The "100 Years of Travel on Route 30" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading online about the three great-great nieces of Anita King who wanted to replicate the feat that Anita accomplished 100 years ago this month.  Seems that Anita traversed the 2-year-old Lincoln Highway from it's start in New York to its final point in San Franisco.  Took Anita 49 days to make the trip from coast to coast, but her distant relatives plan to make the trip in 49 hours of road time.  

Travel line of the Lincoln Highway.  Click on photo to enlarge.

Was in 2013 that I wrote a five-part story on the Lincoln Highway as it passed from close to Coatesville, PA to close to Gettysburg, PA.  Lancaster, PA was approximately in the center of those two points and I was able to find some of the historical points along what I know as Route 30, but do call the Lincoln Highway from time to time.  

My home in Lancaster is about a half-mile north of the Lincoln Highway as it bypasses Lancaster City.  

Lincoln Penny replica is shown in these pavement inserts
in the city of Columbia, Pennsylvania.

My stories told of and showed signs along our country's first coast-to-coast highway that was established in 1913.  The road helped to open new ways for Americans to travel and vacation as well as establish cities along the way.  

Painting on the side of a convenience store along Route
30 showing what the store looked like years ago.

Rest stops, restaurants, camp grounds and even gas stations lined the sides of the new Lincoln Highway.  Anita King, star of stage and screen and born Anna Keppen, managed to escape a life of being a house servant to take the personal challenge of completing the coast-to-coast trip which two male directors had said couldn't be done by a female.  She was faced with using a car known as a Kissel Kar which wasn't built for travel on roads that weren't even paved at certain spots and meant for horse travel at other spots.  

As you can see by the words under the photo published almost 100
years ago, Miss Anita King has arrived in New York.

She carried a pistol and rifle with her for protection from wildlife of both animal and human behavior.  She had to change many tires, make her own mechanical repairs and dig herself out of muddy ruts.  It was on October 19th of 1913 that Anita arrived in New York to a wild celebration.  She had proven that women could do just about everything that men could do.  And, she may have been slightly responsible for women getting the right to vote a few years later.  The nieces left San Francisco in a Chrysler 200 and got to travel on parts of the Lincoln Highway with speed limits four times or more the 18 MPH speed that Anita could travel in her car.  They had music from just about any era to listen to while Anita didn't even have a phone to use if in trouble.  She did have a huge following which I doubt her nieces have while recreating the passage that their distant aunt made 100 years ago.  I'd love to try something historic that a distant relative of mine may have done years and years ago, but I'm not quite sure what that may be; yet!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.