Motorcycle Trip On The Lincoln Highway

[hutmo]

This summer I am taking my Road King and going on a solo Trip across the country on the Lincoln Highway. I did RT 66 a few years back and last year I did Skyline drive and the Blueridge from North to South. This trip will allow me cross a few more few classic roads off of my to do list.

 

 

As for the trip Route... I found the online trip route that the MVPA is planning on using. I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on this route that the Army used in 1919 on the Lincoln Highway according to their web?

 

I am planning on using a Garmin 2730 for navigation since it has XM radio capability. I know the Rt66 sites have downloads for GPS available. Has anyone done this for the LH?

 

Camping - I plan on doing a fair amount of camping out to lower cost. Are there may campgrounds along the route?

 

Thanks for your help/input. I look forward to contributing to this forum as much as possible.

 

Best regards,

HUTMO

Cranberry Twp... just north of Pittsburgh, PA

 

 

[DennyG]

First a welcome and a hooray for doing something that remains on my list. I've driven some small bits of the Blueridge and want to someday do it all along with the Skyline.

 

Here's what I know about the Lincoln. In my opinion, the best guide book currently available is "Greetings from the Lincoln Highway" from your neighbor in Pittsburgh, Brian Butko. It contains maps and directions but is not exactly a turn-by-turn route source. His available-any-day-now "Lincoln Highway Companion" promises to be more of an on road tool. You may want to consider one or both of these. I just now looked at the MVPA Convoy maps and they look pretty good. Of course, it's not exactly the Lincoln Highway and you'll have to do something to get them into your GPS. That is also true of the map CD offered by the Lincoln Highway Association's Trading Post. The CD has to be used with DeLorme's Street Atlas and includes detailed drawings (not routes) of the many alignments. I have started plotting a westbound route from the east edge of Illinois using the LHA CD and (mostly) the 1928 alignment. I'd be happy to share my Garminized routes when they are done. The LHA CD has Points of Interest by the ton. I won't be putting 100% into my GPS files just like I won't be plotting every alignment. My files will be, no surprise here, for my trip and may or may not satisfy you or anyone else.

 

Hope both the planning and the trip go well and that you share both with us.

 

[sit properly]

I rode Nevada Route 722, which is an alignment of Lincoln Highway. It was opened in 1925, but within a handful of years, folks were wanting it to go back to the old alignment (via the town of New Pass). You can read about my trek through Nevada here. Lots of pics too.

 

It is in my top five favorite roads of all time.

 

-Eric

 

 

 

 

[hutmo]

The CD has to be used with DeLorme's Street Atlas and includes detailed drawings (not routes) of the many alignments. I have started plotting a westbound route from the east edge of Illinois using the LHA CD and (mostly) the 1928 alignment. I'd be happy to share my Garminized routes when they are done. The LHA CD has Points of Interest by the ton. I won't be putting 100% into my GPS files just like I won't be plotting every alignment. My files will be, no surprise here, for my trip and may or may not satisfy you or anyone else.

 

Hope both the planning and the trip go well and that you share both with us.

 

Denny,

 

Thanks for the welcome. I order Brian's books "Greetings" and also the Highway Companion. I have to say that the highway companion will be very useful indeed. I would love to see your Garmin Routes. I am working on Ohio and Indiana but I am not putting in any POI's mainly just the routes. My goal is to use the GPS to get me through the towns where there are bunch of turns. My email is hutmo at_yahoo_dot_com

 

Thanks for any help that you can provide.

Chris

 

[mga707]

I rode Nevada Route 722, which is an alignment of Lincoln Highway. It was opened in 1925, but within a handful of years, folks were wanting it to go back to the old alignment (via the town of New Pass). You can read about my trek through Nevada here. Lots of pics too.

 

It is in my top five favorite roads of all time.

 

-Eric

 

Eric--

 

Don't know why I didn't come across it earlier, but I finally read about your June '08 trek across Nevada tonight. Very interesting! I've never been west of Ely on 50, so it makes me want to go all the way across the state.

Anyway, I read where you speculate that Carson City might be the smallest state capitol city in the US. It turns out not to be so. With a 2000 census population of over 52,000, Carson City is larger than quite a few other state capitols, including the capitol of your state, Olympia. Montpelier, Vermont, is the smallest state capitol, with a 2000 population of just over 8,000. I believer that Pierre, South Dakota is next, coming in at around 17,000.

Ah, but Carson City would be quite a bit smaller if not for a trick they pulled a few decades ago (sometime in the 1980s, IIRC). They did the Nashville/Jacksonville/Indianapolis trick of annexing the entire county into the city limits. If just the urbanized area was in the city limits the population would probably be no more than about 25,000. Still not the smallest, but about half of the 'official' figure.

...and if you want to stump people, ask them what the LARGEST state capitol city is. Almost nobody guesses it correctly, unless they live in my state. It's that 'bad example' up the road, Phoenix! The only state capitol city with over a million residents, about 1.5 mil to be more specific.

Just some rather useless US geographic trivia for you...

Edited June 4, 2009 by mga707

[DennyG]

Denny,

 

Thanks for the welcome. I order Brian's books "Greetings" and also the Highway Companion. I have to say that the highway companion will be very useful indeed. I would love to see your Garmin Routes. I am working on Ohio and Indiana but I am not putting in any POI's mainly just the routes. My goal is to use the GPS to get me through the towns where there are bunch of turns. My email is hutmo at_yahoo_dot_com

 

Thanks for any help that you can provide.

Chris

Since there's a good chance that I'll make the target routes part of the collateral information for my own drive across the western Lincoln Highway, I just put what files I have now in an online directory HERE. They are GPX files. The naming convention is LH28-ssn.gpx. "LH28" indicates the 1928 alignment, "ss" is the state, and "n" is the east to west sequence within the state. I have the one file required of Illinois posted along with two of the three required for Iowa. I've also posted two files from my already completed Indiana drive. LHInd08W is the west bound route and is essentially the 1915 version. LHInd08E is the east bound 1928 routing between Valparaiso and Fort Wayne.

 

You may already be aware of these links for Indiana and Ohio. The Indiana map is a medium resolution reproduction of that on the Lincoln Highway Association CD. What you'll find at the Ohio link is Mike Buettner's detailed directions and strip maps.

 

Though I make absolutely no promise that I'll pay attention to any of it, feedback on my GPX files is welcome.

[DennyG]

Since there's a good chance that I'll make the target routes part of the collateral information for my own drive across the western Lincoln Highway, I just put what files I have now in an online directory HERE. They are GPX files. The naming convention is LH28-ssn.gpx. "LH28" indicates the 1928 alignment, "ss" is the state, and "n" is the east to west sequence within the state. I have the one file required of Illinois posted along with two of the three required for Iowa. I've also posted two files from my already completed Indiana drive. LHInd08W is the west bound route and is essentially the 1915 version. LHInd08E is the east bound 1928 routing between Valparaiso and Fort Wayne.

 

You may already be aware of these links for Indiana and Ohio. The Indiana map is a medium resolution reproduction of that on the Lincoln Highway Association CD. What you'll find at the Ohio link is Mike Buettner's detailed directions and strip maps.

 

Though I make absolutely no promise that I'll pay attention to any of it, feedback on my GPX files is welcome.

I finished Garminizing routes for the remaining states yesterday and have added them to the same spot, HERE. I intend to add some POIs before actually using them but I believe the routes are complete.

[beckyrepp]

Denny,

 

Thanks for the welcome. I order Brian's books "Greetings" and also the Highway Companion. I have to say that the highway companion will be very useful indeed. I would love to see your Garmin Routes. I am working on Ohio and Indiana but I am not putting in any POI's mainly just the routes. My goal is to use the GPS to get me through the towns where there are bunch of turns. My email is hutmo at_yahoo_dot_com

 

Thanks for any help that you can provide.

Chris

 

 

Chris,

 

I don't know if you've taken advantage of this yet, but, if not, I encourage you to visit our request for advertiser information page and visit the web pages of the tourism entities on/near your route: http://americanroadmagazine.com/advertising/adv_request.html

 

I know there are several on that page (Ohio Lincoln Highway, Illinois Lincoln Highway Coalition, Nebraska Lincoln Highway, West Wendover, Pony Express Territory) that would be delighted to offer assistance. These organizations offer travel resources on their sites that you might find useful. They might even have some dining and lodging deals to help you save some $$ on your trip.

 

If you prefer to have info mailed directly to you - feel free to request that information be sent -- just fill out the form at the bottom of the page. These sponsors of American Road magazine and Americanroadmagazine.com (including this Forum) love to hear from American Road readers and are delighted to offer assistance to travelers. We wish you safe travels and look forward to hearing all about your trip!

[hutmo]

Thanks for all of the great information. The GPS files will come in handy. I made my own files but I will take both sets on my GPS system.

The request page would have saved me some leg work but I found much of what I needed through web searches.

 

I am taking off on Monday, July 20th morning for a nine day trip on the LH. The trip will begin in downtown Pittsburgh and will go for there!

 

I am not certain how far west I will make it from Pittsburgh because I need to leave a few days to get on the super slabs to beat it home.

 

http://hutmo.blogspot.com/

 

Hutmo

Edited July 19, 2009 by hutmo

[DennyG]

Thanks for all of the great information. The GPS files will come in handy. I made my own files but I will take both sets on my GPS system.

The request page would have saved me some leg work but I found much of what I needed through web searches.

 

I am taking off on Monday, July 20th morning for a nine day trip on the LH. The trip will begin in downtown Pittsburgh and will go for there!

 

I am not certain how far west I will make it from Pittsburgh because I need to leave a few days to get on the super slabs to beat it home.

 

http://hutmo.blogspot.com/

 

Hutmo

I've just added your blog's RSS feed to my subscriptions and you can bet I'll be following it closely. I'll be on part of your route in about a month.

 

Wishing you good luck & good weather.