9/12/20 - Newton, Iowa

On another trip finally!  What a year 2020 has turned out to be.  I finally became so sick and tired of staying home in quarantine, that I could not take anymore of it.  So my ambition to travel the Lincoln Highway is coming true.  

I got this book last year and pulled it out every time I began longing for a road trip.  My favorite quote is "The Lincoln is a route for travelers, not for tourists.  Tourists flock to the franchise eateries and the chain motels because they know what to expect, they won't take a chance, even if it might lead them to a memorable place or a person they will never find again."

 

With the help of an app on my phone, called Lincoln Highway, I have been able to follow the original 1913 route for the first coast to coast highway in the U.S.  I have always been familiar with the Lincoln Highway, it was a major highway running through New Haven, IN which is my hometown.  I jumped onto the 1913 route on the current U.S. Highway 33 on the west side of Fort Wayne, not realizing what a trip down memory lane that strip of highway would take me.  

Many years ago, I spent many hours learning about aquariums and the art of keeping fish at the 33 Aquarium.  I was saddened to see that it and the house next door are now empty, it looked pretty forlorn in the rain as I drove past on 9/10/20.  But I was pleased to see that the Magic Wand is still open.  

Many years ago, in the '70s, I worked at Camp Samaritan, which was open every summer on Round Lake outside of Churubusco (Turtle Town), Indiana.  During the Spring when we were opening the camp up for the summer, we would stop at the Magic Wand for their world famous donuts.  We would sit around dreaming up ways to avoid going to work, but our fearless leader, Dave Markley, would make sure that we arrived and completed our duties.  This camp was to provide summer fun, boating and swimming for residents of the Fort Wayne State Hospital and Training Center.  This photo from 1977 or so was taken after a rough lunch hour of volleyball.  

Further down the road, I passed a sign for the Chain of Lakes State Park, where I have camped in the past, including a memorable weekend in high school as a counselor for a group of urban youth from St. Mary's Church.  I remember a group of us sleeping under the stars with a seminarian.  

The Lake Wawasee sign jogged several memories for me.  In 1961, I attended the Catholic Youth Organization Camp for the first time.  CYO Camp Lake Wawasee.  This was before the priest was sued for molesting campers, by the way.  

Then in the summer of 1968, I got to be a poorly paid Day Care worker for migrant children in the St. Martin de Porres catholic church.  The only Spanish that I learned was "andele."  I think there were 4 of us young ladies and we spent our evenings and weekends in a cottage on a much smaller lake in a camp run by a protestant denomination.  I did get my driver's license that summer, so I could drive the stick shift station wagon that some kind soul loaned to us.  

Wow, I just realized that this trip down memory lane may be much more interesting to me that those reading this, but I thought I better write it down while I remembered.  

Back to the Lincoln Highway, traveling an old road like this promises challenges, even with a book and a smart phone app.  The highway's various routes through the years have been marked pretty well, but sometimes the signs are not too easy to find:

This was one of the few dry moments on Thursday and I found that sign after I got the right angle around the dumpster.  I spent Thursday night in a scary campground on the east side of Joliet, IL.  Martin's Campground.  The guys who insisted on helping me back the camper up referred to the "meth heads" who stay there.  I was thankful for the rain and stayed in the camper with the doors locked after venturing into New Lennox for Chinese carryout.

Since I had been to Joliet before, Route 66 and Lincoln Highway run together for 3 blocks in Joliet, I kept going in my search for the rural route.  I just didn't know how rural it was to get, this is a gravel portion of the original Lincoln Highway that I followed for a few miles before running into asphalt again.  

Did you know that Ronald Reagan reagan-jelly-belly.jpg was born in Tampico, IL but grew up in Dixon?  I didn't either!  Dixon calls its portion of the Lincoln Highway the Reagan Trail and they had this structure, but I didn't want to get out in the rain, so I don't know what it is or why it's there.  Just part of the traveler experience.  

Now, I have a track record of denting up my back bumper when I travel with the camper.  Somewhere on the way to Newton, IA I had to make a U-turn, part of the adventure, right?  Upon inspection, I found this unfortunate injury.  I guess I will need to deal with this before it starts flapping in the wind - duct tape?

Since I was sick of driving in the rain and missing all the fun adventures along the Lincoln Highway, I decided to stay 2 nights here in Newton.  Newton KOA is so much better than Martin's was.  They have indoor toilets, showers and I haven't seen a single meth head.  

The people that I have met in Iowa are almost as nice as Hoosiers.  I went exploring today and had lunch at PJ's Deli.  Being the adventurer, I ordered a Turkey Crunch, a turkey salad with dill dressing, and lots of crunchy veggies.  Feeling healthy, I went looking for a Nature Preserve to commune with nature.  This turned out to be a mistake on a rainy day, driving down gravel roads that were very muddy to find that there were no buffalo pens, or any pens, or any parking.  Nature Preserve

I returned to the good old KOA for a quiet evening of TV, music, blog writing, and crochet.  I hope that you have an enjoyable evening.  If you are curious about my past adventures, I think you can find them at this site.  If not, you can find them at blogspot.com under katalong.