The Daytona gazette=news. (Daytona, Fla.) 1901-1922, 1907-03-02

into one or other of the beautifully car
peted stretches of which | have already
spoken, passing the while through a
country where the pines, the palmettoes
and the cypress group themselves about
to make perfectly charming scene. De-
caSionally in this long stretch ruts are
to be encountered. and once, at the ap-
proach to one of the bridges where the
road is especially narrow and clrcuitOus,
there is q rather bad hole, but the auto
mobilist who has learned the art of
'straddling' need not fearit,
Approaching Cartersville, just before
the bridge is reached, which crosses the
creek, there is much the same stretch of
deep, shifting sand for one or two Aun-
drcd aids. as it appears at Moorc's, but
here again there should be- no difficulty.
providing the engine is within. tn labor
That it need not labor hard l. perhaps
best borne out by the simple statemCut
that neither here nor indeed at any time
or place on the St. Augustine trip were
we obliged to use chains on our tires.
From Gainesville, new road has been
built to meet the old Kings county
road. This extends perhaps three miles,
and is in good condition, as is the first
part of the Kings road that is entered
from the new road The last five miles,
however, of the Kings road-that is
until the shell, road out of St. Angus
tine is reached-is bad, the worst
stretch really of the whole trip. 1t is
deep, heavy sand that in places seems
even clayey, and that is much more cut
up than any other part Of the route.
Probably this is because it is more of Il
highway, and is travelled over more.
What ever the reason, it was Il distinct
and dlsagreeable disappointment to us,
especially is we had been lcd to believe
that tue nearer We drew to st. Angus
tine, the better the road would become.
After travelling tit took Us nearly an
hour to cover this short, bad portion.
| could we'll understand why it was
that, i> we aftcrward learned, a number
of people, who had started out from the
St Augustine end to 60 to Daytona, had
turned back in disgust. The fact is,
had they persevered they would soon
have gotten over by far and away the
worst piece of the whole road. OF
course, the last seven miles of shell
road WAS dead easy" The return Jour
ney was made just as easily, and in
perhaps L little less time. Indeed. /
see no reason why, did one care to urge
his machine Il trifle, the trip could not
very well be made in four hours. as |
understand some people have made it.
In all the trip We met water only
once tn G" through it-and that Il pool
OF about tvs" feet deep and ten feet in
width Undoubtedly i'll Wet weather
there would be more water there, and
III other places, but To offset that the
rains would relieve many Of the sandy
stretches and make it much easier 60
ing
Reviewing the trip and its possibilities,
| should say that for the expenditure of
comparatively few thousand dollars the
entire road could be put in superb shape
between Daytona and st Augustine. In
deed there would be many miles Of it
that would need little more than The fill
lng Ill of occasional rutS and the Topping
OF of some unruly branches of trees.
Anyone who has travelled the road would
say that it would bc we'll worth the ex-
pense- 1t is worse than pity-it is 4
SIN, that i road so beautiful by nature
aad 50 rich in possibilities should lie UNI
developed and untravcled
IL my humble opinion, good roads
viii boom Florida and attract and hold
visitors as nothing else They would be |
the best and the most lasting invest !
ulcntS that Florida or FloriCiitnS could
have.