Any Old Excuse to Drive the Lincoln Highway

From the May 31st Peoria (Il) Journal Star "Toulon mayor and brother retrace route of the Lincoln Highway" by Gary L. Smith.

Toulon Mayor Richard Collins, 63, a former airline pilot is retired but has a new hobby of "collecting highways." His latest addition is the Lincoln Highway from San Francisco to New York City using road atlases and a laptop with route overlays so he can drive every possible mile, even on gravel and dirt.

He and his wife Barb drove Route 66 in a 1966 Chrysler Imperial a while back.

This trip is partly due to his brother William, 69, a semi-retired archaeologists who continues to teach a semester class at California State University in Chico. He lives the rest of the time in Massachusetts. Richard used his free stand-by mileage to fly to California and join his brother in his trek back home along the Lincoln.

The Lincoln Highway came into being in 1913 and two-thirds of it lies along present-day US-30.

Leaving two weeks ago, they stopped in Toulon for a few days and Barb joined them for the rest of the trip to New York City.

They shoot for 10-12 hours a day on the road, but that usually works out to just 8-10 because of back tracking and when they get lost.

My wife and I drove Route 66 end-to-end back in 2006 when I retired. I still would like to do all of the Lincoln Highway, but that is even longer. Actually, I hav driven all of it from Canton, Ohio to west of Omaha.

Toulon is a town near Peoria.

Just a Bit Envious. --RoadDog