DennyG

Well, if I lived on the west side of Indianapolis, I'd be there every year.

Last year's was also the weekend following the Springfield festival and it looks like the same relationship exists this year. I had no luck with the website either (major updates for the approaching competition?) but a snippet cached somewhere gave dates of October 5th 6th & 7th 2007 in response to a search. I stopped by there last year on the way home from Springfield. I was lured there by a group of Model Ts I had encountered in Dana. None of that group would be involved in the hillclimb but some tried the hill anyway. It all looks like great fun. Pre-1942 and pre-1955 cars and pre-1935 motorcycles.

It would have been a bit of a surprise but I figured it was possible that some alignment of the Dixie Bee Line went through there at some point. I think US-41 does largely follow the DBL, particulatly in TN and maybe KY, but it's like US-30 following the Lincoln and US-40 following the National Road. In other words, you can't count on it.

Good input. I don't have any particular Indiana questions just yet. I did do a quick search for a Fountain County (Covington-Veedersburg) map without success but there are certainly some state wide maps there for the "right" period.

I realize this is veering off topic but I'm wondering if the ABB you're referencing actually shows the Dixie Bee Line Highway going through Covington and Veedersburg. I know very little about the DBL other than it was principally north-south and connected, among others, Danville, IL, and Terre Haute, IN. If I read Pat's Auto Trails Map correctly (and those little bitty numbers can look pretty fuzzy at times), it appears to head SE from Danville then due south (probably on what is now IN-63) before reaching Perrysville. Apparently the PP-OO did follow a road between Covington and Veedersburg that is now called W Dixie Bee Road but is there any evidence that this was once part of the DBL Highway?

According to Meeks, the "birth" was March 17, 1914. Presumably, conception was some time earlier. In 1920, it was heading due west out of Indianapolis to Rockville. Apparently it was around 1925 that it moved to Crawfordsville, etc., for the short remainder of its life. I think that, for the PP-OO, you not only need the year of a map but the month and day, too.

The PP-OO was nothing if not dynamic. I'm looking at what I think was the final route from about 1925 because it's the only coast-to-coast highway that ever went through Darke County Ohio.

mobilene, I was debating whether to post an SA2008 routing file here when you posted the ABB pages. That pushed me to the "do it" side of the debate only to discover that .DMT (DeLorme Magic Transfer?) files aren't permitted. I was questioning the wisdom of posting something that is obviously preliminary as well as not being usable by everyone so maybe that's the best. As soon as I finish this (which might not be until the Bengals-Raven game ends) I'll send a copy to roadmaven and I'd be happy to send it to anyone else who is interested. Then I'll try tracing the ABB directions. I suspect that some thing's missing between Illiopolis and Niantic which may be the mentioned "weirdness just west of Decatur" and had sort of conceded that White Heath section to I-72.

I do have a general (missing plenty of in town details) plot at home. As I recall, it is IN-32 east of Crawsfordsville and US-136 west of there. West of Danville, I believe it tracks US-150 for awhile but does get on some smaller (obscure?) roads between Urbana and Decatur. West of Decatur I'm thinking that the road deLorme now calls "Old Route 36" is pretty much it. mobilene, I'm not at all familiar with IL-6 but Wikipedia claims it's a short road between Mossville & Peoria. Is it more than that or did you mean something else?

Ooh! Ooh!! B. B. King? French Lick? I must look into that.

What a shame. Technically, it wasn't on the National Road but it was darned close and was a good restaurant in an historical building regardless of location. I sort of had it penciled in for dinner on the way the the Chain of Rocks Bridge at the end of the month.

Hard to say. Of the two homeward bound days, Monday's the one most likely to get crunched because I spent too much time somewhere Sunday. It seems that, no matter whether the trip is two days or two weeks, I start off feeling like I have loads of time and end up rushing to get home, catch a plane, or something similar. I'm afraid to commit to something but we can see how things go. Right. Next week or even later is fine. I have the basic route down so it's a matter of sorting some detail or looking for a building Alrighty. If you change your mind, write your name on a sheet and hang it from the CoR where I can see it. You wouldn't have to worry about that if you didn't stay home so much.

This will be my third year at the Springfield Route 66 Festival. The first time (2003) I intended to hurry home on expressways but quickly gave that up as a bad choice and ended up traveling, unknowingly and purely by accident, a bit of the last PP-OO alignment. The second time (2006) I decided on a US-36 based route and stayed with that until around Rockville, IN. This year, with new found awareness of the PP-OO, I'm looking into following that a bit more closely. I'm interested in the final alignment partly because it goes right by my parents house at the west edge of Ohio. I am a little surprised and very much pleased to discover that I have enough vacation left that I feel I can splurge and use two days for the festival outing: Friday for the Chain of Rocks crossing and Monday to allow a reasonably relaxed two day drive to my parents' doorstep. So here are some questions for specific forum members: roadmaven & mobilene Would you care to keep me company part of the way? (BTW, Mo, I've been wondering when you were going to jump up and say "I'll be there" regarding the Springfield festival.) I'll leave Springfield fairly early Sunday and a first guess at an overnight puts it somewhere around Crawfordsville give or take several miles and a few small towns. You could bid me farewell and scurry down I-74 whenever you felt it appropriate. KtSotR Can you contribute scans for that section of the PP-OO similar to what you did for the eastern Ohio stretch? Maybe I can spot some of the advertised businesses this time. And, since I've seen some wild talk elsewhere on this forum, I'll even ask you the same thing I asked Ro & Mo. Fly into St Louis, ride across the CoR with me, and fly home from Springfield, Indianapolis, or Dayton? Like most of my plans, these could change or evaporate at any moment, but I don't think they're at severe risk. If anyone else might want to join in on a bit of the PP-OO segment (RoadDog? Bliss? Kip?) just raise your hand.

Bravo! Bravo! A wonderful set of postings from every angle. The superb photos and superb descriptions did justice to the superb subject matter. My desire to drive that road existed before your first post but you've certainly heightened it. The number of road trips involving two generations isn't all that large so to do it with three and to do it along that route make it a real treasure. Tell your son and your dad that there are some very envious folks out there in cyberspace.

Wow! This is awesome! I don't know what I did wrong before (nor what I just now did right) but I just uploaded the logs from this last weekend and and "added" them to Location Stamper. Then I added a days worth of pictures (152) and clicked "Apply Tracks". A few minutes later every picture was tagged and plotted on the map. And they were almost in the right locations. It seems that, after stressing to Jennifer to synchronize her camera and PDA, I spent the entire weekend with my camera thinking it was seven minutes earlier than it really was. See Jennifer? I told you it was important. I know I could straighten it out with offsets and a rerun but I'm thrilled to be that close - and to prove the concept. I don't know that I'll tag every photo I take or even many of them but it's sure nice to know I can. And maybe I'll look into some of that anti-glare stuff, too. Can it get any better?

There are many ways to divide Cincinnatians: East Side vs. West Side, Republicans vs. Democrats, Skyline vs. Gold Star, and whether they go through Indianapolis or Louisville to get to St Louis. Each of the groups mentioned is roughly the same size.

I certainly don't want to sway you because I've wondered about the Tahoe, too, and would welcome a report. But I'll probably spend Thursday night at Jay's in Vandalia. It's not picturesque in any way - it's a converted something or other - but it is locally owned. I've stayed there three times I think and always felt like I got a bargain. Vandalia's about the right distance for me to do an after work dash and it leaves about an hour left to the CoR Bridge.

I had assumed the "avoid the cities" movement had something to do with it but hadn't considered advertising. My first reaction is that the two seem to be at odds with each other. I would think that there would be more businesses thus more competition thus more advertising in cities but that is 2007 thinking and not 1926 thinking. 2007 thinking also has me believing that waiting for a ferry could easily over shadow a congested Steubenville but maybe not. The detail map of Wellsburg is excellent. Not only does it show the ferry on 8th but it at least implies that the ferry went straight across the river and landed about where I was standing. Besides being interesting, the ads remind me of one of my goofs. Meeks took a photo of the Neel garage building in 2005 (I think) so it's likely still there and I intended to look for it yesterday. Now it's just another reason to go back. The Wellsburg-Uhrichsville map also reinforces my interpretation of the route through Hopedale. Curiously, I would have called the sharp bend (it's actually a cross roads) downtown Hopedale while the map has Hopedale quite a bit west of there.

No. The barn is now owned by the West Augusta Historical Society. Until now I hadn't questioned the name but the town is named Mannington and it's in Marion county. Augusta? I have no idea. Naw. They probably just wanted you to benefit from working it out yourself. I think I have a better chance explaining where the West Augusta Historical Society got its name. I'm sure that everyone has their own idea of what a diner is. In a word association quiz, I'd probably fire off "manufactured" or "transportable" in response to "diner" but in practice there are plenty of built on site places that I whole heartedly think of as diners. Some folks consider stools and a counter essential and others think an in sight grill an absolute requirement. Age also helps and so does the owner standing at the grill or the cash register. I think the only thing that everyone includes in their definition is "locally owned" or "non-chain" but there are plenty of locally owned non-chain eateries that few, if any, would consider diners. If pressed (which is sort of what you're doing - in a very friendly way) I'll admit that Mart's probably is a diner in more than name. (But the phrase flowed so smoothly.) I guess it just wasn't what I expected/wanted it to be. Reportedly, when asked about diners, even the extremely intelligent Potter Stewart could only say "I know them when I see them".

I thought you might recognize yourself as the mentioned "e-grouper". On Friday there were two cars parked on the spur and four or five guys fishing from its edge. I don't think I even noticed the water there before. The whole idea of moving the route from bridge to ferry leaves me wondering. Probably an interesting but lost story.

I'm sure glad you figured it out. I did try exporting GPX from SA2008 on Thursday evening but failed so completely that I could only have posted words of discouragement. I will be trying some bulk geotagging soon and I'll probably come to you with some Location Stamper questions. It sounds as if you've mastered doing multiple photos which is something I failed at. That anti-glare film is something I'm anxious to hear about. I do break out the laptop on occasions of complete confusion and it is next to unreadable in anything resembling sun light. Sounds like you've got a really good setup. Glad it came together.

I thought for sure I had a picture of them from Pittsburgh but nooooo. It sometimes seems I have a knack for missing photo opportunities.

I somehow missed the day so was not one of the folks who sent greetings. That means that wishing you a Happy Birthday is another thing I'm late on. Hope it was a good one!

I did get to the advertised location (PPOO in Eastern Ohio) but I had to go through Wheeling, WV, to do it. The four day trip is covered at http://www.dennygibson.com/ld2007 though only the last day has anything to do with the PP-OO.

There were a couple of pictures already up here as part of the trip report from May and I've slapped up a few more here.