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Celebrating our two-lane highways of yesteryear…And the joys of driving them today!

Harold de Bock

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About Harold de Bock

  • Birthday 08/21/1945

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    http://www.harolddebock.nl
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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Hilversum, The Netherlands
  • Interests
    Motorcycle traveling is one of them. In The Netherlands I have a 1974 BMW 90/6 with > 350.000 K on her. In the US a 1980 Yamaha XS850 Midnight Special with about 18.000 miles on her. My American home base is Bloomington, Indiana. In 2007 I made a solo trip on Route 66 to Sante Fe and back. In 2008 I rode solo on the Dixie Highway to Key West and back, Western section Southbound, Eastern Northbound. In 2011 I traveled the 1913 original Lincoln Highway to Laramie Wyoming and back. Total USA 'historic' motorcycle miles >11.000. See www.yamaha-triples.org under the Ride Report Forum.

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  1. Hi Dave, The Arrow is a really nice publication and I will certainly look through the various issues. As to the itinerary: I am not a fundamentalist, prefer to ride the original route as much as possible, but also know from riding Route 66, Dixie Highway and this year Lincoln Highway that concessions are unavoidable and not to be regretted. YT's original dirt sections I would like to try and follow to some extent depending on their condition, the weather (rain doesn't help) and how much time I have given the distance I am planning to ride. And you are quite right: usually there are equally scenic quiet 2-lane alternatives nearby that I am very happy to cruise along. As to the far west: given my home base in Bloomington Indiana, I am not quite sure I will be able to make it all the way to the Pacific as I have to ride back as well. Yelowstone Park would of course be a natural turning point for me. That would make about a 3500 miles trip in total, so quite doable within a 2-week period which I see as a max. My wife and me have never been to YT. So, I could have her fly into YT for R&R of a week or so before riding back for me and flying back for her to Indiana. I will put this on our travel planning board. In the mean time I will follow The Arrow and the various YT sites to see what will become available in terms of more or less original mapping. Thanks very much for your observations! Harold Ride to write
  2. Denny, I did look at the YT Forum here, indeed, as well as the YT.org website. My next step will be to find maps of the original YT route and then to see what current route would be called for if signage is basically lacking. I did the same 'map archeology' for the Dixie Highway, using a 1923 DH map. This September, I took US 6 Eastbound coming from Laramie WY but leaving it at the point where it moves up north very close to LH and then on towards NW Chicago.The Chicago area is to be avoided. I did ride LH Westbound from Fort Wayne IN through the Chicago area and would advise anybody: don't; it is totally clogged up with endlessly repetitive shopping centers and traffic lights. Against my principle, I would advise here: do take the Interstate here and pick up LH Westbound near Aurora Ill. I will keep following the YT Forum here and the YT.org website. Thanks for your valuable feedback! Harold Ride to write
  3. Denny, Thanks for the suggestions! The Yellowstone Trail appeals most to me. I haven't traveled the northern-most states of the US. The Yellowstonetrail.org website offers starting information but appears to be very much under construction. I will certainly follow-up on this advise of yours! I also haven't traveled to New England, so I may look into an historic route from Indiana to NE. Pikes Peak and the National Old Trails seem to overlap roughly with what I rode on original Route 66 going west and the route I took back going east from Santa Fe NM to Bloomington IN. DH (to Key West and back) and LH (to Laramie WY and back) I consider 'done'. My interest is in exploring new old territories. Harold Ride to write
  4. Denny, Riding these historic highways is a pleasure every mile regardless what happens. After Route 66, Dixie Highway and Lincoln Highway, I am not quite sure what could be a next one. Perhaps the Jefferson Highway which I would have to pick up around Kansas City, 500 miles from my Bloomington Indiana homebase. There is an interesting website on JH, comparable to the one for LH. I don't see a JH Forum on this American Road website with JH travel reports. And last time I was in New Orleans was 40 years ago..... Harold Ride to Write
  5. As a Dutchman interested in riding my semi-classic motorcycle over the historic highways of the US, this September 2011 saw me riding the original 1913 Lincoln Highway from Fort Wayne Indiana to Laramie Wyoming - and back to my American home base Bloomington Indiana. Lincoln Highway is well-signed by the active LH Association - on previous trips I found signage on Dixie Highway completely missing and on Route 66 lacking detail. However Brian Butko's "LH Companion" is indispensible for original details. Riding dirt and gravel sections does pose somewhat of a challenge on a tour bike but turned out to be quite doable - and very much worth the effort. It was a rather adventurous 10-day >3.000 miles trip which you may follow in words and pictures for your own inspiration and planning by + go to www.yamaha-triples.org + log in top right with username Lincoln and password Holland + click through to Forums and then Ride Reports. The Lincoln Highway offers a magnificent perspective on the American West: both the attempts to keep history & architecture alive as well as the decay & desolation resulting from people draining away to larger urban centers. Lincoln Highway: very much deserving to be traveled also today! Harold Ride to write
  6. I am considering riding LH solo on a motorcycle without GPS next year 2009. Critical is to identify reliable information on the original itineraries on todays road system. Staying away from interstates and the like as much as possible is a principle. (Dirt roads are also out of the question.) Bits and pieces are availble here and there, it seems. I would appreciate guidance as to what may be a reliable source of information to go to, or perhaps even a rather comprehensive set of maps. Thanks! Harold
  7. Riding historic Lincoln Highway is on my 2009 list as sequel to 2007 Route 66 and 2008 Dixie Highway. As I am riding these old icons solo on an old motorcycle and do not intend to use GPS: does the CD offer the possibility to print LH stretch by stretch so as to serve as a paper map more or less comparable to EZ66 for Route 66? I'd like to take the original sections as much as possible. So, I am currently looking for information that tells me how much of the original is left and where it is. In a sense reconstruct one of the earlier maps on todays road numbers and/or street names. Any information and suggestions will be highly appreciated!! Harold
  8. Riding over 3500 miles solo on a motorcycle along the Dixie Highway western and eastern itinerary from Bloomington Indiana to Key West Florida and back offers a never ending series of impressions that wait to be remembered. To supplement the story elsewhere on this forum, I have put my foreigner's admiration and amazement into a 'subtitled' pictorial saga. You may live the saga through this link: http://www.yamaha-triples.org/forums/threa...=10&start=1 Subjects addressed include: Road views, Old Main Street, Southern Glory, Tina Turner, Elvis Presley, President Carter, Everglades, Jack Daniel's, The Confederacy and Archeology on Dixie Highway. For 2009 I am researching what is left of the Old Lincoln Highway. This website is one of the sources - in addition to the site of the Lincoln Highway Association which shows there is historic interest in keeping the memory of that Highway alive. I am not intersted in riding interstates, only the old roads or what is left of them. It is the places and people along the old roads that matter. The Lincoln Highway may well be the third sequel to Route 66 in 2007 and the Dixie Highway in 2008. Harold
  9. (I guess I just made a mistake of some kind - moderator you may want to throw out my 'reply' from a few minutes ago. Thanks!) In reply to the various highly appreciated reactions. Directions The turn by turn directions I used I found on: http://www.us-highways.com/dixiehwy.htm. In combination with the 1923 map it allowed me to pencil in on modern road maps what the eastern and western itineraries of DH apparently were. What a great post with the old document on DH! I was so naive as to check with the AAA about DH guidance; I don't think it carries anything to my surprise, no historic feeling? History DH dates back to the early twenties, indeed. R66 did not come much later, though. In the early thirties, it changed course in various years in various locations - some of the road side markers point out in what year R66 passed by there. So R66 and DH share about the same historical timeline. Both were also put into place, as far as I can tell, by what we now call the industrial-military complex. In the twenties Japan was already building up its military power, invading China in the early thirties. The US realized it had no way of getting troops, equipment etc from the industrialized north-east to its western coast. Enter R66. The same holds for DH: when the US entered WWI, the US had no over land connection to strengthen its defenses on its south-eastern coasts. Enter DH. It combined with the arrival of the car as mass (tourist) transportation for civilians. Against that perspective, I expected a bit more similarity between R66 and DH heritage. Pictorial saga Should be ready mid-August or so - and will feature the Everglades Fairy Queen. Harold
  10. The 2008 solo motor Odyssee took me over the Dixie Highway. About 3800 miles from Bloomington Indiana to Key West Florida - and back. A great adventure again, see post under the Dixie Highway Forum on the website. Enjoy the ride.
  11. Absolutely intriguing to try and ride the Dixie Highway eastern and western itineraries with basically only the old 1923 map as guide. (Google gets you to that map easily - as well as to a site which lists current road numbers). Starting out in Bloomington Indiana and riding solo on an old 1980 Yamaha motorcycle all the way to Key West - and back of course. Western section southbound, eastern section northbound. May - June. Taking it easy and trying to retrace & experience some of what it would have been 65 years ago. The old towns, the countryside, the people, perfect diners and home cooking places, an amazing variety of how English can be pronounced....... Some sections ruined forever by sprawling business developments with repetitive chains of national stores and traffic lights. Others - fortunately most of it - great riding on quiet 2-lane roads. Even finding a few old - now out-of-use - dirt or brick sections. Most amazing I found to see almost no references to the North-South mother road - very unlike what I came across on its East-West sister Route 66 last year (see my message on the Route 66 forum on this amricanroadmagazine site). Nevertheless, riding the Dixie Highway is like riding through American history. Even though people living along the Dixie Highway barely seem to be aware of the historic territory they are on..... What adventures await you on Dixie Highway today: read the saga on: http://www.yamaha-triples.org/forums/forum-view.asp?fid=60 The pictorial saga is in the making. Harold de Bock, Hilversum, The Netherlands.
  12. Alex, Dave, Denny, Jim, Flattering feedback you are bestowing on me! Doing Route66 solo was a psychological trip as much as a motorcycle ride. A state of mind I had hoped for but had not considered possible to the extent it turned out, close to a trance it felt. Then, conditions are irrelevant, the experience is all that counts. Dixie Highway may not quite enjoy the same magic but from the far European outside perspective it is as intriguing. 'Go South my sister', if you wish, brings visions of again another US, another type of English (both white and black), another architecture, another pace of life, another social fabric, but the same non-big city, non-interstate American original. Sometime mid-May / mid June it will be. Western route S-bound, Eastern route N-bound. A lazy week or so on the Keys as R&R in between. Current intensive planning is creating the upfront virtual feeling of being on the road already. My signature motto remains unchanged. Harold
  13. Citizen of The Netherlands. New member to this Forum. Not new to the US blue highways. Last year 2007, a solo motorcycle trip on Route 66 to change pace of life. It worked. An adventure of close encounters with days of rain storms, disaster areas, decaying economy, bridges, landmarks, animals, proud people, cops. (See attachment) Travel the mother road. You won't be the same. This year 2008, it will be the Dixie Highway from Bloomington Indiana to Key West Florida and back. Perhaps we meet. R66_Riding_Dutchman_2007.doc
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