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Day 5 - South Bend IN to Dixon IL

From the Diary of Eagle Scout Bernard R. Queneau Member of the 1928 Lincoln Highway BSA Lincoln Highway Promotional Tour Tuesday - July 17, 1928 - The mosquitoes here are so tiny that they can slip right through the netting, and the smaller they are, the harder they bite.  After a hearty breakfast we returned to Joliet, and luckily we had no official welcome except a little entry.  For the first time a banner was held across the street with 'Welcome' on it.  The mayor cut this and we were allowed to proceed.  In the afternoon we rested a little for the first time.  We went to the Joliet Theater in the evening, credited with the longest foyer in the world.

Thursday - August 21st We go from South Bend IN to Dixon IL today.  Looking out the hotel room window, Bill notices a really nice Confederate monument just outside.  The city of South Bend has some beautiful old buildings.  They have almost no billboards or building signs, and there is a height restriction to keep the skyline balanced.  The city is clean, and has a ‘safe’ feel to it.  Unfortunately, the loss of Studebaker Corporation in the mid-1960s was a blow that the city has never recovered from.  There are a lot of empty buildings, and it is obvious that South Bend is struggling to survive.
	Sophie (the Packard) is still charging just fine.  We start with a short trip to Door Prairie Auto Museum in LaPorte IN.  We arrive a bit early, and assemble in front of the museum for a group photo.

The museum is the home of an excellent collection that includes some amazing vehicles and automobilia.  Upstairs, they have an original wood body jig that was used to create some 1929 Auburn show cars – of which they have one original and one recreation of a car that was destroyed in a fire in 1929.  While both cars are very similar in appearance, the original car has T-tops!  They also have a couple of my favorites – a 1951 Studebaker convertible and a 1964 Amphicar (drivable on the road or in the water – just don’t open the door in amphibious mode).

The pride of the museum is a 1903 Winton that drove our trip in reverse – from Los Angeles to New York – back in the 1950s!  The Winton was discovered buried in a pit near a smelting plant and restored.  It is still used for parades and special events. One of the more unique vehicles in the museum was only one horse-power:  the 1910 Pony-Go, which literally put the cart before the horse!  The buggy had a steering wheel like one of the ‘newfangled’ motorcars, and a lever that opened a special bin in the back.  The pony, which was strapped into a harness behind the cart, would move forward to get the apple or carrot dangling from the lid.  There are no brakes on the cart.  To stop, the driver dropped the lid to hide the treat.

The museum had some cars that brought back memories for other participants as well.  Seth and Diane Pancoast found an MG-TC like the one that had been his first car – he admitted that he didn’t know how to take care of the British sports car back then, and ran it into the ground after a few months.    Another interesting car is a pushme-pullyou Model A Ford – John Peters insists on taking my picture with the oddball car, saying it looks like something I would design.  Thanks, John.

One neat accessory on a 1946 Cadillac was a double mirror that let you see around trucks and other wide vehicles in front in case you wanted to pass on a two-lane road.  Wonder if they were thinking of SUVs way back then? Just before we leave, we get the Tidewater group together again for photo.  Then it is back in the cars – we have a lot of miles to travel today.  We are following Route 30, the numerical designation for most of the Lincoln Highway.

Although both of the old Packards are running great, we are pushing them sorta hard today.  For one thing, it is HOT!  The hottest day of the year, we have been told by locals.  When the cars are moving, it isn’t a problem, but when we are caught in traffic around some of the towns, it can get really uncomfortable.  This is a real problem as we skirt the southern edge of Chicago – just the suburbs, but still a lot of stop and go.  Incredibly, the 70 year-old cars handle the heat with no complaints – something that can’t be said for their sweat-soaked passengers.

Once we are out of the Chicago area, traffic thins out dramatically and the scenery becomes really nice.  Flat farmland as far as you can see, with interesting barns and outbuildings that often date back to the 1920s.  I am reminded of an old car game we used to play on trips when I was a kid – trying to stretch out saying ‘Corn’ for the entire length of a cornfield as we drove past.   Driving through this area, I would pass out before I could get to the end of one of the fields.  Hmmm – maybe because I’m a lot older?  Nah – it’s the bigger corn fields. I am doing most of the driving again today.  It is amazing how easy it is to get used to driving Sophie – she has tremendous torque, and once you get going, the big Packard will roll at 70 mph all day long.  Of course, she also gets 8 mpg – a fact that is making gas station owners across the country very happy.

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