Second Phase of the Lincoln Highway: Philadelphia to Pittsburgh - Part1

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Our travel companion Kate agreed to join Bill and me on our second leg of the more than 3,000 mile journey along the historic Lincoln Highway, the first coast to coast highway in the United States. Apparently she hadn't had enough of the circuitous routes, endless loops back to read historic markers we had missed, and holding down the navigator's seat in the front. Honestly, this is really a 3 person job - one person (me) to follow along the Lincoln Highway map in real time as we travel down the road https://www.lincolnhighwayassoc.org/map/ If you check out the map, you'll note that there are various alignments - the earliest from 1913, some of which no longer exist and were replaced by other routes and/or might now be one way streets. So I have the back seat with the iPad and Kate in the front with a printed map in the navigator’s seat.

We started this leg in downtown Philadelphia – right near City Hall and planned a half day journey to Lancaster County to Amish country and our first destination – the Dutch Haven in Ronks for a taste of the famous shoo fly pie. Like many of the Lincoln Highway destinations, this establishment is designed to attract visitors. Dutch Haven is a building with a windmill. We loved the shoo fly pie so much we had pies sent back home to our grown kids. Sadly by the time we got back to see them they had consumed the pies.

We backtracked to the Philadelphia area for our overnight at Embassy Suites, then on the second day took the short trip back to the Dutch Haven to pick up the Lincoln Highway. It was Sunday, and the Amish were out in their Sunday finery with sleek horse-drawn buggies on their way to service. Kate had lined us up for the Amish Experience where we learned more about the Amish – they do not have churches but rather gather at a member’s home. This dates back to their days of persecution in Europe as Anabaptists. From there, we continued through Revolutionary era towns en route to Gettysburg, our destination for night 2. Not only were there oodles of historic markers but there were also sightings of the beautiful Lincoln Highway murals sprinkled throughout Pennsylvania. This state really celebrates the legacy of the Lincoln Highway!

I’ll wrap up part 1 of our second leg with our arrival in Gettysburg. We raced the clock to arrive at the Dobbin House Tavern, built in 1776. There was a ghost tour in progress when we arrived at the tavern – as you can imagine, this historic battlefield site has lots of supernatural sightings. In fact, our hotel – the Hilton Garden Inn – was new but was built on the site of the field hospital for the battle. Locals have many stories about the spirits of Gettysburg.

Next blog – Gettysburg and beyond!

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