By Bob Batz, Jr. for Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A hundred years ago, the Army conducted a cross-country convoy on the partially built Lincoln Highway, which turned from paved roads to dirt ones before it reached the West Coast. One person along for the ride was a young War Department observer by the name of Dwight D. Eisenhower.
This week, about 120 members of the Military Vehicle Preservation Association will depart from its 44th annual convention in York, Pa., and again head east on U.S. Route 30 and other parts of the Lincoln Highway bound for San Francisco. They say the 3,200-mile trip will take 36 days. It’s the MVPA’s second such trip; the first one, in 2009, also came through the Pittsburgh area.
On Tuesday morning, after departing from Bedford, Pa., the convoy is to visit the Flight 93 National Memorial before arriving in Ligonier. A noon parade is planned — led by horse-drawn cannon — around the town’s Diamond. Then the 60 vehicles will park in various lots while participants lunch in the Fort Ligonier Center for History Education, tour the fort, and visit the Lincoln Highway Experience.
