Corduroy Trail

After reading a little of "The Lincoln Highway: California" and perusing the maps for a while Saturday afternoon, I watched the 2008 PBS documentary "A Ride Along The Lincoln Highway"...I totally forgot about the Giants 4:10PM game time from South Beach. The Giants were up 1-0 when I finally turned the game on. #GoGiants!

I watched "A Ride Along The Lincoln Highway" two weeks ago when it was broadcast. It's a nice overview of the road, it's history and the resurgence in interest in the history and preservation of the Lincoln Highway.

The movie featured a charming story about one of the Boy Scouts who traveled the Lincoln Highway in 1928 erecting the 3000 concrete Lincoln Highway Markers from coast to coast. The Ohio chapter was having an event, and the go-getter chapter president wondered if any of those original Eagle Scouts were still around. An internet search found one, and he was contacted and agreed to be the Keynote Speaker at the Annual Conference.

Back in 1928, the Eagle Scout's Mom had advised him to keep a diary of his adventure, and dutifully he did. The diary still survives and the Eagle Scout was the hit of the Conference.

The following year, the Scout was called on again to dedicate the new Western Terminus Marker in San Francisco's Lincoln Park. The Sparkplug Ohio Chapter president was asked to escort him to the San Francisco Event, and the two fell in love and soon married! The Eagle Scout was 91, chivalry being what it once was, the bride's age wasn't given. The groom called her a gambler for marrying a 91 year old.

As the documentary followed the lovebirds off into the sunset, the bride said something in passing about the "Old Corduroy Road" as the couple was driving too fast on a historic Ohio section of the Highway. This pricked up my ears, and I jotted down a note to look it up later.

I grilled pork loin chops and golden delicious apples for dinner then looked up corduroy roads on Wikipedia. It's another rich vein of road lore going back to Roman times!

Corduroy roads are so named for their similar appearance to the fabric of the same name...the roads were built of logs laid perpendicular to the direction of travel, then backfilled with sand. Corduroy roads sound like  real tooth-filling removers at speed!

I was fascinated by the Pacific Northwestern variant, built from huge logs called skid roads. This was later shortened through time and circumstance to skid row...either way, they're a far cry from the soft, buttery corduroy we lay all over our ski trails on My Mountain!

So I enjoyed a satisfying, educational Saturday at the Ancestral Digs...my Giants looked hungry in Florida and beat the Marlins 3-0. Tim Lincecum hurled another shutout, striking out 10 batters and giving up zero earned runs. It was nice to see the real SF Giants again!