Hiking the Lincoln Highway
First, if you haven’t finished the NYT Spelling Bee yet (this is only for people who do it and you know who you are), don’t read to the end unless you want a hint.
In his quest to hike as much of the North Country Trail as possible The Pensioner spent the last few days down in Ohio hiking near the Lincoln Highway.
I recently enjoyed a book titled “The Lincoln Highway” and of all things he has been reading it too. We don’t usually have the same taste in books. I mean he reads old books about the Russian Revolution and, I dunno, geology, etc. I can’t describe my taste except that it’s somewhat eclectic. I guess his is too. But it’s rare that we read the same book. And actually, I don’t really know if he likes it.
It was a bit of a coincidence that his weekend hiking expotition put him on/near the Lincoln Highway. I don’t really worry about him on these junkets even though he hikes many miles a day. I am not always enamored of his choices in places to stay. I won’t name his go-to choice of cheepo lodging because some of them are okay but they are not my faves, especially not the one at the end of the Knoxville airport runway. And probably not the one in downtown Bradenton but I haven’t stayed there. The GG stayed there one night on a solo trip then moved to the nice new SAFE Best Western down the street. I’ll tell that story [again] some other time.
Anyway, he found the Spread Eagle Tavern Restaurant & Inn online pre-trip and I encouraged him to stay there. He kind of pooh-poohed the idea for the usual reason, which was probably money but I can’t really remember. So I was pleasantly surprised when he texted that he had moved to the Spread Eagle for his last night.
If I get it right, he sandwiched a 28 mile day between two 22 mile days. The second 22-miler (today) was quite tiring. I asked, “How much elevation?” Yes that was it.
P.S. I loved “The Lincoln Highway” but my first introduction to Amor Towles was “A Gentleman In Moscow” and that one knocked my socks off.
Spelling bee hint: hoot doog*s*. The person this is aimed at probably already has these words but I couldn’t help posting this hint because it relates to an inside family joke. One that I don’t totally understand even though I was there but still find funny as a crutch 🤣🤣🤣
December 6th, 2021 at 7:47 pm
This book was highly recommended by several at BC because of the gorgeous writing. One person liked “Gentleman” whereas the other two didn’t. It’s interesting to find out how we differ in our reading tastes. I doubt that we’ll pick it for book club because it’s quite long.
December 7th, 2021 at 10:04 am
Coincidently, the STL sunday paper had both a review of “The Lincoln Highway”, the book, and a travel article about the Lincoln Highway, the road, at least the part of it in Missouri, known as M36.
December 7th, 2021 at 6:27 pm
Well… the first day I hiked over 16 miles. Eleven of the miles were new unique North Country Trail miles East of Lisbon, Ohio. I stayed at the Day’s Inn. I actually hitched a ride at one point to avoid duplicating miles. One second day, I was able to arrange help from the NCT Wampum Chapter and hike about 28 miles. 23 of the miles were new unique North Country Trail miles. I missed a turn and had to hike extra miles to correct my mistake. I did some research and found that I had accumulated over 2700 feet in elevation changes. My feet and legs were very sore. I stayed at the historic Spread Eagle Tavern and Inn. On the third day there was much rain and my feet did not feel up to the task of hiking in heavy wind, significant rainfall, and falling temperatures. I decided it was day to explore future NCT road-walk by car. I finally drove back-roads from Zoar, OH… to Ann Arbor.