2022-05-31

I stopped at the Lincoln Monument a few miles east of Laramie, and highest point on I-80/US-30. The visitor center there has a lot of information about the Lincoln Highway. It gives all the credit for the Lincoln Highway to Henry Joy, the president of Packard Motor Company and the first president of the Lincoln Highway Association. There is no mention of Carl Fisher, the man who originally conceived the idea. Curious oversight.

While there I met Henrik Bjorklund, a Swede who with 5 others is driving his 1959 Chrysler Imperial from Florida to Alaska, then ferrying from Alaska to Seattle and driving to LA. The cars in the tour are all Detroit chrome and iron before 1961. These cars are beautiful and immaculately restored. Henrik told me that they found the cars in the US, shipped them to Sweden, restored them and shipped them back for these tours.

With the cost of gas, ferry shipment and staying in hotels for 4 months, not to mention the cost of the cars, these folks  must be pretty well heeled. I don’t use Facebook, but they said they are posting all their photos there. If you are interested, look for something like “Swedish North to Alaska tour 2022.”

Here is an article from Collectorcars.com on Henrik’s Imperial

As I was driving out of Laramie, I came upon their caravan on the Lincoln Highway to Medicine Bow, driving at a sedate 55. I stopped in Medicine Bow, but they continued on toward Rawlins… and Alaska…