WWI-era motorcycles to commemorate 1919 Army convoy at inauguration

On Jan. 20, the Wheels Through Time American Transportation Museum in Maggie Valley [North Carolina], will be making history once again — this time, participating in the 2009 Presidential Inauguration Day Parade. During the historic event, the museum will bring a small fleet of WWI era motorcycles to Washington to participate in a procession celebrating the 90th Anniversary of the transcontinental Army motor convoy on the Lincoln Highway in 1919.

Obama’s Eisenhower moment

Tom Lewis, author of Divided Highways, argues that we should learn the lessons from the story of how Eisenhower created and funded the Interstate Highway System in the 1950s and apply them towards Obama’s economic stimulus program.

[Eisenhower] knew firsthand the need for better roads. As a young lieutenant colonel, he traveled in 1919 over the Lincoln Highway in the Army’s first transcontinental caravan, a journey that lasted 62 days and sometimes required oxen to pull the trucks through mires of mud.

Tom Lewis, Eisenhower’s roads to prosperity, Los Angeles Times, December 26, 2008

Rick Sebak’s Lincoln Highway documentary premieres

Rick Sebak’s latest documentary, “A Ride Along the Lincoln Highway,” premiered on PBS on October 29. If you missed it, your local PBS station will probably show it again sometime this weekend — be sure to check your local listings. (For example, KQED in San Francisco is showing it tonight at 6 PM and Wednesday at 2 AM.) You also buy it online at Shop PBS.

It made it onto the “must see” list of many newspapers. Here is some of the more notable press coverage:

And here’s a teaser:

 

No Age Limit: two motorcyclists ride the Lincoln Highway

Bob Chase and Bernard "Buddy" Rosenbaum, in their 70s, are riding their Piaggio MP3 scooters across the country on the Lincoln Highway. They are blogging about their trip at:

www.noagelimitpiaggio.us

The local press has also been covering their trip:

The first cross-country drive, 100 years ago

This year marks the centennial of a wealthy Pennsylvanian’s historic, cross-country automobile journey…. The family [of Jacob Murdock] managed to travel from its winter home in Pasadena, Calif., to New York City in a remarkably quick 32 days, 7 hours and 3 minutes.

Welcome to the new LHA blog!

I’m happy to introduce a new format for the News and Events section: a weblog or “blog.” A blog is essentially a journal, with the entries typically listed in chronological order. Thanks to WordPress, we’ve gained some new features. On the right-hand side, you can browse through old entries by using the calendar, search the blog, or filter entries by category. You can also leave comments for each entry by clicking “Leave a comment” in the header of each entry.

Currently, I’m backfilling the blog with Russell Rein’s previous newsletters. I’m not quite done yet, so meanwhile, you can access them at

https://lincolnhighwayassoc.org/news_old/

Once I’ve finished the migration, this link will go away.

Enjoy the new News section!

Books on the Lincoln Highway

John & Lenore Weiss have a new books out about a triangle road trip in Illinois covering Route 66, the Lincoln Highway and the Dixie Highway. More information is at their website:
http://www.il66authority.com/
Read a review at Route66News.com.

Michaels Wallis and Williamson’s new book on the Lincoln Highway, and their cross country book tour generated a lot of publicity this summer.