RAWLINS,
WYO.: An Ohio man who drove a fire truck in
President George W. Bush's inaugural parade has taken
his show on the road to honor Abraham Lincoln.
Craig Harmon of Galion, founder and director of the
Lincoln Highway National Museum and Archives, has not
chosen just any road, however. He has been driving his
adorned, 1964 Maxim truck along the Lincoln Highway, the
nation's first transcontinental highway.
The highway, also known as U.S. 30 and
Interstate 80, stretches 3,331 miles from Times Square
in New York City to Lincoln Park in San Francisco. It
runs through Canton and Massillon in Stark County and
Wooster in Wayne County.
This month, Harmon has been driving through southern
Wyoming, stopping in towns along the way.
``The Lincoln Highway's come of age,'' Harmon said
during his Rawlins stop.
In each town where he stops, Harmon raises his fire
truck ladder to fly a 10-by-20-foot American flag and a
flag commemorating the Lincoln Highway. Since Cheyenne,
he has also displayed a Union Pacific flag on the
ladder.
In the inaugural parade in January, Harmon's truck
carried former Major League Baseball stars Steve Garvey
and Johnny Bench, Olympic gymnast Mary Lou Retton and
Miss America 2001 Angela-Perez Baraquio.
Harmon began his road trip in New York last year and
plans to be in San Francisco before Christmas. He said
he started the trip to celebrate Lincoln, the former
president's ideals and the highway.
Harmon wants to make the highway the centerpiece of a
Lincoln bicentennial celebration that will take place in
2009.
He also wants to collect 10 million Lincoln pennies
to build a 30-ton, 7-foot statue of Lincoln, the
nation's 16th president.
The truck carries a log campfire, symbolic of the
``sacred fire of liberty'' borne by Lincoln, Harmon
said. The fire also represents the highway's dedication,
when bonfires were lighted along its route across the
country.
The truck also carries Lincoln Highway signs, as well
as a license plate and presidential seal that indicate
that Harmon and the truck were in the inaugural parade.
The truck bears 45 firefighter helmets, each one
given to Harmon and signed by fire departments along the
highway. The Rawlins Fire Department made its
contribution Tuesday.
