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

Lincoln Highway Trip- Laramie To Chicago


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My friend and I recently completed a trip along the Lincoln highway from Laramie Wyoming to Chicago Illinois. It was a great trip and we really enjoyed seeing the sights along the way as well as some great Lincoln Highway signage. We did the trip in 3 1/2 days so we were pretty much on the move from sun up to sun down each day. We followed Brian Butko's book Greetings from the Lincoln Highway as close as could.

 

Highlights included:

 

Wyoming - Lincoln Statue & Joy Monument at the 8800 foot high point of the Lincoln highway, The Ames Mounument, the Tree in Rock, A great Union Pacific Train Station in Cheyenne and Lady of Piece Shrine at Pine Bluffs.

 

Nebraska - The start of about 70 trains a day as the Lincoln follows the main Line of the UP pretty much all through Nebraska and Iowa. It was at least 2 tracks at all time and up to four tracks in some areas. Spent the night at the Palimino Motel In Sidney and took in a movie (New Star Trek) at the 1951 Fox movie theater. We had a great home cooked breakfast in Brule, saw the Spuce Steet Station in Ogallaia,and drove across the Bailey rail yard in North Platte. Then we followed the 1913 Stairstep route from North Platte to Gothenburg. We saw the Arch over 1-80 at Kearney, Columbus has a great LH sign display in Pioneer park and we also saw the brick section at Clarks. Finally we saw the Lincoln Statue at Freemont.

 

Iowa - A great brick section and nice LH display in Woodbine. The Donna Reed center in Denison was fantastic - they have a 1914 movie theater and a working soda fountain. Lots of LH mounuments in Carroll and Greene Counties where we also saw some Burma Shave signs and drove the 1913-1919 gravel section across the Lincoln and March briges- Great stuff. Some nice LH displays in Nevada followed by the Super LH bridge in Tama - a must see in my opinion and nicely maintained. There is a nice brick section to see in Mount Vernon as well. We voted Iowa as the Best LH state that we traveled through on this trip.

 

Illinois - Nice Windmill at Fulton, the Lincon Bridge and Statue at Dixon as well as the arch they have. A few seedling miles are near Malta and Franklin Grove. We really enjoyed our stop at the Lincoln Highway Asociation in Franlklin Grove. There we finally found some Lincoln Highway Memorbilla Like hats, Shirts, Pins, books, etc. Last year we traveled the portion of the Lincoln Highway from Philadelphia to Chicago and couldn't find any LH stuff to buy. This was a great stop and also a must see for any LH fan.

 

Sorry this was so long, but there was a lot to see and I have 206 photos to remember the trip by. Next May we plan to do the portion of the Lincoln Highway from Laramie, Wyoming to San Francisco.

 

Stay on the roads and stay safe.

 

Etchr 66

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No apologies for length needed. We ALL love to read trip reports. Tho yours is really just hi-lights it's still great reading - and THANK YOU for a great read!!!! :D

 

Be looking fwd to reading about the west bound trip next year.

 

Hudsonly,

Alex Burr

Memphis, TN

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In response o Denny's question the Gravel section where the Rainbow bridge is located is graded and does not require a high clearance vehicle. It is just north of Beaver Iowa as I recall. Greene County had a lot of Lincoln highway stuff plus some real live Burma Shave signs.

 

Etchr66

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Etchr66,

 

That's for the fine report! Fun trip!

 

I recall the trains in Nebraska when I was on the Lincoln last spring. They seemed to be just a couple of minites apart. And I passed by one that had derailed earlier in the day! It looked like maybe the trackl had failed.

 

They seemed to be mostly carrying coal. Was that your experience?

 

Dave

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

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Dave recently wrote:

"I recall the trains in Nebraska when I was on the Lincoln last spring. They seemed to be just a couple of minites apart. And I passed by one that had derailed earlier in the day! It looked like maybe the trackl had failed.

 

They seemed to be mostly carrying coal. Was that your experience?"

 

Dave

 

Keep the Show on the Road

 

Dave - There were a lot of trains, about one every 20 minutes and sometimes they there were 2 or 3 in a row that were stopped behind a slower train in front of them even though there was more than one track, sometimes as many as 4 tracks. It seemed that they were a mixture of frieght trains with the large semitruck type containers and coal trains.

 

If you like trains this is a great road to travel on. The train depot in Cheyenne, Wyoming is also well worth a stop. They have a nice train museum inside.

 

etchr66

 

 

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