Thanksgiving Report 2018

Half our family, 26 people, were here to celebrate Thanksgiving. However, between having fun with the grandkids and fixing and eating tons of food (8 pies, turkey and dressing, lots of heavenly rolls, 8 side dishes, frog-eye and fruit salad, and our Thompson traditional shrimp cocktail appetizer) we forgot to take pictures, except for these of the grandkids riding horses and playing video games and soccer. Don't forget to click on the pictures for a closer look.

 After a great ride on Ginger, David thinks he might follow the rodeo circuit to earn money for college. His Mom doesn't think so!

 Benji thinks swinging on a tractor is more for him.

 Four can play at a time on this game.

 You might think that the boys vs girls soccer match would favor the much larger boys--but the girls won.

Oregon Trail vs Dixie Auto Trail?

 One requirement for the Boy Scout  Citizenship in the Nation merit badge is to visit a place listed on the National Registry of Historic Places. You might not think of a highway as an historic place, but
at the beginning of the last century with automobiles becoming more common, the US needed cross country roads that were easier to travel on than the Oregon Trail and other pioneer trails developed for covered wagons and stage coaches. The solution was to create cross country "Auto Trails."

In 1913 the Lincoln Highway was the first paved auto trail from Times Square in New York City to Lincoln Park in San Francisco joining the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans.  Interstate 80 now closely follows that route. But what about north/south auto trails?

It just happens that the first of the north/south auto trails passes right through Flagler County--the Dixie Highway from Detroit to Miami built in 1916. Most of it now is Interstate 75 and 95, but a stretch of the original brick road still exists hidden in the backwoods of Flagler County from Espanola to Hastings Florida, easy for Boy Scouts to travel on if they know where to look.

Here's a look at the Old Brick Road or Old Dixie Highway today. You can see why Auto Trail may be a more appropriate name for this one lane highway. This is the longest stretch that hasn't been paved over as it was upgraded for new highways. However the name "Dixie Highway" is still used for several stretches of the replacement roads from South Florida to Michigan. If you look closely, you can see that the bricks for this stretch were imported from Alabama several hundred miles away.

 To find out more google "Dixie Highway" and "Lincoln Highway"

Danny Zuko meets the Piano Man?

Two grandsons are budding performers. They might choose the showbiz route to becoming famous neurosurgeons and mathematicians.