The San Francisco call., 1909-03-26
HARD AUTO TRIP
FROM THE SOUTH
Jack Lankersilim and Henry 7.
Hazard Reach City in
Stearns Car
By K. x. PHomn1edieu

Jack LanISershim of Los Angeles is
in town. He came overland in his baby
tonneau Stearns. In the party was
Henry t. Hazard and his chauffeur.
The party left the City of Angels last
Friday afternoon at 4:30 o'clock, TAX
as Santa Barbara was only fair 1t being
rutty and full of holes, especially near
Calabasas. The motorists put up for
the first night Al Ventura and went
on to Santa Barbara for luncheon.
After leaving Ventura in the morning
they had to go through Casitas pass.
This, like the rest of the road, was
very rough. Near Gaviota they en-
countered a stretch of road that had
been the undoing of several automo-
biles. They ran into a series of holes
that were something exceptional. The
rain had washed out the road until 1t
had left q hole about 10 feet deep and
40 feet long.
Lankershim said yesterday that he
did not know what he would have
done if the engine had given out at
the bottom of one of these holes, for
1t would have taken more than a team
or horses to have hauled him out.
They reached Santa Maria in a rain
storm and decided to put up for the
night. The next morning they were
out early, as they had heard the roads
were not the best.
This proved only too true, for 1t took
them whole day to make the 21
miles to Arroyo Grande. They found
the roads very bad and all the bridges
washed out. The roads were SO bad
in places that they had to leave the
main road and take a roundabout way
to get to their destination for the night.
When they reached Arroyo Grande they
had enough riding for one day. From
the latter place to San Luis Obispo the
next day they found hard travelling. 1t
was on this stretch of the run that they
first encountered the heavy mud. Added
to this they found most OF the bridges
gone. But by this time they had be-
come used to fording and were sur
prised when they found bridge intact
That night they stayed at San Luis
Obispo.
Getting away to an early start they
reached the Salinas river after going
through Paso Robles. At the former
place they found that they could not
ford the river and had to go by way
of Indian valley The roads, however
began to improve and were fair as far
as Soledad. From Soledad they We're
heavy on account of the road work
which IS being done. Many stretches
were plowed. After leaving Salinas
IHCy went SAiONoh ~ A'"AA "N%hAA ~
way of Dumbarton and were surprised
to find the roads good. They stopped
at San Juan for the night and came
through on the following day to San
Francisco.
Lankershim advises any one who is
thinking of making the trip to put it
off for some time. As for himself he
does not care to make the trip home if
the road conditions do not improve a
good deal. He was most enthusiastic
over the way his Stearns car acted
through the hard trip. He said that he
never raised the hood the whole trip
except at night to put In the supply of
oil. There was not a skip of the en-
gine from the time they left Los An
geles until they arrived in this city.
Tire trouble was also unknown to them
the Michelin equipment standing the
trip in beautiful shape.