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Day 2: April 23, 2005 |
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Day 2: April 23, 2005 |
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I took a picture of the day's most incredible event with the idea of
opening this entry with it but it just didn't work. About a half hour
before the Ohio Lincoln Highway League meeting began, it started snowing.
Unmistakable large white flakes that the wind blew sideways. They melted
the instant they touched anything but they were snowflakes until that
instant. But, like vampires, they were invisible in the picture. Maybe
they were magic. Yeah, magic end-of-April-it-was-70-degrees-two-days-ago
snowflakes. But I saw them. I know they were real.
The meeting started fairly close to on time and it was conducted efficiently but entertainingly by League President, Mike Buettner. That's Mike in the first picture in the red shirt. The seated fellow also featured in that picture is Ken Richardson, the mayor of Upper Sandusky. It turns out that I and another rank and file roadie shared a table with the mayor, a couple of county commissioners, the vice president of the visitors bureau, and someone from the local museum. That is the elusive Bob Lichty in the second picture. The crew at Motorcar Portfolio had been correct yesterday when they told me he was at a car auction in Michigan but they were unaware that he was driving back to Ohio for the meeting then back to Detroit for the rest of the auction. Mike Buettner's wife, Tammy, is in the third picture along with Lincoln Highway maven Russell S. Rein, a.k.a. ypsi-slim. |
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After the meeting, lunch, and some fun and games (including some LH trivia
involving the spinning wheel pictured above and some fairly flexible
rules) some local spots were available for tours. These pictures are of
the Wyandot County courthouse just a half block from the meeting site. The
ceiling was refreshed and improved in the early 1990s by a female artist
from Centerville, OH. The main courtroom, looking much like it did at the
1900 opening, was used for scenes in the movie "Shawshank
Redemption". Prison scenes were shot up the road at the closed
Mansfield Correctional Facility.
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This church was the first Methodist Mission in America. It was built in
1824 when this was still a Wyandot Indian Reservation.
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In case you can't read it through the rain covered windshield, the sign
says "HIGH WATER". The sign's subject is shown in the second
photo.
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Yes, it's just some more pictures of rain covered road but it is some very
special road. The first picture is looking west down the Lincoln Highway
(Main Street) in Beaverdam. Church Street, coming in from the right, was
once Dixie Highway and still has that name north of town. In the second
picture, the Lincoln continues west at the picture's right side and it is
the road heading to the upper left of the picture that was once the Dixie.
So, once upon a time, the short stretch of road between these corners
carried two of the nation's major routes. One connected east to west and
the other north to south. A true "crossroads of America". The
Lincoln Highway pillar in the first picture is a replica erected in 1999.
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The Arrow Motel, in Delphos, is my home for the night. There are eight
spotless and well maintained rooms in an 'L' behind the owner's home. I
could not get an internet connection through the room's phone or through
my own cell phone but that is the only "negative". My room is in
the middle of the L's long side and has windows front and back. Out the
front window I can see my car near the door in its dedicated numbered
spot. The neighbor's backyard, neatly groomed and with trampoline, is my
view on the other side. Mini-fridge & coffee maker in the room and the
very good Carriage House Restaurant just up the street. It's in easy
walking distance when the air isn't filled with falling ice water. $36
plus tax ($2.52 sales, $1.08 motel). Larger rooms are a little more.
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