Military Convoy in DeKalb, Part 1

In the summer of 2009, the Military Vehicle Preservation Association celebrated the 90th Anniversary of the First Transcontinental Army Convoy (and the 200th birthday of Abraham Lincoln) with a coast-to-coast re-creation across the world's largest memorial to Lincoln, the Lincoln Highway. The Convoy passed through the City of DeKalb, Illinois on Saturday, June 20, 2009 and local online journalist Mac McIntyre captured some video footage as the vehicles rolled by. Thanks to the airport in Rochelle, three airplanes flew overhead to welcome the Convoy.

Military Convoy in DeKalb, Part 2

Flyover for Military Convoy, DeKalb, June 20th

Computer Hackers

The Illinois Lincoln Highway listserv through GoogleGroups got hacked. I am taking the links down, then trying to clean up the listserv. The chances of those responsible getting caught are slim to none because they could come from anywhere in the world.

PBS

If you missed the PBS / WQED documentary, A Ride Along the Lincoln Highway it is not too late! You can order a copy on DVD from WQED here. They will start shipping on December 1st, so just in time for Christmas. And please, print off a page from the WQED Web site, take it to your local public library, and suggest that they purchase a copy.

The documentary covers something from all over the Lincoln Highway and LHA's own Brian Butko worked as the historian. It features an interview with Lynn Asp at the Headquarters in Franklin Grove and interviews with many of the LHA members who attended the Evanston, Wyoming conference. There are pictures of the school buses used for the Wyoming tour that everybody who went to the conference talked about afterward. The new, comfortable buses for the Utah west tour could not be used on the dusty, more rugged Wyoming east tour. The documentary has spectacular images as the Lincoln Highway crosses through some of the most beautiful areas in the United States.

Not all of the video footage could fit into the one-hour PBS program, so check out the video links of extra information here!

Songs

There are a few recent Lincoln Highway songs.

The group Shadric wrote a song called Rollin' Down That Lincoln Highway with three different versions. The 2008 lyrics are printed here. There is a keyboards only version to listen to here.

Buddy McNutt wrote a completely new song for the PBS special, Goin' All the Way. You can listen to it by going here and clicking the Listen button. If it looks like and sounds like . . . it must be a ukulele!

The group Cornbread performing Lincoln Highway at Floodstock in July of 2008, a fund-raiser for victims of the horrible flooding in Iowa, especially Cedar Rapids. My bet is that someone recorded the video using a camera phone:



The rock band Sublime which no longer plays together did a tune called Lincoln Highway Dub which was instrumental. They used the same tune for another song later. This is the instrumental version:

September 13 and September 14

On Saturday, September 13th, the Illinois Chapter will have a meeting in Franklin Grove at 12:30 p.m.

Sent to the blog from Jane Nicoll is the following information:

"On September 14, 2008 at 2:30 p.m. Cynthia Ogorek will present her program on this book for the Park Forest Historical Society. The public is welcome. She will be selling her books after the program.

We will be At Park Forest Village Hall, 350 Victory Drive in Downtown Park Forest. Hope you can come!"



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Click the View Larger button and use the mouse to move around in the map so you can see where to go!

Striking Back at Gas Pump Pain!

California Chapter member and Map Committee Chair Paul Gilger sent a picture of his car, and his way of striking back at high gas prices! Paul leads the group of volunteers responsible for creating the Official Lincoln Highway Driving Maps software for the DeLorme Stree Atlas software program.

Yard Sale 08 - 08 - 08

The annual Yard Sale will begin on 08 - 08 - 08 and the price for a yard sign will be lower this year, $8. Registering for a sign will also include a GPS location for all available street addresses and mapping.

Signs will be available in Franklin Grove, the home of the Lincoln Highway Association National Tourism Headquarters:

136 N. Elm St.
P.O. Box 308
Franklin Grove, IL 61031
(815) 456-3030

Longitude: -89.29929
Latitude: 41.84207


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Surprise Number Two!

I wrote weeks ago about two surprises. The first one is that Cynthia Ogorek's book on the Lincoln Highway is coming out through Arcadia Press. Now I can tell you about the second surprise, the Egyptian Theatre in DeKalb is getting an authentic Wurlitzer theater pipe organ, shipped out from Virginia. It is going to cost a mint to get it installed, but the theater originally had an organ, and after installation, the theater will become complete again. This future enhancement will complement the Rialto in Joliet and the Paramount in Aurora. This entire area already serves as a major representation of historic theaters, and that will just improve even more. I think there were just the four main types of theaters in the United States, Egyptian, Paramount, Rialto, and Fox. This area has three of those.