. And here, at last, I'm coming to my point. When the "Reply" button is pressed on an individual post, the reply automatically has the original post placed in it between two markers. It starts off with . Those two marks identify everything between them as a quote and they really should remain. Delete anything you want between the two sets of square brackets but leave the brackets and their contents. You can, of course, actually alter the quoted text so that looks like RoadMaven called everyone outside of Indiana a dufus but that's hardly proper forum etiquette. Delete bits that aren't wanted but try to keep the integrity of what you do quote. "Why now?", you might ask and that would be a good question. I've seen quoted posts without the trailing before and am not aware of any real problems. But today, I tried to reply to such a post and got an "Internal Server Error". I was about to add to Becky's workload by telling her about it when I noticed that the post contained the beginning of a quote but not its end. Once I edited it (I guess my moderator superpowers allow me to do that. ), the reply worked just fine. And that is what triggered this bit of "y'all be careful".

Very nice report. I'm kind of familiar with the area and both Madison and Columbus are favorites of mine. But you've still managed to turn me on to some new spots, such as Mill Race Park, and you definitely raised my knowledge of Madison State Road. Thanks. P.S. Loved the micrometer tombstone.

Ahhh, another Vega owner. I owned a Kammback and I think it was also a '71. I bought it used and, thanks mostly to the previous owner, was able to experience both of the standard Vega misbehaviors: cracked head & warped block. Even so, I really liked the car and enjoyed driving it. Then, shortly after putting a sleeved block under the previously replaced head, I tried climbing a light pole. That sharp vertical turn at the bottom got me.