Cross Country Army Convoy-- 1919-- Part 2

An Army publicity officer preceded the convoy, lining up places to stop and publicizing the event.

Another goal of the convoy was to determine how well troops, artillery and supplies could be moved from coast to coast. For the first time, this group contained only vehicles and no horses.

His father often told stories of the trip. Bill Doran is one of only three living children of the twelve commissioned officers.

Craig Harmon, founder and director of the Lincoln Highway National Museum and Archives in Ohio organized the parade procession.

The original convoy consisted of 61 vehicles and 279 men as well as Lt. Col. Dwight D. Eisenhower. His experiences here and later during World War II led to his interstate system.

Pictures accompanied the article. One movie showed them moving along. Another showed an upside down vehicle. Others had lots of dust from the unpaved roads. There was also one of Lt. Doran.

Quite an Undertaking. --RoadDog

Cross Country Army Convoy-- 1919-- Part 1

From Jan. 17TH Indianapolis Star "He's a link to nation's history" by Betsy Reason.

Bill Doran was just five days old when his father went on the first motor convoy across the US and he received an invitation to attend Obama's inaugural parade, but hadn't decided whether he was going when the article was written. The new administration wanted representatives of the Motorcade in the festivities to mark the 90th anniversary of it.

His father was Army Lt. William B. Doran, and the convoy departed Washington, DC, July 7, 1919, in a new Packard car and spent the next 62 days on the Lincoln Highway. Average speed of the convoy was 15-20 mph and they only went 8 mph through the Rockies. Trucks often needed repairs and lots of vehicles had to be pulled out of the mud.

Lt. Doran was born in Iowa, joined the Navy in 1906 and retired as an Army Captain in 1935, dying at age 66 in 1955 in an auto accident.

The 1919 Army Motorcade was to showcase what the new Army vehicles could do. The auto and tire industries were put on view as well.

To Be Continued. --RoadDog

This effort also was to determine

Staten Island Tugboat Graveyard

Just in time for Halloween. I went to the Travel + Leisure site and they had an article on strange and scary sites, and this graveyard was mentioned. I had never heard of it so, it being nautical, I had to search it.

Not a lot of hard information on it, but quite a few pictures. Very interesting.

I did find out, it is also called the Staten Island Boat Graveyard and consists of decommissioned, scrapped and abandoned ships of all sorts from old ferries, tugboats, barges and skiffs and is located at the southernmost part of Staten Island in an area called Arthur Kill.

Worth a look. There are also a lot of old wrecks along the Cape Fear River near Wilmington, NC. I guess if you are a seafaring port, this is likely to happen.

Like, BOO!! --RoadDog

Chicago Rankings

Back to the Tribune Oct. 9th article by Phil Vettel.

Categories Chicago did well in (Out of 30 cities):

#1 skyline
#2 shopping
#4 food/dining
#5 nightlife

Not so well:

#30 weather
#27 peace and quiet
#24 airports
#20 hotels

Food/Dining Top Ten

1. New Orleans
2. San Francisco
3. Seattle
4. Chicago
5. New York
6. Providence
7. Portland, Oregon
8. Boston
9. Philadelphia
10. Minneapolis/St. Paul

I Wonder If They Had a Category for Cost of Parking. --RoadDog

Cities with the Best...

The October 9th Chicago Tribune had an article about Travel + Leisures annual poll in which readers rank 30 American cities on a variety of categories.

Chicago ranked #1 in skyline and views and dead last in weather (I'll believe that this fall).

Other Chicago rankings:

#2 big-name restaurants, luxury stores and theater
#3 ethnic food
#14 intelligence
#18 affordability
#19 friendliness
#20 attractiveness
#22 active/adventure
#23 relaxing resorts

Chicago was described as ugly, surly and not too bright!! What? We'll take you a little on the on for that one, HOSS!!

For complete lists, go to travelandleisure.com or check the November issue of Travel + Leisure.

What, No Ranking for Spring Grove? --RoadDog

NTN Cruising: Mukwonago, Wisconsin-- Part 2

HALF TIME-- Our next stop was just a quarter mile away. Love it when they are so close, and, even better, found it right away. Another sports bar type place in a mini strip mall, but this bartender more than made up for the unfriendliness of the last one.

She is a college student and has a long drive to get there. Unfortunately, the place was quite dead as far as customers, not a good sign. Stayed here longer than we planned and played more games because of her, and she joined us. No national rankings because of the Seen Its (those who obviously must have already seen the games).

The place only opened since July 1st. $3.85 for two Diet Cokes. Great drink prices and half price 2-6 M-F. 35 cent boneless wings on Mondays and we had them. Highly suggested. 35 cent wings on Wednesday. Will go back here.


DOUBLE D's-- If you want to go to a real Wisconsin bar, not a cookie-cutter, this be the place. You can even boat up to it on a lake located right across the road. We spent awhile looking for it though as it is a little ways out of town and GPS doesn't have it in the right place, but worth looking for.

They're having a "Dead DJ" for their Halloween party. $3 for two Diet Cokes, but 10-6 M-F they have $1.25 pints and free pizza at 5 (at least on Mondays). Thursday they have wings 3 for $1.

Surprisingly, they had a good-sized collection of Brett Favre No. 4 Viking jerseys for sale, both home and away, for $50 a pop. Asked how they were selling and the bartender said very well.

Again, too many Seen Its playing for a national ranking.

The best of the three overall.

Nothing Like NTN with the Cheeseheads. --RoadDog

NTN Cruising: Mukwonago, Wisconsin-- Part 1

October 19th was one of the exceedingly rare days of decent fall weather so we went to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, and drove around the lake looking for fall color and found we were about a week early for prime time.

We drove on up to Mukwonago to check out three NTN-Buzztime places we hadn't been to before.

BONEYARD PUB & GRILLE-- Great name for a bar. Just got NTN, but not on any TV, but the bartender quickly put it on (once we got his attention which took a long time). Overall, he was about as unfriendly as you can get. Right off I-43 in a small strip mall. No smoking (all Wisconsin goes non-smoking this coming July). $4.18 for two Diet Pepsis.

Evidently not on the national boards yet. A bit on the pricey side for drinks and food. They do have Team Trivia on Monday nights at 7:30. WTMJ radio station sports was setting up and had a live show at 5 PM. We probably won't go back.

Cheesehead Land. --RoadDog

This is Neat!!-- Lincoln Highway in Illinois

While doing research on Illinois Highway 2, I came across a neat site that took me for a ride across the Lincoln Highway in the whole state of Illinois using aerial photography the whole way. Well, that took a good hour, even though I stopped in Dekalb and did a close inspection of Northern Illinois University, where Liz and I went to college.

Not only can you do Lincoln Highway, but also:

The Great River Road
Meeting of the Great Rivers
Ohio River
National Road

If you've got some hours, they got the armchair trip.

www.milebymile.com/main/United_States/Illinois/byway/Lincoln_Highway.html

No Wonder It Takes Me So Long To Do These Lousy Blogs. --RoadDog

Some More on Illinois State Route 2

The road runs from Rock island to the Wisconsin border, mostly along or close to the Rock River, so that makes for a scenic drive. From Dixon to Sterling, it is the original transcontinental Lincoln Highway.

Other towns it goes through: Sterling, Dixon, Oregon, Byron, Rockford, South Beloit.

It was deleted west of Sterling after I-88 built, so, officially now starts at Il-40 in Sterling.

During the 19th century, it was the primary trading route from Rockford to Rock Island along the Rock River. However, the river is only navigable from Rock Falls to Rock Island.

A Scenic Drive. --RoadDog

Lovin' Those Old Roads: Il. Hwy 2

I was able to get a copy of the Summer 2009 Northwest Quarterly Magazine about the northwest part bf Illinois and southwest Wisconsin.

I was happy to see two pages dedicated to our old roads.

SCENIC Route 2, Illinois.

This one recommended "Explore the Beauty, Towns & Villages Along the Rock River on Scenic Route 2. This would be Illinois Highway 2.

There were advertisements for:

Oregon Soap Shoppe-- Oregon
Hailey's Winery & Vineyard-- Byron
Merlin's Greenhouse & "The Other Side"
Byron Museum of History-- Byron
Black Hawk Waterways of Northwest Illinois-- with exhibits of A. G. Spalding, the Underground Railroad, Model Railroad, Outhouse Treasures and Clamming on the Rock River.
Fifth Alarm Firehouse Pub--

I'd sure like to see these towns get together to start a byway for Illinois Highway 2. I've driven parts of it and it is quite a drive.

When in Illinois. --RoadDog

Chicago's Art Institute

May 3rd Chicago Tribune.

The Modern Wing of Chicago's Art Institute opened May 16th and features 20th and 21st century art in the 264,000 square -foot addition.

Of course, the Art Institute occupies a prominent spot by the eastern terminus of famed Route 66.

AN ART INSTITUTE TIMELINE


1879-- The Chicago Academy of Fine Arts is founded on the southwest corner of State and Monroe streets.

1882-- The name was changed to the Art Institute of Chicago.

1893-- The Art Institute opens Dec. 8th at its present site on land filled with rubble from the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

1894-- The famous bronze lions take their spots by the front steps.

1901-- Ryerson Library is built.

1916-- Gunsaulus Hall built to span the Central Illinois tracks and allow expansion to the east.

1960-- The North Garden built.

1965-- The South Garden built. Lorado Taft's "Fountain of the Great Lakes," built from 1907-1913, is reinstalled.

1977-- Reconstruction of a portion of the original Chicago Stock Exchange Building from 1893 is completed in the East Wing.

Love Those Lions. --RoadDog

In Cheesehead Land-- Part 3

Drove through some of the back streets of Williams Bay and past the Yerkes Observatory. This place was built in 1893, founded by George Ellery Hale and funded by Charles P. Yerkes. It calls itself the birthplace of modern astrophysics. Lots of yellows.

Drove along the south shore of Lake Como. Always a pretty drive, but not much color.

Coming off the lake drive, we drove Snake Road, one of Wisconsin's Rustic Roads. This is one of the best drives anywhere, cruising 2.7 miles on a winding country road through the woods, pastures, fences, and a fair amount of color. If you don't visit any other place in the Lake Geneva area, this would be the place. Absolutely gorgeous. This is off Wis. Hwy-50 west of Lake Geneva.

Lastly, we drove along the residential streets to the west of town. These older homes, most dating back to the late 1800s/early 1900s, are kept up and then there are the trees, which always provide some of the best color anywhere.

We then got on US-12 and took it to Elkhorn, where we caught I-43 toward Mukwonago.

Always a Great Drive, and, So Near. --RoadDog

What Happened to Cadillac's Chair?-- Part 2

From the Buildings of Detroit website. This is a good one to find out any and every thing you ever wanted to know about the architecture of downtown Detroit.

www.buildingsofdetroit.com

To mark the bicentennial of the city's founding, July 24, 1701, it was decided to build some structure honoring Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac. The first plan involved a 220-foot 24 foot wide marble column on Belle Island which was to be decorated with Detroit's icons with a natural gas light on the top.

The $1 million price tag was considered too much, so the city opted for a large red sandstone chair for $1300. It was erected July 24, 1901 at the west end of Cadillac square, east of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument and on the site of the former City Hall 1835 to 1871.

By the 1930s, the limestone was starting to fall apart, and as earlier reported, undesirables started occupying it.

On November 1, 1941, city workers attacked it with sledge hammers and took it down. Whether word of the impending demise was let out is not known to me. As I said, the pieces supposedly went to the Detroit Institute of Arts, but no record of it exists.

Considered the method of demolition, it is very likely that the pieces were never intended for restoration.

There's an idea for a project. Bring back Cadillac's Chair.

We Will Stand to Bring Back That Chair!! --RoadDog

What Happened to Cadillac's Chair?-- Part 1

A modern mystery in Detroit, Michigan, What happened to Cadillac's Chair, formerly located in Cadillac Square. It was broken up in 1941, after sitting there for just 40 years. It cost $1300 instead of $1 million.

Supposedly, when it was broken up Nov. 1, 1941. the pieces were supposedly taken to the Detroit Institute of Arts, but no record of it going there exists.


A HISTORY

This comes to light because of that Shorpy picture of Cadillac Square in 1916. Close to the Soldier and Sailors Monument, you can see a large, king-throne-like chair just sitting there.

One person noticed it (I didn't at first) and made a comment about it saying that it was a tribute to Detroit's founder Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac (hey, there's a car named after him!!) and dismantled in the 1940s after becoming a home for "vagrants and drunks." Looks like a good place to rest after a lot of beverages, but probably not too comfortable.

It's Not in My Basement. --RoadDog

Detroit's Cadillac Square

I have an interest in this place because this is at the terminus of US-12, a road I'm very interested in.

The July 28th Shorpy old photo blog had a picture of Cadillac Square circa 1916 in Detroit, Michigan. It showed the Hotel Pontchartrain and the square as taken from City Hall. There was also pictures from 1907 and 1910 of the same area, so you could compare the photos. Also nice about Shorpy is that you can view the pictures in full size and get some amazing detail. www.shorpy.com

Between 1907 and 1910, the hotel has an added five stories and a mansard roof. The hotel has since been torn down to make way for a bank.

It was interest to see that there were no cars in 1907, a few in 1910 and a whole lot in 1916.

The Eastern Terminus of US-12. --RoadDog