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Kate in Weehawken
Awesome Manhattan View - Even on a Rainy Day Since Bill and I moved to northern Nevada 4 years ago, we discovered the allure of the Lincoln Highway when we learned this road runs right through the center of Reno. Yes, it's the name of a wildly popular novel recently published by Amor Towles, but our ambition to drive this 3,300+ mile stretch of roads predates Mr. Towles' novel. In our enthusiasm to learn more about this road, we joined the Nevada chapter of the Lincoln Highway Association.
The highway was "completed" in 1913 when automobiles were becoming popular. The Lincoln Highway linked together existing roads and a smattering of ferries to new roads sponsored by the 12 states and local municipalities this route traversed. In 1913 it was not, to say the least, an easy ride! The span of the Lincoln Highway was Times Square, New York to Lincoln Park in San Francisco.
During the pandemic we continued on our road trip adventures in the US - including completing all but 50 miles of historic US Highway 89 (The Highway of the National Parks from Glacier National Park, Montana to Nogales, Arizona and (almost all) of the famous Route 66 from Chicago to Santa Monica. But the
Hamilton Burr Duel
Above the famous dueling grounds in Weehawken allure of driving the Big Kahuna prompted our planning phase for the journey.
We decided to take the journey in stages from east to west - and traveling about a week at a time. We also decided to stay, as much as we were able, in Hilton's Embassy Suites along the way. We've long been fans of this hotel chain. I'll 'fess up right away that a big attraction is the evening reception with 1-2 complimentary cocktails. But we also love having a 2-room suite and the big made to order breakfast.
Our love affair with Embassy Suites began when our children were young and we'd treat them to a weekend holiday at the San Francisco Airport Embassy Suites (we lived just 20 miles away but it was still a holiday for the young ones). They enjoyed an indulgent weekend of in-room movies, pizza, and a swim in the indoor pool.
Fast forward to May 2022. Our first foray was Times Square to Philadelphia. We arrived at the Newark Airport - parked our maps, iPad and books at the Newark Airport Embassy Suites and headed to the lounge for a bourbon on the rocks, glass of wine
White Diamond Diner
Now 30 Burgers it's still a beautiful vintage diner for friend Kate and we all enjoyed the complimentary hors d'oeuvres. Thank you, Embassy Suites!
This trip took a lot of advance prep - Bill had painstakingly printed out page by page route instructions from the Lincoln Highway Association map
https://www.lincolnhighwayassoc.org/map/
There's no way to Google map this trip. In order to stay as true as possible to the 1913 route (there were several later alignments) you can't follow the New Jersey Turnpike but rather take a series of state routes, city streets and alleyways. And in some cases, the roads no longer exist having sacrificed themselves to developers and urban renewal.
The joy of this journey? Amazing discoveries for sites we never would have seen if we weren't on the route. The frustration? Having to stay glued to a combination of eyes on the road signs (Bill the driver), looking at the page by page route instructions - 1 page sometimes covering less than 1 mile (Kate riding shotgun) and me in the back of our rental car staying on course with the interactive Lincoln Highway map on our iPad.
Day 1: Times Square to Linden If you've been on the New Jersey
Turnpike you have missed so much of what there is to see in just these few miles! We followed the route to Weehauwken New Jersey and enjoyed the breathtaking view of Manhattan across the Hudson, just above the dueling grounds where Alexander Hamilton was shot by Aaron Burr. We drove through gritty industrial cities like Jersey City where we enjoyed burgers at the 1939 White Mana "Diner of the Future." And we were delighted to find that downtown Newark is the home to the beautiful Essex County Courthouse and its statue of a hatless Abraham Lincoln, sculpted by Gutzon Borglum - yes, ,the master sculptor of Mt. Rushmore. We made it as far as the site of another historic diner - the White Diamond - in Linden. Then back to Newark to Embassy Suites and refreshments!
Day 2: Linden to Princeton. We woke up refreshed at the Embassy Suites and checked out to continue our journey. On this day, we knew we would have a bit of back and forth since our next Embassy Suites was the Valley Forge, PA location. Today, we took a side trip in the morning to the West Orange, NJ location of the
Thomas Edison National Historic Park - home to Thomas Edison and his laboratory. We only had time to see the lab and could easily have spent the entire day there. It's maintained just as it would have been in the early 1900's - with all the machinery in place as if waiting for the day shift to arrive. We made our way south to Linden, continued on our Lincoln Highway route to Princeton. What a difference a few miles along the Lincoln Highway makes - from industrial Elizabeth to the stately homes and campus of Princeton University. From Princeton we got back on the major highways so we could make it to the Valley Forge Embassy Suites before cocktail hour ended. This is a beautiful hotel in Chesterbrook, a lovely Philadelphia suburb.
Day 3: Princeton to the Philadelphia Suburbs. We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at Embassy Suites where we broke bread with a group of police office heroes riding by bike to Washington DC. Then we re-traced our steps to Princeton and rejoined the Lincoln Highway for a circuitous route into Trenton over the historic Calhoun Bridge over the Delaware River. From there we got off course a
Valley Forge Embassy Suites
Embassy Suites pays tribute to George Washington bit and stumbled into a small 17th century Quaker village still lovingly preserved. This is one of the great joys of doing these slow road trips - the serendipitous discoveries!
Day 4: Philadelphia Outskirts to Independence Hall. We made our goal of reach Independence Hall in Philadelphia. This required the 3 of us working hard to navigate our way through Philadelphia - I'll just say it was a circuitous route and we saw lots more of Philadelphia than we bargained for. On our way back from downtown Philadelphia to the Embassy Suites, we made another lucky discovery
- to avoid traffic we stumbled into Dalessandro's for Philly cheesesteaks. We learned from our friend Jane, a local, that this is the best cheesesteak in Philly. We didn't have to be told - we enjoyed every bite! A great accompaniment to the Embassy Suites-provided libations.
Day 5: Valley Forge National Historic Park. Since we had completed our goal for this segment, we celebrated by taking the day off to visit Valley Forge - site of George Washington's 1777-78 winter encampment. It was a beautiful spring day (the Revolutionary War troops didn't enjoy the same glorious weather). We drove and walked around acres and acres of park and monuments, including Washington's headquarters for that difficult winter. Since we gave ourselves some wiggle room, we also had an extra day to visit the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall in Philadelphia before heading back to the Newark Airport and home.
Our next segment? Philadelphia to Pittsburgh We'll continue our our trip from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh later this summer. Yes, it will be the journey of a lifetime for us - and it may take a lot of it before we finish. It's both a great adventure and a chance to slow down!
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