The Coconino sun., 1911-11-10
ROUND TRIP TOUR
 IF J. $. IN AUTO
New York Man and Wife Make Tour of Inspection of Coast and West
 Routes in Auto Through U. s.

Mir. and Mrs. Wilby of New York City, were pleasantly enter tained in Flagstaff on their return trip in an auto from the coast to New York by the southern route last week. MT. Milloby gives a brief statement of the progress of the trip following by some iiaer- esting facts concerning local con- ditions in Arizona.
 BRIEF STATEMENT OF TOUR Names MT. and Mrs. Thomas w. Wilby, of New York City. Driver: Fred D. Clark, of Cincinnati, Ohio.
 Car: The Ohio Mud Hen. Started: From New York City Aug. 3Ist.
 MT. Wilby is special agent of the Office of Public Roads, Wash ington, and represents the Tour ing Club of America, N. r., of which he is one of the founders.
 Objects: To inspect roads and report to the government; also to photograph the highways enroute.
 These 1 have already done. To log a trans-continental high way by the middle west route from N. Y. to San Francisco. To log for a Pacific slope route from San Francisco to San Diego. To log a route from San Diego to N. Y. City, via Yuma, Phoenix, Prescott, Flagstaff, Gallup, Santa Fe, Kansas City, St. Louis, Gin cinnati and Washington.
 The tour will be the first auto, mobile round trip of the U. s. A. ever made, in which no inch of the ground is retraced.
 The trip in made with the ob- ject of finding the feasible route east to west in each state, having due regard to rendering accessi- ble to automobilists its scenic, historical and other sightseeing attractions.
 Three days to cover very little over 100 miles, from Prescott to Flagstaff, will show the quality of Arizona roads after rainy spell" :" said MT. Wilby, who arriN ed at Flag on Tuesday. Nothing per- haps shows more vividly the need for rapid work on that splendid project, the Territorial Highway, than our miserable experience. To think that Arizona, the show ground and health spot of the world, should be rendered almost inaccessible to the transconti- mental automobilist by few drops of rain, is a circumstance which l should like to bring forciblv be- fore the mind of every good road booster in your wonderful country. A good road is surely the saliva ton of country. Calling it good because 1t has some smooth stretches never deceives the auto mobilist, whose experience tells him that a road IS never any bet ter than its worst part.
 We. made Camp Verde duskt on the first day out but found that the limited accommodations of the local hotel had been com mandeered" by telegraph by a party of flooring politicians, and but for the introduction which we had to that public spirited citizen, MT. George Hance, we might have been compelled to camp out in the rain. All we had seen of the territorial highway was the short stretch near Glendale; and when we set out from Camp Verde | it was a real disappointment to find that we had to negotiate miles of the old national adobe road with its steep grades, wash outs and stony stretches. Five miles out, however, we had the good fortune to meet with MT. F. K. Goodman, divisional en- gineer of the Territorial Highway, {, to whose consideration MT. Grand had kindly recommended us. We really believe that had it not been for his ready assistance and the help of his men and teams we should never have got through. We were taken to his camp at Montezuma We'll and after rest set out on the worst trip we have hitherto had in our $500 mile tour. All that day and late into the night our trusty mud hen houndered through the adobe batter or clambered over bould- CTS which threatened to tear out her engines. Over and over again our chains were ripped off, anp there were 35 per cent to 40 per I