Jefferson Highway Association Conference
Day 1
Different Route, Familiar Places
Day 2
Sixty-Six Sign Sampler
Day 3
Eating My Way to OK
Day 4
After Showering at Baxter Springs
Day 5
Conferring
Day 6
Touring
Day 7
Parading
Day 8
The Rest of the OK JH
Day 9
Ike's Not Here
Day 10
New Finds in Old Places
Day 11
What's a Dollarway?
Day 12
More Steel, Less Chrome
Day 13
Nothin' New
The trip locator map has finally been posted and can be accessed via the Map button at the top of this page. The Jefferson Highway in Oklahoma and the Dollarway in Arkansas were both focal points of the trip but both are pretty much lost in the over all trip map. Because of that, I've provided a separate map of the Oklahoma portion of the Jefferson Highway here and of the Dollarway here.
May 8, 2015 (day 13)
I had breakfast at a place that doesn't serve it then stopped by a couple
of familiar spots before reaching home.
May 7, 2015 (day 12)
After visiting a friend in Memphis, I met, for the first time, the creator
of a sculpture I've admired for nearly ten years. And this is the first
time I've ever spent one night on Beale in Memphis and the next on
Nashville's Broadway but I think I like it.
May 6, 2015 (day 11)
I went all the way on the Dollarway before reaching Memphis for 'burger,
bikes, and blues.
May 5, 2015 (day 10)
I ate at an Arkansas restaurant for the second time then spotted some
outstanding (in every sense of the word) artwork just down the road. In
Hot Springs I tried out a new brewery and a not so new (been there 110
years) bar.
May 4, 2015 (day 9)
I took some nice pictures of the wrong house then stopped by a cemetery,
a veterans memorial, and a death plane before tipping a cold one at an
Arkansas roadhouse.
May 3, 2015 (day 8)
I headed south out of Muskogee and for the first part of the day largely
retraced the route of Friday's bus tour. But I did get in a side trip on
an old alignment and later reached new-to-me territory that included a 20+
mile long stretch of old US-69.
May 2, 2015 (day 7)
Days that start with a parade are usually the best and this was no
exception. I checked out some spots in Muskogee then drove to the town of
Pryor to meet friends from Tulsa. I made it back in plenty of time for the
conference ending banquet.
May 1, 2015 (day 6)
This was a busy day that started with a bus tour and ended with a concert.
Bus stops included a battlefield, a 1920s garage, a museum, and a wild
west town in addition to delivering us to lunch. The concert was in a hall
of fame following dinner at a museum.
April 30, 2015 (day 5)
The conference started in earnest today with interesting presentations
and a trolley tour. I wrapped up the day by laughing almost non-stop at an
80 year old movie.
April 29, 2015 (day 4)
I had breakfast at a new restaurant in a familiar building then played in
the dirt just a little on the way to the Jefferson Highway. The first few
miles were familiar then I had new-to-me JH all the way to Muskogee and
the conference.
April 28, 2015 (day 3)
Breakfast, beer, and 'burger plus ribs to end the day. I also spent some
quiet time at a gate in Missouri and learned something new in Kansas.
April 27, 2015 (day 2)
I shot a trio of interesting signs as I pretty much stayed with Historic
Route 66. I did have to take the expressway across the Gasconade River but
I also paid a visit to the closed bridge on the old road.
April 26, 2015 (day 1)
I drove, possibly for the first time, I-64 to Saint Louis then stopped at
a couple of places with Route 66 connections. On the way, I paused briefly
at Indiana's first capital.
Prelude - April 23, 2015
Before Jefferson Starship there was Jefferson Airplane and before
Jefferson Airplane there was Jefferson Highway. The Airplane morphed, not
all that smoothly but without much of a gap, into the Starship in 1974.
The gap between Highway and Airplane is bigger. If enough Jefferson
Airplane members could be convinced to speak to each other, they could be
celebrating their 50th anniversary this year. The Jefferson Highway's
100th anniversary actually is being celebrated though not, admittedly, by
the original players.
To be completely honest, the Jefferson Highway Association doing the celebrating isn't really the same one that created the road. The first JHA was organized in November of 1915 to promote a road connecting Winnipeg, Manitoba, with New Orleans, Louisiana. I'm not sure when that organization ceased to exist but imagine it was shortly after the creation of Numbered US Highways in 1926. The current JHA was organized in April of 2012 to "work for and promote the preservation of the Jefferson Highway". That's the association that will be celebrating the road's centennial at their fourth annual conference being held, in Muskogee, Oklahoma, at the end of April and I'm going to be there.