Columbus is a prosperous town with a 3% unemployment rate. It’s a little too perfect for me, but check it out if you’re looking for an easy commute, reasonable land prices, a strong work ethic, a moral majority and an elaborate water park.
Leaving Columbus, it was disappointing to be on a four-lane stretch of Route 30 that swallows up the Lincoln Highway for 20 miles. Does this section portend the end of our highway? Will our treasured stretches of the first, second and third iterations of the old road disappear? If so, get out and see it ASAP. So far as Bob and I are concerned all of what’s left should be classified as a National Scenic Byway — as is the case in Illinois.
Continue reading ‘Day 17 Road Report: Columbus, NE to Underwood, IA’
The PhotoMap is updated through Day 16. Click your way across the continent and see what you’ve been going without, homesteaders!
Click for the Lincoln Highway PhotoMap
On our early-AM tour of Kearney, we wondered if the town abandoned its historic center for the north section of 2nd Ave, a sprawl of strip malls, including fast-food restaurants, Starbucks, Wal-Mart, and most every chain store you can think of. Included with downtown’s original red brick road & 1890’s buildings are two abandoned movie theaters. Oddly, one old film palace’s marquee advertises that it’s been converted to a dentist’s office. Certainly a strange venue for a root canal. Kearney’s focus seems to be on the new 2nd Avenue strip malls. All this just off of America’s legendary highway. Does prosperity mean leaving the past for a character-free present?
Continue reading ‘Day 16 Road Report: Kearney to Columbus, NE’
Day 15 - North Platte to Kearney, Nebraska
Getting from point A to point B can be rather tedious and predictable in a car. This is seldom the case when traveling on a bike, and even less so when the bike is an MP3. Every day of the tour has revealed unanticipated surprises: places we’ve seen, people we’ve met and roads we’ve traveled. Continue reading ‘Day 15 Road Report: North Platte to Kearney, NE’
Click For Larger Google Map
While our two transcontinental champs are on the way to Denver, why not click back through the photos of their journey so far? The PhotoMap is updated all the way through yesterday’s day off in Fort Collins, so take a few to scroll back through time and westward through space to overlooked destinations like Evanston, Ely and Auburn.
Our intrepid chroniclers of the Lincoln Highway are at Beemers & More, Fort Collins’ Piaggio outpost, right now for an appearance and to get the MP3s checked out after rumbling the rough roads of rural Wyoming. If you’re in the area, pop by and say hi — they’re scheduled to depart around 1100hr MT, but if we know Bob, he’ll be there answering questions until nightfall unless Buddy drags him away from the throngs. The address?
Beemers & More Motorcycle Works
800 Stockton Ave #4
Fort Collins, CO 80524
Ground Control out.
We suppose it’s just that Lincoln Highway time of year, what with the Lincoln Highway Association Conference happening and whatnot. Whatever the reason, it’s wonderful that Buddy and Bob hooked up with kindred spirits from Pittsburgh’s PBS affiliate WQED during the making of their Lincoln Highway documentary. The boys have mentioned their near miss and eventual reconnection with Rick and Bob from WQED. Rick’s returned the favor in his own blog. It’s definitely worth a look, and we can’t wait to see the finished doc. Check out Rick’s musings on our gentlemen here.
