Kearney | An American Songline

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!

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!

Summary of the 2013 Lincoln Highway Conference

Central Nebraska Highlights, plus the Lincoln Highway turns 100!