Looking for a nice long weekend vacation? Drive the Lincoln Highway this August

We have driven the Lincoln Highway for years now and you will discover how relaxing and fun it is if you join us for the 5^th Annual Iowa Lincoln Highway Association Motor Tour scheduled for August 24-26, 2012.

This year’s tour begins with a pre-tour event on Thursday August 23 in Rochelle, Illinois and ends in Colo, Iowa on Sunday August 26. This is the first time the motor tour has ventured outside of Iowa, traveling a full day along the Illinois section from Rochelle to Fulton.

The idea of the Lincoln Highway came from the mind of Carl Fisher, the man also responsible for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Miami Beach. With help from fellow industrialists Frank Seiberling and Henry Joy, an improved, hard-surfaced road was envisioned that would stretch almost 3400 miles from coast to coast, New York to San Francisco, over the shortest practical route.

The Lincoln Highway Association was created in 1913 to promote the road using private and corporate donations. The idea was embraced by an enthusiastic public, and many other named roads across the country followed.

The motor tour kicks off on Friday August 24 in Rochelle and continues to Franklin Grove, Dixon, Sterling/RockFalls, Morrison and Fulton then across the Mississippi River to Clinton, where the tour stays overnight.

Saturday August 25, the tour departs from Clinton, and stops at DeWitt, Calamus, Lowden, Stanwood, and Mount Vernon before overnighting in Cedar Rapids. The tour offers a group get together dinner at the Hotel at Kirkwood, on the campus of Kirkwood College in Cedar Rapids, a facility where students learn their trade in hotel and restaurant management. The dinner will be prepared by student chefs. The final day, Sunday August 26 the tour departs from Cedar Rapids and continues west to Youngville, Belle Plaine, John Ernest Winery, Tama, and will end in Colo.

Each stop offers a slice of the Midwest: food, ice cream socials, museums, shops, entertainment. It's a lot of fun for all ages! 

The tour will travel as much of the original Lincoln Highway route as possible and organizers stress that this is a “classic car friendly” tour because some of the original route is gravel, but the tour will not be traveling on those long gravel sections. All cars are welcome!

There will be only a couple of short sections, less than half a mile to get to a stop or two. Otherwise the tour will be on all paved routes. There is still plenty of time to register for the tour, registrations are taken up to and during the motor tour. Any and all vehicles, including motorcycles are welcome to participate.

All cars from the classics to the present are welcome to join up.  More information and registration forms for the tour can be found on the Iowa LHA website at www.lincolnhighwayassoc.org/iowa or contact tour director Jeff LaFollette by e-mail at jefflaf-at-q.com. (Replace the -at- with @)