the Grabers: Lincoln Highway - a new road to try

We woke up about 4 am and slipped out of the house before the family woke up. We had said our good-byes last evening.

We pulled off the road at Mt. Horeb to grab some breakfast.

The dusting of snow was beautiful and did not affect the roads luckily. Last spring we had to travel far south and leave the night before we had planned to, in order to avoid the 19" snowfall that would have trapped us a while longer. Well, is "trap" the right word? I wouldn't have minded a few more days with the grandchildren!! But Al needed to get to work.

The barn that is slowly falling down.

We saw several deer this travel day.

We had not really planned a new route but as I studied the atlas, I told Al I found another route to try.

From Cedar Rapids it goes west. We often take 218 south to 80, although we have gone through the Amana colonies before.

As I studied the atlas, I noticed that the L sign goes clear across the United States, from Times Square in New York to San Francisco, California! It is called the Lincoln Highway and is one of the earliest transcontinental highways for automobiles across the States. It was conceived in 1912 by Carl G. Fisher, an early automobile entrepreneur. He believed that the popularity of automobiles was dependent on good roads. Before this time, many people traveled across the country by train.

It was America's first national memorial to President Abraham Lincoln, predating the 1922 dedication of the Lincoln Memorial. They had considered calling it the "Coast-to-Coast Highway". As the first automobile road across the United States, the highway brought great prosperity to the hundred of cities and towns along the way. It was affectionately known as "The Main Street Across America".

This is an interesting, what, silo? Little house on top of a silo? Maybe it is the "dawdi haus", the place where the grandparents live! Ha! Course it would be hard for grandpa and grandma to climb up a ladder to that place, unless there is an inside elevator! Maybe it is a business office. Who knows! Maybe the man shed, where he goes when he needs time away.

A pink "Barbie" barn! Or has it been converted into a house?

The pink "Barbie" house that is beside the barn. One doesn't often see a pink house/barn.

There was some construction on the road, but once it is completed, it is definitely a route worth considering from Cedar Rapids to Des Moines. A lot less traffic than Interstate 80!