Good and Tired

My weekend was all fun and games...
Games:
The dishes are done, the garbage cans and recycling are at the curb, and the San Francisco Giants won at home tonight, 6-0 over the Pittsburgh Pirates. Catcher Chris Stewart knocked his first Major League Home Run in the 5th inning. Long reliever Guillermo Mota looked like he could jump out of his cleats...I believe he enjoyed Stewart's homer more than Stewart did!

The Giants dugout, which has been the capital city of Dourville throughout the mostly winless slide over the last three weeks, suddenly looked like a birthday party at Disneyland. In fact, the whole sold out park was in a mood to celebrate...it was the second annual Grateful Dead Night at AT&T Park.

Tie dye and skulls were everywhere, and surviving Dead members, Phil Lesh and Bob Weir sang the National Anthem a capella with Giants' 3rd Base coach (and resident Free Spirit) Tim Flannery, to open the festivities.

Stewart's homer was just the kind of Feel-Good story to light up the Giants slumping offense, 1st baseman Aubry Huff got three hits, one a homer after Stewart's dinger. Stewart's ten years in Pro Ball, mostly in the minors, have been transformed into dues now...the little towns, the bus rides, and fleabag hotels are history for now. The TV cameras showed Giants publicity flacks in the bleachers talking to the teenaged fan who caught the home run ball. They made a bargain with the fan, and during the LIVE post-game interview, the reporter handed the ball to Stewart...a nice touch.

It's a good night to be a Giants fan!

And Fun:
Thanks to the wonder that is "The Information Superhighway" I'm finding more info on America's first coast to coast highway, The Lincoln Highway. The Lincoln Highway Association has a Twitter Feed now: @LincolnHwyAssoc Now news of the road comes along in my timeline...what a fascinating, modern world...

Because the Information Superhighway is a two-way highway, I fired off an email to Huell Howser the affable (read delightfully goofy) transplanted Tennessean who host's Public Television's "California's Gold" program.

Ol' Huell is a One-Man-Band when it comes to California-centric Gee-WhizTV! Huell hosts and produces "California's Gold", "California's Golden Fairs", "California's Golden Parks". "California's Green", "California's Communities", "California's Missions", "California's Water", "California's Golden Coast", "Visiting..." and "Road Trip"...and that's not to mention the Specials!

My email:
From: TruckeeDave
Date: Sun, Aug 7, 2011 at 12:18 AM
Subject: Finding Gold on a Road Trip
To: huell@calgold.com


The Centennial Anniversary of the Lincoln Highway is coming up- 2013. I think it would make a natural "Road Trip"

The Lincoln Highway was America's first Transcontinental Highway, running from Times Square in NYC to Lincoln Park in San Francisco. Created by a car dealer (who built the Indianapolis Motor Speedway), a tire manufacturer, and a paving contractor, it was the model for the Interstate Highway System.

It was a match made in Free Market Heaven! The car dealer knew he couldn't sell many cars if they all wallowed in the mud-bog roads of the day, the tire maker knew he needed lots of cars using up his tires on good, long roads, and the paving guy needed the traffic to drive his business!

Motels got their start along the LH, as did service stations, in 1928 the Boy Scouts erected 3000 concrete Lincoln Highway Markers from coast to coast.

There's two branches of the Lincoln Highway in California, roughly Interstate 80 over Donner Summit, and HWY 50 over Echo Summit. Both converge near Sacramento and took various routes to San Francisco. The Berkeley Pier was part of the Lincoln Highway...it was a Ferry Terminal before the Bay Bridge was built.

A few of the original concrete Lincoln Highway Markers are still around, Davis, CA has two, West Sacramento has one, I'm sure there are others around the State.

Livermore, CA has a Lincoln Highway Museum in a restored Garage (read Service Station) open the last Sunday of the month:

http://www.livermorehistory.com/Duarte%20Garage/Duarte%20Garage.html

There's a  national Lincoln Highway Association with chapters in each state the highway traversed.

http://www.lincolnhighwayassoc.org/ca/

It's a rich vein to be quarried...right under millions of Californian's feet!

I touched on it in my blog this week:

http://corduroyplanet.blogspot.com/2011/08/if-you-find-yourself-in-need-of-hole.html

Thanks for considering the Lincoln Highway, Huell!

TruckeeDave
I love the smell of diesel in the morning!

Tuesday I recieved the nicest Form Letter ever from Huell:

From: Huell Howser huell@calgold.com
Date: Mon, Aug 8, 2011 at 3:25 PM
To: TruckeeDave
Subject: Re: Finding Gold on a Road Trip

I would like to personally thank you for contacting us.We always feel honored whenever people take the time from their day to write us and many of your ideas turn into future shows.

I can assure you that I do eventually read every single email and letter that we get. So even if you do not hear back from us -- other than this "form" letter -- it doesn't mean your story idea or request wasn't a good one, we simply receive many, many more good ideas than we could ever shoot or edit. I hope you understand and do not take it personally. We try very hard to be considerate and polite to every single person who sends us a request or story idea, but the truth is we are just not able to give it the personal, individual reply I would like to.

If you are searching for a show,please try our search feature on the upper right side of our website. It should help you find what you are looking for. If you are searching for the schedule that is front and center on our website. www.calgold.com

In closing, I would like to personally express my appreciation for the time you took to write us at the show... and remember...

the adventure continues,

Huell Howser