Doing the Lincoln Highway

Some recent items about the Lincoln Highway. Why, Liz and I were just on it last Saturday, Sunday, and Monday on a mini road trip out to Clinton, Iowa, with a stop at Franklin Grove to hear Michael Wallis, Michael Williamson, and Brian Butko speak.

1. All you yard sale fanatics, mark your calendars for next weekend, August 9-11, when what probably is the world's largest garage sale takes place, the Lincoln Buy-Way. It will cover four states and 586 miles. Towns along the Lincoln Highway have gotten together to push this event, now in its third year.

Back in the first year, 2005, it was just in Ohio. In 2006, Indiana joined in. This year, West Virginia and Illinois, and next year, Iowa. Who knows, eventually we might have the first transcontinental garage sale if this continues.

2. John E. Gingerich, of Canton, Ohio, after reading about Michael Wallis and Michael Williamson's new book on the Lincoln Highway, paused to reflect on the story he was told by his parents on their 1921 trip on the road from Kansas to Ohio. His parents, Moses and Lydia Gingerich were too poor to buy train tickets and were told the best thing for them to do was to buy a vehicle, drive it to Ohio, and sell it.

They bought a remodeled 1915 Model T truck and left Bucklin, Kansas, near Dodge City, and made the trip with their 5 children, not John, who was born in 1924. I was able to ascertain if they were just visiting or moving for good, but John is still in Ohio.

It took eight days of patching tubes and driving on gravel, but they made it.

From the July 31st Cantonrep.com

Keep on Down that Two Lane Highway. --RoadDog