Lincoln Log: Taking a vacation from our vacation

Good morning from Kathleen. Ron's been the major poster. At the end of every day of awe-causing experiences, there's been no time -- or internet -- or energy -- or something -- for recording the day's reflections. Having been to most of the states in the U.S. at least for a few minutes, it didn't seem there could be that many surprises -- but it's been two weeks of awe, of being pleasantly taken aback, seeing how much I still hadn't seen, and tugs at the heart at standing at special spots. Wrote an overwhelmingly long story about just the first day; if YOU get overwhelmed -- just skip it and wait for a short post!

THE GIST OF THINGS....

This trip across the country is turning out to be, well, pretty amazing. Not without its struggles – trying to find the old Lincoln with two guidebooks written from opposite perspectives, an interactive map that can’t really be used while driving, GPS that doesn’t look for old unpaved roads most of the time – certainly can’t just look for the Lincoln Highway route …

So every day our brains and emotions juggle between trying to stick to the old route and find as many backroads as possible, and the desire to just ‘get somewhere’ and see interesting sites. After several miles, even knowing we’re on the old road, old houses and empty fields and constant fretting lose their appeal. So we keep wavering, readjusting, changing our minds as the miles go by. I know I mention this frequently, but am just trying to keep it clear and fresh in the readers’ minds. Sorry.

Where we are right now

We’ve landed on our feet this time, as C.S. Lewis would say, and are holed up for three nights in a big country home in Mitchell Nebraska, just a few miles from Wyoming.

Let's Start at The Very Beginning

September 21^st, we headed for Lake Tahoe, for two nights in a timeshare. Most of what I did was sleep, except for while we were winning the Tahoe Trivia game [we were the only ones playing, so we both got prizes] or getting my number selected in the drawing down at the live music presentation in the bar [music we had greatly anticipated, but sadly turned out to be more like live Muzak versions of some of our favorite songs, so we quickly took to the outdoors. It WAS delightful, however, to walk away with the second prize of the day, a large, attractive blue dotted water bottle. Free stuff never ceases to delight, and this freebie was actually useful and despite its grand size, fits in the correct pocket of the fanny pack.]

Next morning, with sparkling eyes only slightly dimmed by the Olympian effort to repack the car [just call us Jed and Granny], we were off by 10:30.

Logan Shoals

Painstakingly attempting to follow our detailed route up north around Lake Tahoe towards Carson City, we arrived 10 or 15 frazzled minutes later at what should have been the first turn-off to access the old road – but it turned out to be at fee-based, blocked and fenced off Zephyr Cove. On we went for the next marked access point: No entrance – private property. And so on and so on; even risking brief trespassing on a few roads which only led to locked gates.

Giving up, we headed for Reno/Carson City on Highway 50. But our slow driving and retracing of steps led us to our first prize: Logan Shoals Vista Point. Thank you, Forest Service! A clean bathroom not 200 feet off the road. Rock scrambling designed just for old fat people like us! And had we bothered to put on our hiking shoes and dig out the hiking poles, we'd have made it all the way down to the edge of the lake.

FIRST LINCOLN SIGN OF THE DAY

Next step was to find King’s Canyon Road, which purportedly would veer off from Highway 50 in the next few miles. An hour later [felt like days]. down into Carson City, sure we were missing something as we kept getting directed back to a soft dirt road, just when we were about to give up again -- we FOUND King’s Canyon Road. Going left a few miles, we saw our first “Lincoln Highway” marker of the trip! Photos and joy.

Half a mile later the search ended at – you guessed it – a dirt road. A Forest Service road, which we could walk uphill in the unbroken sunlight for miles and miles, or hike a good distance the other direction towards, perhaps, a waterfall? [That didn’t look likely from the terrain we were standing in]. Daunted but not crushed, we decided that walking or worse, DRIVING the road 10 miles BACK up the mountain we had just traversed, was a goal set for a later long-weekend trip with intrepid friends from home.

From there, with only a smattering of wrong turns, we wended our way to the Bowers Mansion, as it showed some connection to the Lincoln. Had a nice picnic lunch, but still a little disappointed that we weren't sure we were finding our hearts' desire, or at least, The Lincoln Highway. Deciding NOT to attempt the Lincoln through Reno and Sparks on a Friday afternoon, fairly certain we were on one of the newer Lincoln alignments, on towards Fallon, Nevada, sadly passing up the cutoff to Virginia City.

Mildly gripey, surrendering the dream of writing a west to east Lincoln guidebook, hoping we wouldn’t end up going west to east around any churches [in the Bookhouse series, going windershins – west to east – around a church would send one off immediately to goblin land] a chanced glance at our reverse guidebook revealed we were right in a Lincoln hotspot: Dayton, Nevada, the first place gold was discovered in this state. Though the gold sign had hidden itself, we couldn’t overlook the distant water tower which proudly and loudly proclaimed “Dayton – Oldest Settlement in Nevada.” Off the main street, an old west town awaited. Passing Los Compadres Mexican Restaurant with its outstanding and curiously decorated atmosphere, we wished we were hungry.

The local museum was not open, but 8 or 10 buildings within about a two-block radius were signed informatively. The Gold Canyon Café was not yet open for the evening, but we were invited to enter and take our pictures at the spots where Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable used to sit when they were in town for the filming of “The Misfits” in the1950s.