Day Ten of Our Lincoln Highway Road Trip

Today we were on the road by 07:00 to explore the historic Lincoln Highway through Pennsylvania. We had our map books organized and the main points of interest identified. It was fairly easy to follow the track of the Lincoln Highway as it mainly followed US 30 with exceptions where US 30 was realigned. The Pennsylvanian Department of Transpiration (PennDOT) has done a great job of marking the Lincoln Highway with highway shields.

The weather was not as great as it had been for the past nine days. The skies were overcast but bright. No blue skies until midafternoon. Traffic was heavy because it was a holiday today (Columbus Day)

Interruption! I had to quit as I lost the Internet connection and could not upload any photos.

I am resuming on Day Eleven so I will combine the two day.

Day Ten Resumed.

Our journey along the historic Lincoln Highway took us along US 30 through New Oxford and Gettysburg where we got some great photos. We had no problems following the route as it was marked well by PennDOT.

The day was one of those partially sunny days with a hazy sun and sometimes breaks of blue. There were several murals painted on buildings and barns along the way and the autumn colors varied from town to town. There were some really neat colored trees along the country roads.

We stopped at a roadside fruit stand in St. Thomas, PA. They had some great farm grown tomatoes so I bought one and ate it on the spot. It was the best tomato I have had for years, ripened on the vine and fresh from the farm. Kathy bought some apples and gourds to take home to Gwen for decorating the house for Halloween and Thanksgiving.

About 2:00 pm we arrived at the memorial for United Flight 93. This is the new memorial that is still under construction and I did not care for it. First you have to take a bus to the actual memorial and then hike about a half a mile to the wall with the names of the victims. I felt this new memorial was too cold. The old memorial was constructed by people and had more passion and warmth connected to it. This memorial was designed and built by engineers and architects and it looked like they were more concerned with their achievements than the victims of the terrorists. Also there were not enough restrooms.

We spent about two hours at the memorial; most of the time spent hiking back to the wall of names and then back to the bus stop. It was good exercise. Also, unless you are a family member you cannot walk out to the large rock that serves of a headstone for the mass grave of the victims. Perhaps in a few years when the National Park Service gets some more money it will be a better memorial — I hope so.

Day Eleven: Greensburg, PA to Mansfield, Ohio.

We started out again at 07:30 am along US 30 towards Pittsburg and the Ohio River. I decided to take the Interstate in order to avoid going through Pittsburg during the morning rush hour. Even using the Interstate the traffic was heavy and there were the usual orange barrels blocking lanes for construction. I don’t think they ever stop fixing the roads in Pennsylvania.

We crossed into a small portion of West Virginia where we got fuel and the visited the world’s largest tea pot at Chester, West Virginia. We then crossed of the Ohio River into the buckeye state and then made our way east along the river to the survey marker marking the boundary of Ohio and Pennsylvania and the beginning of Jefferson rectangular land scheme for the United States.

Once the Land Ordinance of 1785 was passed by Congress surveyors needed to establish the boundary of Pennsylvania and Ohio to implement the first seven ranges of the rectangular land scheme of townships and sections. This sectionalized land scheme, after being refined, became the basis of land in the United States, with the exception of the Mexican ranchos, west of this boundary marker. It was the basis for transferring land to soldiers in payment for their service in the revolutionary war, the homesteads of the mid-west, and building of the transcontinental railroad. It is also why the United States is the wealthiest land in the world. (See my article on “What Separates the Rich From the Poor.”) After practicing land surveying for 55 years I was quite excited to see the monument where the sectionalized land system began.

After leaving the boundary between Ohio and Pennsylvania we made our way west along US 30 and the Lincoln Highway. The Ohio Department of Transportation, like PennDOT, has done a great job of marking the historic Lincoln Highway. We meandered on and off US 30 to the old alignment of the Lincoln Highway and were able to locate one of the first test sections of the roadway. The test section was a one mile section of roadway where they engineers developed a standardized lane width and cross fall. This test section would be used as a standard for all subsequent constructions.

Abound noon we made it to Canton, Ohio and The Professional Football Hall of Fame. If you are a pro football fan this is a “must” visit. There are 267 busts of the hall of famers enshrined to this date. The exhibits are great and they tell the history of pro football from its founding days to the present. There are video displays, movies and of course a gift shop. The gift shop is great as you can buy everything from mouse pads and cups to jerseys of your favorite team.

We spent about two hours at the hall of fame and then got some lunch and visited the McKinley Memorial in Canton. Then it was time to head for Mansfield and our hotel. It was a great day with lots of fall colors and good Ohio scenery. Tomorrow we will travel through the remainder of Ohio and Indiana to Joliet, Illinois.

You can see all of my pictures by clicking here. Don’t forget to click the “Slideshow” button at the upper right to view the largest image.

Till Wednesday night.