Lincoln Highway Conference

The American Songline Book is Here!

June 22, 2015 by Cece

At long last, it’s finally here! I am proud to announce that the American Songline book is now available on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle versions!

Click here to pick up your copy: http://www.amazon.com/American-Songline-Musical-Journey-Lincoln/dp/1514317826/.

I hope all of you out there have also been enjoying the CD too! If you have bought or downloaded the American Songline album and like it, can you leave a quick review at one of the sites below to let other buyers know what you think of the music? If you haven’t bought it yet, you can now buy the music at the following links:

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/american-songline-musical/id979747974

CD Baby (both physical and download versions are available through this link): https://www.cdbaby.com/cd/ceceliaotto2

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/American-Songline-Musical-Journey-Lincoln/dp/B00V6BU9H6/

I’ll be making appearances all over the country this year, and am taking bookings for concerts and speaking engagements for 2015 and 2016. If you know of an organization that would want to hear me and my story, please let me know – I’d love to bring American Songline to the world! I’m also happy to speak about crowdfunding to groups as well.

I’m keeping this post short as I’ll be heading to Ann Arbor, Michigan for the Lincoln Highway Conference today, and I’ll be there all week attending the conference and performing. I’ll post a follow up post on the conference next week when it’s all over. Until then, safe travels everyone!

Western Nebraska Highlights, and meet Nebraska Outback!

July 31, 2013 by Cece

I used to be like a lot of you out there in the US who had stereotypes about Nebraska. I always made the joke “Do you want to drive Nebraska by day to see how boring it is, or do you want to drive Nebraska at night to smell how boring it is?”

I can’t say that anymore. I saw stuff in Western Nebraska that was amazing, and all I had to do was leave the interstate and drive the Lincoln Highway. As Kevin Patrick noted at the LHA conference, “Friends don’t let friends drive the Interstate,” and I think I’ll start to embrace that motto after this tour is over.

The main people I have to thank for this part of my journey are Muriel (Nebraska Outback is her blog), her husband Mark, and Rob with N Route Entertainment (Muriel helps with this organization as well). They opened my eyes to seeing the beauty of their area, and they support live music and musicians with a passion I haven’t seen anywhere else so far. I left Western Nebraska with a whole other state of mind, and ready for what lies ahead.

I have to admit that the road caught up with me after my performances on the 4th of July. I was a little under the weather for a few days at this point of the tour with a sore throat and ear/sinus pressure. Luckily, it was all caught in time, and I was able to sing for a group of touring Norwegians, Swedish and Danish folks driving across the country.

There’s around 70 pictures in this post (get comfy), but here’s a few highlights of the area that I want to write about before you see the pictures:

1) While this is not directly on the Lincoln Highway, the Sandhills are truly a magnificent experience that’s close to the route. It is a region of mixed-grass prairie/grass-stabilized sand dunes in north-central Nebraska, covering just over one quarter of the state! You can pretty much Google and see several websites to learn more about it. Muriel has strong family ties to this area, so my driving tour both her and Mark took me on was made that much more magical.

2) If you’re a fan of anything of the Old West, definitely take the time to stop in North Platte. You’ll find plenty of things to do and see there, and you won’t be bored!

3) You’ll cross into Mountain Time Zone west of Sutherland, NE (my favorite time zone). I noticed on some of the original routes as well as some auxiliary roads you’ll see the sign “Minimum Maintenance Road”. Believe what they say! I wanted to go see some old wagon ruts on “California Hill” and my car got stuck in mud right off of the paved main route. Luckily I wasn’t in too deep and could back myself out of the mud by myself, but this warning as well as a few others is a note of caution for anyone driving the Lincoln solo. When in doubt, don’t drive it!

My view from the stage at the Ft. Cody Trading Post in North Platte, NE. This figure was originally a “Muffler Man” and when the store went out of business they turned him into a “Native American”.

View of the Trading Post from the outside. While it is now located on the interstate, the original location of the post was west of town on the Lincoln Highway.

Buffalo Bill stands tall in North Platte!

This was a special Lincoln Highway display the trading post had up to mark the centennial of the road.

A photo of Buffalo Bill’s Miniature Wild West Show. Over 20,000 tiny hand-carved figures populate dioramas of Bill’s show, were created by Ernie and Virginia Palmquist over a 12 year period. It was really neat to see all of the details!

Just outside of North Platte sits Buffalo Bill’s Scout Rest Ranch. A place of retreat for Bill from all of the touring, this home was built in 1886, with the “new” edition built in 1909.

Here’s the barn on the grounds. It was a working farm with over 4,000 acres at its largest point in time.

Here’s Muriel and I dressed up for my performance at the Oregon Golf Course in Sutherland, NE (about 20 miles West of North Platte). Pretty cool to perform with an Oregon Trail marker so close!

The Sutherland Reservoir is right next to the golf course, and it was the perfect spot to celebrate the 4th of July.

While this was a nice depiction of the West, it unfortunately was viewed while I was in a Doctor’s office.

Welcome to downtown Sutherland! You’ll see in the next few pics it’s quite the Lincoln Highway town.

This mural is a reproduction of the famous Franklin Grove, IL mural, the only difference is the mileage between the cities.

This is an excerpt of a mural that the town of Sutherland painted for its Sesquicentennial.

Of course if it’s got the word “Otto” in it, I have to take a picture!

This mural was created by Sutherland school children. Muriel’s son helped paint it!

This is the oldest building in Sutherland. It is currently vacant, but people hope to reopen it again soon.

Burma Shave Signs don’t have to just be along the road…

Mural in progress next to an old gas station that is in the process being restored.

Another Sutherland gas station gets another face lift!

Another great recreation of a famous Lincoln Highway mural (more on it in my next post).

The Sutherland State Aid Bridge was built in 1912, and is in danger of being torn down.

Here’s a view of the bridge from the side.

If you look closely, you can see the wagon ruts from where the Mormons went through this area in the 1840’s.

Sand of the Sandhills. As you can see, it’s pretty fine stuff.

There will be several landscape views of the Sandhills coming up, and this is #1.

Mark hands me some Yucca plant to try. Not my favorite thing to eat, but not horrible either.

This is the Schoolhouse where Muriel said she went to school. She also mentioned that dances would be held here once a month.

Closeup of the Schoolhouse. Note the cows are very interested in us…

Here’s what Muriel’s family homestead looked like from the outside.

Love this old stove! It is not original to the home, but has been donated for its restoration efforts.

As I learned from Muriel, we must always help the turtles find their way across the road.

Three people from the tour who came to my Saturday afternoon performance – they were all from Denmark.

Here’s a shot of a few of the cars that the tour drove. I loved the Imperial in the middle.

Ole’s Big Game Steakhouse is very well known as a must stop not only along the Lincoln but in all of Nebraska as well. It opened the day after Prohibition ended in 1933.

All of the animals in Ole’s were caught by the original owner himself.

Love this old lamp at Big Ole’s Steakhouse

The Spruce Street Station in Ogallala, NE has been restored back to its original glory.

Ogallala’s Boot Hill Cemetery is a great little stop along the road.

View of the Cemetery with the “Cowboy Boss” looking on.

This woman and infant were the first people to be buried at Boot Hill Cemetery.

One of the last Lincoln Highways I might see for a while…

Here’s a shot of the road from my car as I was driving in the Panhandle.

This building in Lodgepole, NE has one of the best ghost signs I’ve seen so far. Hopefully the Opera house will be restored again soon.

The Potter Soda Fountain supposedly is one of coolest places to stop an experience an old soda or tin roof sundae. Too bad it was closed when I drove through.

The original Lincoln Highway went under the railroad here. Lucky for me a train was going by!

One of the biggest gas stations in the US was the State Line Gas Station on the Nebraska/Wyoming border. There are 18 pumps in total.

While standing at the abandoned gas station, both a train a few Norwegian cars went by!

Here’s where the line was drawn for the border.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures! Up next I’ll talk about the infamous “Colorado Loop”. Until then, enjoy your week!

Summary of the 2013 Lincoln Highway Conference

July 25, 2013 by Cece

A Lincoln Highway celebration would not be complete without attending this Lincoln Highway Association’s annual conference this year. This is the 21st conference the Association has held, and it did not disappoint. I wasn’t able to stay for the whole conference this time (just Tuesday and Wednesday), but I had a lot of fun hanging out with old friends and learning new things about the Lincoln.

Our bus tour on Tuesday went back into central Nebraska, and I got to revisit some of the places I had seen the week prior. For me, it was a good chance to get some more pictures (the lighting had changed because of the weather), see old friends and make new ones. The new place I went to on this tour was the Museum of American Speed. I’m not a gear head, so I thought I was going to be bored. I was SO wrong. There were so many exhibits of different auto related things, there really was something for everyone.

Wednesday was seminar day, and all of the presentations that I saw were fantastic. I wasn’t able to stay all day because I was being interviewed for a documentary (more on that in a future post). The evening concluded with me performing for the awards banquet, breaking down my table in the book room (it’s the best way to find me at the conference), and saying my thank yous and goodbyes to everyone before I went back to my hotel room to pack and get ready for the next stage of the tour.

I love going to the conference every year, and I look forward to next year’s conference in Utah! Here’s a few pictures of the conference for your viewing pleasure (Also check out Denny Gibson’s posts about the conference, you’ll learn some random things about me). My next post will be a continuation of Central Nebraska (it’s a pretty big state), focusing from Kearney to North Platte. Until then, have a good weekend everyone!

Another View of Grand Island’s Seedling mile, this time with the LHA tour.

We went back to visit the Pony Truss bridge I was a little freaked out about visiting, and there was a welcoming committee this time! They brought along some of these old cool signs dating back to the 20s.

Here’s another pic of the bridge, as you can see the water went down a little bit!

I could honestly photograph this bridge for an hour, so many cool shadows.

Here’s Russell and Jay near some local “foliage”. To curb deer from getting into places they shouldn’t go, hemp plants grow in/around most ditches in Nebraska. We actually had a cop sitting near us to make sure we wouldn’t procure anything.

The Merrick County Courthouse in Central City, Nebraska is the site of the first proclamation of the Lincoln Highway, on October 8, 1913.

We ate lunch at Duster’s in Gothenburg, NE, the place where I got that awesome root beer at in my previous posts of this area. This is a mural that’s inside the restaurant, which shows people traveling across the country.

Off to Lincoln, Nebraska next! Yes, it’s technically not on the highway, but honestly the Museum of American Speed was much more fun that I thought it was going to be. This whole wing of the museum was dedicated just to albums of racetracks and car noises.

Here’s a record of the first Dodge driving the Andes Mountains in 1923.

Most people remember Thomas Dolby for the song “He Blinded Me with Science”, not “Aliens Ate My Buick”.

Going up the stairwell from the 2nd to the 3rd floor I ran into this Lunch Box collection. It was one of the coolest retro things I’ve ever seen.

If you haven’t heard this song, go to YouTube and listen to it-now. It’s hilarious. I will probably sing it on my next tour.

And I thought my Dad hoarded tools, here’s a wall of Monkey Wrenches.

Inside this massive museum (3 floors), they had a replica of a 1920’s garage, including the “Lincoln Shock Absorbers”.

From the 3rd floor of the museum, you can see the whole view of downtown Lincoln, NE, including its unique state capitol building.

In the song “Preparing for the Lincoln Way” composed by Nolan Stolz, I’ve been singing about a “Motometer”. I finally got to see a sign of one at this museum, pretty cool!

Here’s the view of the replica soda shop in the museum.

There were several dioramas on the 3rd floor, but this one was my favorite.

Sign greeting you at the hotel, painted by Iowa artist and LH enthusiast John Fitzsimmons.

We all gathered for our group picture Wednesday morning wearing our best red, white and blue shirts. I turned around a snapped a pic after we were done with the photo shoot.

I had the honor of singing at the LHA awards banquet this year, and they put me at the head table! What great view.

Never again will my little car be surrounded by two other beautiful cars of completely different periods.

Again, here’s another great photo and sign display.

Lots of people brought out some great Lincoln Highway signs and memorabilia for this year’s conference.

My favorite part of Seminar Day was hearing the panel of the early founders of the Modern LHA, which included Joyce and Bob Ausberger, Brian Butko, Kevin Patrick and Drake Hokanson (first man to write a book about the highway).

Seminar day had a lot of great talks about Lincoln Highway history. From general facts to the Tin Can tourist travel to learning more about the Colorado Loop, it was a great day.

The food for the banquet was excellent, and for my friends who have food issues, the Holiday Inn in Kearney did a great job!

Central Nebraska Highlights, plus the Lincoln Highway turns 100!

July 14, 2013 by Cece

The last few weeks have been non-stop! Between the performances, interviews, and just general merriment, it’s all been amazing! Unfortunately, the road has finally caught up to me almost 4 months later. My immune system crashed, I got sick, and I’m now resting and recovering for the next stage of the tour. I can finally sit down and update you on this exciting time in the Lincoln Highway’s history.

I’m doing the next couple posts slightly out of sequence because there’s so much information to cover. Today’s post will focus on Grand Island and all of the festivities for the Lincoln Highway’s 100th birthday in Kearney. My next post will be about the 2013 Lincoln Highway Association’s annual conference (of which I am a proud member), and then I’ll resume my regular posts which head westward.

Wow, where do I start in regards to all of this? There’s still a mix of honor and disbelief that I was a part of the Lincoln Highway’s birthday. It all went by SO fast! What really accelerated things for me were all of the various TV, newspaper and documentary interviews I did during this time (all media stuff I did was a complete surprise to me). This is the first time on the tour where people walked up to me and knew who I was! Audiences in Grand Island and Kearney overall were very enthusiastic of the project and the music, and the Lincoln Highway pride was in full force everywhere. It was amazing to have so many people from all over the world in one place celebrating America’s first transcontinental road, and to be a part of those festivities was so humbling.

I truly wish I could have had more time to spend in Grand Island. There’s a lot of really wonderful things going on in this town. Originally I was set to perform in the Grand Theatre, but when renovations weren’t complete, I ended up performing at the Liederkranz instead. The universe direct us to places and people that we never thought we’d meet, and I have to say the Liederkranz is one of those places for me. It was an amazing place to sing, and the owners Fred and Gloria are top notch people in the community. The city of Kearney is roughly half way between San Francisco and New York City, so it was a natural choice to host the Centennial celebration. I got to the city before the LHA auto tours, the Tin Can Tourists, and other folks from all over arrived to the town and everything was all abuzz in anticipation of what was on deck for the coming weekend.

Okay, enough yakking. In a blog first, you’ll see a lot of pictures of me in this post, which is thanks to my husband Dan who was my roadie, photographer, and overall awesome guy during this busy time in the project. I couldn’t have done it without him!

The Shady Bend Campground in Grand Island used to provide gas, food and lodging to travelers for many years, and there were extra amenities like a playground and a sandy beach lake. Today it is now a restaurant.

Love this original sign above the main door at Shady Bend!

Not too far down from Shady Bend is Kensinger’s Gas Station, which is still a fully operating gas station for more than 75 years.

Here’s a picture of the gas station interior. Thanks to Richard Grudzinski for letting me take pictures of everything.

You saw the main room in the previous picture, here’s the back room of the gas station.

Located behind Kensinger’s in Grand Island, this is an original seedling mile (paved 1915). You can’t drive on it, but you can walk on it.

Another view of the Seedling Mile, with a few Burma Shave signs this time.

The Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer is a couple miles south of the Lincoln Highway, and definitely a fun must see when in the area.

It’s not fancy, but I’ll take it! The door to my dressing room for my live TV appearance.

Here’s the outside of the building I performed at in Grand Island, the Liederkranz. The club has been around since the 1870’s, but this current building has been in existence since 1911 (it was built along what would become the Lincoln Highway).

The Liederkranz is used for a variety of things from dances to dinners to sing-alongs, acoustically it was a perfect place to sing.

It’s a fuzzy picture, but as you can see this microphone is an old one and has probably been around for a long time.

There is a gentleman counterpart to this tapestry, but I loved these ladies that were awaiting me in at the Liederkranz.

Guess who made front page news in Kearney! What a nice surprise to see when I was checking into the hotel.

Singing for my supper in downtown Kearney.

Will Rogers and I look on at the parade as it goes by.

The Lincoln Highway “Marching Marker” made its debut in Kearney for the parade! I wonder if I’ll see it anywhere else…

Even Smokey the Bear made an appearance!

One of the hundreds of beautiful cars I saw during the parade on Sunday.

I’m not really a car person, but when a Tucker drives by, I pay attention.

These bike riders were so hypnotic to watch.

Officially the most unique car in the parade, this camper/truck made all kinds of fun and crazy noises as well as had some moving parts on the outside too.

Even FDR showed up to the festivities! He really loved my rendition of “God’s Country” (the song mentions the President himself).

My guitar player was Jeff Erpelding, a local Kearney musician who plays in a few bands in the area. Not sure what I’m pointing at, but it must be important!

Kearney’s World Theatre was right across the street from where I was singing. It has been recently restored back to its 1920s glory, and it played a silent movie during the festivities.

Here I am with one of the great old cars that was on the 1910s block.

On Monday, I performed two great shows at the Archway to mark the highway’s centennial. In between sets, I ran over to the hotel to set up my table for the Lincoln Highway’s Annual conference (more on that in the next post).

There was a huge celebration at the Archway Monday evening, where there was a lot of good food, music and Lincoln Highway merriment! One of the things that did happen also was the Brian Butko gave a talk on Monday about the newest book he edited “The Lincoln Highway: Photos Through Time”.

Here’s a picture of Brian and I with my signed copy!

Last but most definitely not least, here’s the picture of me in this new Lincoln Highway book! You can find me on page 21. Thanks to Jamie Ralston (My Lincoln Highway) and Brian for putting this picture in the book. It was truly a wonderful surprise to see, especially on the 100th birthday of the road!

Greetings from Canton!

June 19, 2012 by Cece

I’m here in Canton, Ohio for the 2012 Lincoln Highway Association conference, and all I can say is wow, what a night last night!

I had the honor to start the festivities off after invocation last night at dinner with a few songs from next year’s program. I am still floored by the response from over 130 people in attendance last night. Everyone had a good time, and were smiling and singing along. Thank you again to the Ohio Lincoln Highway League and the Ohio Lincoln Highway Historic Byway for letting me be a part of your conference this year.

We shot video of my performance last night, and plan to put up excerpts after the conference is over, so stay tuned for that! In the meantime, I plan to post daily about the conference with pictures and words, so check back often for those posts. If you are in the Canton area, attending the conference, I have a table in the book room this year. Please stop by to say hello! I’ll also have an advance copy of last night’s songs for sale for $5, and you can’t beat that.

Here are a few picture highlights from yesterday:

Abe and I — President Lincoln and I met yesterday afternoon, and he bought a copy of my CD!

My booth — Here is a view of my booth for this year’s conference.

2012 performance 1 — Me in my full costume prior to performance.

Paul and I — A big thanks to Paul Gilger for accompanying me last night. I couldn’t have done it without him!

Me with in costume at my table this year.

Brian Butko and I — So glad to see a good friend and colleague Brian Butko last night at the conference! I know he is a busy man.

Post-Conference Highlights and Reflections

July 4, 2011 by Cece

Happy 4th of July everyone!

So it’s been about a week since I last wrote, and my brain is still swimming from all of the things I learned at the Lincoln Highway Association conference. I did not come directly home after the conference, because of some other traveling I had to do. Now that I am home, I now have the time to write about all of my impressions of my first Lincoln Highway Association conference (you can read highlights of it all here on their website). I have photo highlights of Tuesday and Wednesday on this website in previous posts if you would like to see more photos.

Monday’s welcome dinner was quite a welcoming. The guest speaker was McAvoy Layne, who is “The Ghost of Twain”. He regaled us with Mark Twain’s first view of Lake Tahoe and the mishaps that ensued upon arrival. As a performer myself, I very much enjoyed how he engaged the crowd, but was genuine in his performance. For a first-time attendee like me (it was noted on my lanyard/name badge), the dinner also gave me a chance to meet new people and learn more about the association and the conference.

Tuesday’s tour of California was impressive. I’ve only been to San Francisco for a quick weekend trip, so I’ve never really explored the state. We started at our hotel in Stateline, Nevada taking the southern route of the highway along what would have been the pioneer route with stops along the way to Clarksville, CA. The view from Echo Summit was breathtaking. The paved road underneath my feet had been there to serve pioneers and motorists for a very long time, and it was humbling to think that people negotiated this road in worse conditions not very long ago.

The road near at Echo Summit — The road near Echo Summit.

The highlight of Tuesday for me was when the Hangtown A’s out of Placerville, CA treated us to a drive on the original Lincoln Highway roads in Model A cars through the ghost town of Clarkesville, CA. Here the road was only 14 feet wide in some places, and the texture of the road was not the smooth tarmac we are all used to. It was a conglomerate of stone and concrete. It is believed that Folsom prisoners laid this part of the Lincoln Highway. Driving along these roads in the heat of day (it was around 100 degrees), the speed of the car and sound of the horn all took you back in time instantly. Our driver Ernie was pretty “zen” with his 1927 Model A. It takes a delicate sensibility to know when to shift gears and when not to.

Driving along the old road, Clarkesville CA. — Driving along the original road, near Clarkesville, CA.

As we were part way along our drive, the car turned and we were on part of the road that had been updated and now paralleled Highway 50, the new alignment of the Lincoln Highway. Ernie commented on this, and I remarked about why they didn’t incorporate the old road in with the new road. Why did they build the new road right next to it? Ernie then said, “It was much easier to build a new road next to the old one. That way people could still get to where they were going without stopping traffic.”

This echoed some of the comments made on the tour that morning. There were still a couple of these old Lincoln Highway roads that could still be used if US 50 had to be shut down due to inclement weather. These older roads still provided a temporary safe pass through the Sierras.

For some reason, this thought hasn’t left me in the last week. Maybe this shows what generation or locale that I grew up in, but that never happens now. No one cares if you’re stuck on construction laden roads, that’s just the way life is. It was quite a “Kodak” moment to be moving along on the old road while watching the traffic and construction on the new road.

View of both US 50 and LH road — View of modern Lincoln Highway (US 50) while driving on original Lincoln Highway road.

Wednesday’s tour of the Nevada side proved to be just as memorable. Starting off at the Carson City museum, we were able to have a special tour of Coin Press #1 which was in use for many years all over the country. Being part of the conference, we were given a unique coin memento which was made from this very machine. This museum is a great museum with plenty of exhibits. We had two hours there, but I’m sure we could have spent the whole day there if we wanted to.

Next, we were off to Dayton, Nevada, which was settled around 1863. The Dayton Historical Society really pulled out the stops for us as we ate lunch and were able to walk the old part of the town freely for the afternoon. They were truly wonderful people. We were able to get a tour of the old firehouse/jail, and see the museum (which is in the old schoolhouse). The museum houses hundreds of items from the community and is definitely worth a stop if you are in the area. One neat hidden part of the town is actually off main street. There is a rock wall next to the Union Hotel building, which is the remnants of an Overland Stagecoach Station, and was a Pony Express stop.

Overland Stagecoach wall — Overland Stage Station Wall, Dayton Nevada.

Thursday was seminar day and all of the speakers were wonderful. The two speakers that stood out for me and my upcoming travels the most were Bob Chase’s talk on his motorbike ride across the Lincoln Highway in a Piaggio MP3 in 2008, and the keynote speech by Craig MacDonald. Craig spoke about the evolution of US 50 historically, going back over 150+ years to talk about pioneers and stagecoach drivers including the infamous Charley Parkhurst (a female stagecoach driver who was the first woman to vote in the US). We surprised everyone when I came up on stage at the end to sing and lead everyone in an anthem fit for Charley. I have video of me singing, and it will be posted at a later date.

There are so many memories of this week, I could write a book on it. For a first time conference goer, it was a fantastic experience. Many thanks to the California and Nevada Lincoln Highway Chapters for their organization of such an awesome week. I also want to thank all of the other members who went out of their way to help me, give advice on my project, and just make me feel welcome to the organization overall. I look forward to communicating with all of you in the future.

East Tour of LHA 2011 conference in pictures

June 23, 2011 by Cece

Hello all:

Another great day, but man I am tired. Today’s tour was in Nevada. We started in Stateline, and then went to Carson City, Dayton, and then came back to Lake Tahoe for the Thunderbird lodge tour at sunset (an old mansion built from 1936-1939).

Again, I will write more later, but here are the highlights of the day.

This is Coin Press #1. This is the first coin press ever used in the United States, and still makes coins/medallions today. All of us who went on the tour today have a special medallion made for us, and it was made just for us.

Welcome — The historical society of Dayton NV went all out for us. We were able to walk the whole town for 2 hours today.

Horse Hitch outside of the main saloon, Dayton NV.

Coach/Carriage House — Coach/Carriage house, Dayton NV.

Dayton LH — Original Lincoln Highway stretch outside Dayton, NV.

Thunderbird Lodge at sunset, Lake Tahoe.

Clear water — Looking down to the water at the lodge. Yes, the rumors are true. Lake Tahoe is very clear. You can see down 100 feet in some places.

Sunset from Thunderbird lodge — Another great sunset in Lake Tahoe. It will be hard to leave.

West Tour of LHA 2011 conference in pictures

June 22, 2011 by Cece

Hello all:

It’s been a long but exhilarating day (14+ hours). I will write more about the day post conference, but in the meantime here are some photo highlights of today (I had over 200 pictures to choose from).

Echo Pass Summit, 1914 — This is the view from the old Echo Pass Summit.

Pony Express Trail — The LH was based off of many trails, including the Pony Express.

Old Tollbooth from the circa the gold rush days.

Clarksville, CA — Clarksville is a ghost town where original LH roads still exist. Thanks to a local Model A association, we were able to go back in time and drive these roads in cars from the period. My car was from 1927.

Traffic Jam-1914 style. The original roads were 14 feet across in most places, so you had to

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pass carefully.

1914 Pavement — A closeup of the original 1914 pavement. It is believed that Folsom Prisoners built these roads in Northern CA.

Ghost House — Abandoned house in ghost town of Clarksville, CA. A Bee Keeper still lives in the entire town and acts as a watchman to keep trespassers out. A developer has bought the whole town, and the hope is to rebuild it when the economy improves.

Paddle Wheels — The boat we were on was the “Tahoe Queen”, an old Paddlewheel boat.

Tahoe Cruise at Sunset — We took a cruise on Lake Tahoe to Emerald Bay. This view is looking from the bay back to the lake at sunset. What a way to start the first day of summer!

Tomorrow we go East into Nevada; there are more photos to come, so stay tuned!