Los Angeles herald., 1909-08-08
@H4Z8sl9sE@

/ for some distance by a number of 9TH
! er motorists. among them being eX-
/ Mayor Thompson and his family Of
/ Salt Lake City.
/ With the American flag proudly hut-
! tering in the breeze suspended from
/ the dash of the Maxwell car at the
/ head Of the line, the run for Caliao $40
miles. was begun. this being the stop
ping place for the first night. On sun
/ day Mrs. Ramsey drove to ElyS Mon
/ day to Austin and Reno was reached
! last Wednesday.
In some respects the trip to this city
was the hardest of the entire tour, for
/ in addition 10 the hard climbs over the
Sierra Nevada mountains, made doubly
+ hard by Ahe rough roads and under
! growth, rhuch loose shifting sand hal
/ to be Travelled over, sand such as is
/ only encountered in this section of the
/ country
! So bad was it in some places that
/ half the air had to be let out of the
/ tires. which was found to be a great aid
] in the sandy sections, for when the
/ tires were in this condition they did
| not sink So deeply and seemed to get
/ a better purchase.
The climbs up the mountain sides
/ seemed easy enough for the Maxwell
80, steep as they were, while the equal
/ ly steep descents. a severe test on
brakes, were made without trouble.
While the run between Salt Lake city
and Reno was hard, there was on the
way so much of rare beauty to be seen
that the four ladies forgot their few
hardships and remembered only the
/ beautiful pictures painted by nature
Scenery Picturesque
The rugged peaks of both ranges ris-
ing bold and erect, in countless places
snow-capped mountains blended them
selves against the clear bue Sky into
a picture which would require the
most earnest effort of a brilliant artist
to portray a picture once seen never
forgotten and one to be seen properly
only from a motor car.
From Reno the same natural beauty
of the ranges farther east were found
while making the trip to Sacramento,
Cal. The barrenness of the mountains
to Reno was not so noticeable on the
trip from that point west, yet more
snow was found on the mountain tops,
and here, too, an occasional view of
scared young bear was had.
From Reno to Sacramento there were
some rather stiff grades to climb, but
once in sight Of San Francisco all the
difficulties OF the trip were quickly
and easily forgotten, the Golden Gate
and the Golden Coal being in sight.
The party was escorted into the city
ing motorists who had watched the
progress of the fair tourist and the
Maxwell car which had established
double record Mrs. Ramsey being the
first woman to drive car from New
York to san Francisco, and the Max
well ear for having made the long jour
ney without one single bit of mechan-
ical trouble.
From the day the car left New York
until it reached San Francisco there
was not the slightest excuse for Mrs.
Ramsey so much as even looking at
any of the mechanical parts of it, eX-
cept to adjust the carburetor as ascents
and descents We're made, a wonderful
record considering the rough roads
Travelled, the load carried and the fact
that streams, irrigating bitches and
such were forded many times, black
heavy gumbo and sand were plowed
through for hundreds of miles, two
ranges of mountains climbed and in
fact every possible cause of trouble
met. An examination Of the car failed
to bring to light even so much as
loosened nut, the car at the end of
42O0 miles of real cross country tour
ing in all kinds of weather and over all
kinds of roads still being perfect and
at the end of the trip running a S
smoothly as al the start.