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Published: January 16th 2023
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First of all, the dynamics changed for this segment of the Lincoln Highway journey – Kate was unable to join us! So Bill did all the driving and I was responsible for finding key sights and navigating the indispensable Lincoln Highway interactive map https://lincolnhighwayassoc.org/map/ via our trusty IPad.
We flew in to Pittsburgh to rejoin the Highway with another fun overnight at the beautiful downtown Pittsburgh Embassy Suites. It was a little bit of a weather shock for us since we had just spent several days with family in south Florida. It wasn’t super cold but definitely late fall in the Pennsylvania hills. While we got off to an early start on our first day, we underestimated the amount of time it would take us to simply get out of Pittsburgh. We wound along lots of residential streets on the north side of the Ohio River – and lots of construction/road closures along the way.
This segment featured a lot of original roadbeds from the highway which were interesting but a challenge to find along railroad tracks and back roads. We also found the “Point of Beginning” marker at the Pennsylvania/Ohio border. This marked the survey line from
the Land Ordinance of 1785 which marks all lands west. Imagine a time when the end of the United States was the Ohio border with everything beyond for later development. Crazy to think that this heavily populated area was once frontier wilderness! Our other fun find for the day is the Giant Teapot. Located in Chester, W.Va., "The World's Largest
Teapot" was built in 1938 by William "Babe" Devon, and measures 14 feet in height and 14 feet in diameter. According to the Chester Public Library, it was made from a gigantic wooden barrel used in a Hire's Root Beer advertising campaign in Pennsylvania.
So we continued our journey somewhat leisurely – finding original pavement, Lincoln Highway signs and old bridge vestiges along the way. But our day was slipping away and we were not close enough to our target destination of Mansfield Ohio. So we abandoned the plan to trace the highway from Canton to Mansfield in lieu of having dinner at Pete’s Family Restaurant in Canton – a fun and friendly local strip mall establishment, then hightailing it via Highway 30 to our bed at the Hampton Inn in Mansfield. Note: we are going to re-do that
short segment on our next trip which luckily will include travel companion Kate again!
The highlight of Day 2 was definitely breakfast at the historic Coney Island Diner right on the Highway in downtown Mansfield. We met the new owner Aubrey who was our server. She and husband Greg bought this vintage diner –in absolutely beautiful shape recently. We enjoyed the crispy corned beef and ham & cheese omelet. We were prepared for a day on the road to Fort Wayne, Indiana. This segment features a lot of old abandoned factories such as the huge Westinghouse factory in Mansfield. We can see why this area of the USA is called the Rust Belt, but truly it’s sad to see how much manufacturing has moved offshore to the detriment of these amazing cities.
Another feature of the Midwest portion of this trip is the farmland. We hopscotched around farms and went through lots of small farm towns. Clearly the Lincoln Highway negotiated with farmers to circumvent farmland. Frankly we found the loss of farmland to wind farms depressing through this stretch. In Lima we intersected with another historic highway – this one north to south – the Dixie Highway.
Aurora, IL
Love the old theaters! And on to Ft. Wayne – another city with many abandoned factories along the route. We also passed the “Ideal Section”of the Lincoln Highway. As a marketing initiative this section in Dyer showcased the latest road construction technology. The 1.3 mile section of road had four 10-foot lanes of 10 inch steel reinforced concrete with lighting. It just looks like an ordinary road now but this “paved” the way for our road systems today.
After our day on the road, the Hampton Inn in Ft. Wayne was a welcome sight. We were ready for Day 4 pushing through the rest of Indiana and into Illinois. A surprising find along this stretch was the beautiful and lovingly preserved town of Ligonier. In the 1850’s it was settled by Jewish merchants. Many built fortunes and build huge mansions – many of them still private residences today. We also enjoyed the 1939 police booth in Goshen. While we were walking around the city hall and checking out the police booth, we were reminded that it was Veterans Day. There was a beautiful ceremony and dozens of veterans were on hand. We thank our veterans for their sacrifice!
By evening we were in Illinois and stayed in Schererville where we enjoyed an Italian beef sandwich for dinner, a Chicagoland staple. Yummy! And on to our final evening stay in Naperville Il on our last day on this segment. While a lot of our day was spent in the sprawl of suburban Chicago, we enjoyed seeing one of the many Frank Lloyd Wright houses in this area and we loved the town of Aurora, IL! There’s a lovingly preserved downtown with some amazing old theaters and a Lincoln Highway highlight is a street where automobile showrooms once flourished. If you had made it this far on the Lincoln Highway and had enough means, this was the perfect enticement to buy a brand new vehicle for the balance of the trip which brought road warriors to the wild West!
We’re taking a break from the road during the winter months but will be ready to resume in May – this time with Kate rejoining - on the Naperville to Omaha, Nebraska segment!
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