The Lincoln Highway: America Is The Same Everywhere
Also an observation from two years ago when we were driving the autobahns in Germany and in Belgium and Luxembourg. In Germany they had a law about putting a road stop service station or roadside eatery every so many miles. This vanished in Belgium and was not nearly as convenient. So they could not have had EXACTLY the same laws about their roads. Also Belgium had 24 hour lighting on the highways that was absent in Germany. I’d say that the conditions on the roads in America (and we drove those, too) are actually more similar. We kept on saying that at the time. In America you have lots of road stops all over the place and THEY ARE THE SAME BUSINESSES AND RESTAURANTS EVERYWHERE FOR 3000 MILES such as McDonalds, Burger King, Perkins Restaurant, Applebees, Ruby Tuesday, Denny’s, etc. In fact McDonalds and Burger King helped provide unity along the road across Germany, too — but not Belgium. The food turned distinctly French. We found Laughing Cow Cheese for sale.
Back in the days of the Lincoln Highway Dora and Edward drove for hundreds of miles seeing the same sorts of auto courts and food establishments along the big road. They were experiencing an American tradition totally unlike Europe in the historical thriller, Old Faithful Plot.
While they are hiding out from Dora’s husband at the Old Faithful Lodge in 1933, Dora and Edward are also hiding Lawrence maps that Churchill has given them and which Hitler would do anything to get his hands on. Enter Helga and Herr von Wessel, Hitler’s top spies. They warn Colonel Sir Edward Ware and Dora that either they hand over the top secret maps, key to world domination, or they will blow up Yellowstone National Park. They will turn the famous geyser basin into volcanic rubble – and the rest of America, too, which would be buried in volcanic ash just like Pompeii. And if that doesn’t work they have an even darker plot up their sleeves, one that would change history itself.
