Route 121

      On Friday I drove down Interstate 155 to Lincoln to visit niece, Michelle and her family.  My sister, Judy has been staying there - and tiling the new kitchen,  Michelle and John live in a tri-level house built probably in the 1970s.   The entrance is at ground level and then up three wide steps to a living room with a white fireplace and book shelves at the opposite end of the room.  A door to the left lead to the kitchen and the living room L'ed into the dining room.
     Now,  at the top of those three steps is one big room.  White cabinets on the outside walls - the kitchen side has fridge, cook top and double ovens and on the former dining room wall,  the new cabinets meet the bookcases by the fireplace - and in the center a dark wood four foot L shaped island with a bench attached on the dining room side.  On the far back wall instead of a kitchen door and a window in the dining room  there are twin double doors out onto a deck with a small cupboard between, the new coffee station.  The walls are painted a pretty shade of green/gray/blue - hard to describe the color and amazing tiles to match above the cook top and coffee space.  Mich and John have done a good job renovating this level of their home  - beautiful - and after a nice visit, I headed home.
      Going north and driving back up that splendid four lane highway  brought back a lot of memories when this was Route 121 and the times we went to visit Judy and Bill in Lincoln or when we went all the way to Missouri to visit Vern's parents.  When we started going south, it was 121 to Route 66, long before the Interstate Highway System.  Then when I 55 was built for some reason going down 121 was not as bad as coming home up that miserable two lane trail.  
      I remember many a humid, hot July night - windows rolled down (before air conditioning) trying to pass trucks - why is it on a two lane road  and you are trying to go around a truck in a passing lane, cars keep coming in the other lane but the opposite lane is free when you're in a no passing zone?  And then there were all those Sunday nights after Thanksgiving when 121 had a light sprinkle of snow and the traffic was bumper to bumper heading back to Washington - a lot of people who worked at Caterpillar were from the South.
      The little town of Hartsburg  was next with its posted speed limit  that you didn't dare go one mile over because the two car police force would come out of nowhere and fine you for going over the recommended mileage.  There was a rumor that the fines collected supported the town budget.
      Then crossing the Mackinaw River over the old metal bridge, a four way stop at Route 36, out in the middle of the prairie.  Down Main Street in Morton, turn right on Jefferson, out through the country to the Washington/Morton blacktop to the square and then home. Every time I drive on a four, six or eight lane Interstate road, I salute Dwight Eisenhower, the President  who signed the bill to start the whole system.    Old Route 121, you are not missed!