"From Sea to Shining Sea"

A whole lot of America winds through Shoemaker's Travel Center – and we're not just talking about the variety of customers we see every day.

Our beautiful, hand-painted mural in the Convenience Store clerestory represents 3,652 miles of America via scenes from along Historic U.S. Route 6.

Historic Route stretches from the tip of Cape Cod to the waterfront at Long Beach, California. It was the longest highway ever established in the United States and though its status was changed and shortened a few years back, it remains one of the longest continuous highways in the nation.

It has been called a lot of things in its day, including such names as The Grand Army of the Republic Memorial Highway, King's Highway, Roosevelt Highway, The Midland Trail, The OLD Highway (Omaha/Lincoln/Denver), The DLD Highway (Detroit/Lincoln/Denver) and several other regional nicknames. For instance, it's called Corn Husker Highway when it curves around the north side of Lincoln, but the Business Route that passes through Lincoln is known as O Street, which gives us bragging rights to have the longest main street in the country.

Every image on the mural is a rendition of something travelers might see along or very near Highway 6. Every state US Route 6 passes through is labeled with a rendition of a USPO commemorative stamp, the state flower and the state bird so a quick glance around the room will orient you.

The modern Highway 6 in California is a short, two-lane, north-south surface highway that ends/begins in Bishop, but prior to a 1964 highway renumbering project the route extended all the way to Long Beach, near Los Angeles, which is where our tour begins.

That's the royal ship, The Queen Mary floating above the entrance to the travel store. This grand ship has graced the harbor at Long Beach since 1967 after making 1,001 crossings of the Atlantic, many of which were completed during the war transporting military personnel.

The giant former ocean liner, now a hotel open to the public, has been billed by some in the know as "one of the most haunted locations on the West Coast."

Mt. Whitney beckons to travelers at the edge of California. This serenely beautiful mountain features one of the most popular climbs in the world. At 14,486 feet in elevation, Mt. Whitney is the highest peak in the lower 48 states.

Nevada

The historic Nevada Tonopah Air Base housed the huge B-17s and B-24s back in its heyday during WWII. The abandoned hangar holds little more than memories these days, but still attracts photographers and plane buffs.

Host city for the air base, Tonopha, Nevada, is known as the Queen of the Silver Camps, making it one of the hidden gems of Historic Highway 6.

As the highway winds east it descends into some baron desert landscape. What are those strange lights in the air? Best to keep moving, and don't wander off the road. For a short distance Highway 6 merges with Highway 375, also known as "Extraterrestrial Highway."

These odd, cone-shaped things can be found in Ward Charcoal Ovens State Park, Utah. The Ward Charcoal Ovens, made form quartz-welded tuff quarried from the nearby hills, were built to supply high quality charcoal for silver smelters located at Ward.

Since the end of their original use as Charcoal ovens, they have sheltered stockmen and prospectors during foul weather, and even had a reputation as a hangout for stagecoach bandits. We don't know if the last bit is true, but it makes a good story, doesn't it?

Utah

Confusion Range is known for its "rugged isolation and confusing topography." We like that kind of honesty. It's eerily beautiful, isn't it? It is also, apparently, an easy place to get lost in.

Spanish Forks, Utah is home to another mock lighthouse, one that seems a bit out of place so many miles from the ocean. Its oddness is what appealed to us.

It is a monument to honor the first permanent Icelandic settlement in the United States in 1855.

You might think hot and arid Utah would be an unusual place for settlers from Iceland to put down roots, but they were converts to the Mormon Church, and elected to settle in the new territory established by Mormon pioneers.

On the eastern edge of of Utah, the land turns eerie and strange in places and some of the most intriguing sites you'll see are in Arches National Park in Utah and in Monument National Park.

Hanging Lake Falls is tucked away in Glenwood Canyon. This section, one of the most scenic of Highway 6, became part of the I-70 in the late sixties.

Colorado

The narrow gauge Colorado & Southern No. 9, built in 1884, ran circuits as a freight and passenger train throughout Colorado until retirement in 1937. It then went on to serve as a display train at the 1939 World's Fair in New York City, the 1948-49 Chicago Railroad Fair and served as an excursion railroad at Black Hills Central in 1957.

In 2006, the train was restored to working order, where it ran the Georgetown Loop for 100 days. Due to mechanical difficulties, the train was again retired from the line and restored.

Nebraska

And now our personal favorite section. Nebraska is home to an even more spectacular show than any performed by mere humans. A show brought to us by Mother Nature. Fossil records show that for more than 9 million years Sandhill Cranes have been crossing the area. The crane and geese migrations are one of the most awe-inspiring experiences in the world. If you’re traveling along Nebraska Highway 6 in the spring you can’t miss it. For weeks at a time they are oddly, miraculously, everywhere.

A visit to Harold Warp’s Pioneer Village is good any time of the year. If it has to do with pioneer history and life in Nebraska in the early years of statehood you can find it in the Minden Museum.

Of course no rendition of Nebraska would be complete without Memorial Stadium, “Home of the Greatest Fans in College Football!” Nebraskans love our sports teams and that includes three (or more) time NCAA Women’s Volleyball National Championship winners and the perennial favorite sport – baseball. That’s Haymarket Park you see there, home of the Cornhuskers as well as the minor league Salt Dogs.

One of the most well-known and highly visible landmarks in Lincoln is the capital itself. Among the many things Nebraskans are proud of about this truly unique building is the fact that it was completely paid for by the time it was finished. (Wish that we could say that about some of the other buildings in the immediate area!)

The Linoma Lighthouse is one of those quirky things we love about this state (Did you know landlocked Nebraska also has an official Navy? It was created in 1930 when the governor was away on vacation. We’re not kidding. Look it up). Installed in 1939, Linoma is a mock lighthouse, never meant to guide anything but tourists to the eastern shore of the Platte River, but whenever we see it we feel the familiar sense of Welcome that we hope Nebraska offers everyone.

Originally introduced to immigrants as the “Nebraska,” a Native American word meaning “flat water,” that’s the Platte River you see braiding its way across the mural. Years ago, people used to say the river was “a mile wide and an inch deep,” but progress is changing things and the Platte River isn’t as wide and free as it used to be.

The ghosting of Standing Bear overlooks that running water. There’s far more to tell about that particular native Nebraskan than can be said here, but suffice it to say that it was his 1879 trial in Omaha that put Nebraska’s motto “Equality under the law” to test – and changed American history in the process.

He lived and died north of the river he now graces, but the Ponca Trail of Tears crossed the Route 6 route more times than history should’ve allowed. Joe Starita’s book I Am a Man is a good place to start if you want to learn more about his history.

Before we let you go completely, let’s back up the “You Are Here” sign at the heart of the mural. There you’ll find the “Greetings from Shoemakers” sign.

The Shoemaker family has been in the truck stop business since 1951. The first Shoemaker’s truck stop was just south of Long Beach in Ventura, CA, right along Highway 101. A second Shoemaker’s truck stop opened in Gallup, NM, several years later on Route 66.

Those stations both closed down when the interstate system was built in the 1960′s and no access to either station was included in the roadway design. We found a place to stay when we opened our place on Highway 6 in Lincoln in 1967.

We were on the north side of the highway for many years, but in 2009 we opened our modern facility on the south side of the same intersection.

We're happy to have been a part of the traveling lives of people all across the country for so many years, whether we met in California, New Mexico or Nebraska. We look forward to many years of the same.

Keep in touch as you travel historic Highway 6. We love to hear stories of the road. You can post your comments on our Facebook page so all our customers can share in the fun travel stories… "From Sea to Shining Sea"

Iowa

Can you find our nod to Iowa artist Grant Woods in the mural? Think “Stone City” rather than “American Gothic.” When you drive across this section of Highway 6 you can really see how the natural world influenced this particular artist. For miles you’ll drive through farmland that looks pretty as a painting.

Centennial Bridge between Rockport IL and Davenport IA spans the farmland here on the mural though in actuality it’s the Mississippi River it crosses. Beautiful to look at, it is now also free to cross after spending the first 63 years of service as a toll bridge.

Illinois & Indiana

Highway 6 runs along the southern border of Lake Michigan where you’ll find the Windy City of Chicago. Pictured here is the Sears Tower, now known as the Willis Tower.

The skyscraper has glass floor sky decks that jut out from the side of the building so that you can down between your own feet to the street a vertigo inducing 1,353 ft below!

If you can pry your eyes from that sight you can see 40 to 50 miles in every direction.

Among the things you could see is farmland. What would be without our farmers? Hungry, most likely.

Whether they’re farming energy or crops, they’re making a difference for all of us and the sight of those fields on either side of the highway can be pretty awesome.
 

Ohio

Lorain Light House stands at the north end of the West Harbor Breakwater in Loraine Harbor on Lake Erie. It stands here next to Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, Ohio.

As of this writing the park holds the world record for the most roller coasters, one of which is the world’s second tallest. Take a quick look from the top – from 420 ft in the air you can see a lot of Lake Erie!

Pennsylvania

Highway 6 meanders for almost 400 miles through Pennsylvania. The Allegheny River Valley provides a breathtaking trip! You’ll see the Nicholson Viaduct, which billed as the world’s largest concrete bridge. It has been called “The 9th Wonder of the World!”

What’s not to love about that?
 

New York

In the short distance Highway 6 crosses New York it follows a bit of the Hudson River Valley. Although traveling through this area of Highway 6 by car is recommended, travelers might take a side tour with one of the hot air balloons famous to the area.

You think the sky is perfectly beautiful all by itself until you see a hot air balloon floating above you. That’s when you realize that’s what was missing from the view – that little bit of color and excitement.

Connecticut

The Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch in Hartford, Connecticut is the beautiful brownstone arch next on our tour around the room.

The arch was dedicated on September 17, 1886 – the anniversary of the Battle of Antietam – to honor the 4,000 Hartford citizens who served in the Civil War and the 400 who died for the Union. You can meditate on the costs of war as you climb the ninety-sex steps to the top of the tower.
 

Rhode Island

Did you know that even though Rhode Island is the smallest state in the United States, it has the longest official name?

“The State of Rhode Island and the Providence Plantations” is its official moniker. It’s also called “The Ocean State” because not a single part of the state lies more than 30 miles from salt water.
 

Massachusetts

On the Atlantic, in Massachusetts, the Pilgrim’s Tower Memorial 252 feet above Provincetown.

The stunning granite obelisk was completed in 1910 to commemorate the landing of the Mayflower on Cape Cod in Fall of 1620. The pilgrims spent more than a month wandering about the cape area before heading to the more famous secondary stopping place; Plymouth Rock.

Modern day visitors can climb all 116 steps and and 60 ramps to the observation area, though the task is not for the faint of heart. Those who are rewarded with magnificent views of the ocean, the cape and the very beginning of the historic Highway 6 as it winds through the beach scenes much like the ones you see here.