The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1895-07-26
OVER The CONTINENT ON WHEELS.
Journey Of Newspaper Man ard
His Wife.
They Propose Riding Through Asia by
the Same MeanS-Severe OH
Their BICYCLES.

cago arrived here on Wednesday nigh!
from Chicago on bicycles. Mr.. McElrath
represents the Inter ocean. and is Ell route
to Asia. over large part OF which they
will wheel, in the interest of that paper.
He and his wife have ridden on their
wheels from Chicago here, without change
Of machines, making a total distance OF
2,SS3 miles, as registered on the cyclom-
eters. in tiity-eight days of actual travel.
They left the Inter ocean office April
10th. and the occasion OF their departure
was made quito an event. they having an
escort of hundreds Of wheelmen to the
city limits, with a host of carriages and
buggies in the line, and escorted by a
platoon of police. In the line, says this
newspaper man, were the representatives
Of five generations in one family, the
eldest eff the wheel escort being 81 years
Of age and the youngest years.
The adventurous couple were met at
Denver, ,222 miles out. by over a thou
lance in fourteen and half days. They
came through by Tennessee Pass, an alti-
tude of ii 900 feet. They spent several
days in cities and towns en- route, speed
not being essential to their purpose.
They crossed deserts in the Great Basin
that Rowe, Stevens and Mcclure, noted
bicyclist tourists, had declared impass-
able on bicycles.
Several tines the couple were sixteen
and eighteen hours without water while
on tue deserts. They stayed ten days i'll
and about Ogden and Salt Lake City, and
left Ogden July Sd. Their days of actual
wheeling between Ogden and here were
eleven. Several times night overlook
them between stations. and they turned
in in their blankets on the deserts floor
or among sagebrush. On the route they
wheeled between railroad rails l,SO0
miles. Very often they We're compelled
to dismount and carry their wheels.
The tourists will leave here to-mor-
row morning early and wheel to san
Francisco, by way of Davisville and
Benicia, crossing the trestles between here
and Davisville by carrying their wheels
where necessary. They Will pause ten
miles out from Oakland, and there on
Sunday morning several hundred San
Francisco wheelmen are to meet and
escort them to that city, from which point
they will take steamer for China.
Mrs. McElrath, slender little woman
has stood the Journey thus far just as we'll
as her stalwart husband, and does not APP
pear TO have suffered any more than he
has. Both are as brown as berries, and
show the signs of exposure.
They agree that the most delightful cpl
sode OF the trip thus far WAS the descent Of
the mountains from Cascade to Rocizli lin.
''Out of the snow in the morning into
orange groves and fruit orchards at even
ing was an experience we will never for
get; nor the magnificent scenery, nor the
splendid views we had Of the Sacramento
Valley from the TANKS of the mountains
as we wheeled down them," says Mr..
McElrath.
one of the most disagreeable expert
ences of the trip, they say, was the night
run into Sacramento across the Haggin
grant. Their journey was in dust sand,
over chuckholes and along unused paths.
feeling their way and not inrequently
losing it altogether in the darkness
That which will most interest wheel
men in the tour OF these riders is the fact
that they have ridden thus far with one
set of tires, and they appear to be good
for some thousands OF miles more, though
they look rocky" enough. The tires are
very large, unusually so, and are exceed
ingiy thick OF shell. They have been
repeatedly punctured and plugged, but
the shell is SO thick that the repairs are
easily made. The tires are of the hose
pipe variety, which Mctlrath insists is
the thing for long, hard journeys, and he
auQS tnaL the larger the TIRE the better tor
comfort and for saving power on such
trip.
The seats of the bicycles they ride are
novel, the first of the kind seen here
They consist each of flat, oval plate of
iron, with deep central groove half the
width of the front. Each side of it. rest
ing in a grated indenture, is small
leather pad, not larger that the palm OF
hand. Than this there is no covering to
the iron. Both riders declare these sad
dies by ali odds the best tor comfort and
for hard pedaling. Their machines are
in good order, aside from the scars on the
tires, and prove to what high excellence
manufacturers have brought the art of
combining strength with exceeding
ligEtness.