The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-09-11
KNIGHTS TEMPLAR
PILGRIMAGE FULL
OF ENJOYMENT
C. L. Gaylord Describes Mani
fold Delights Of Months Tour
of America
Seventy Two Knights, Wives and
Friends Cover Many Thousands
of Miles

ennial conclaves of the order have
come to be important and looked fol
events in the social life of the Masonic
fraternity of Bridgeport. They have
served to make known to those who
participated in the trips, the many
wonders of this great country and II
doing this have formed Friendships
among those not members of the or
der. taking part in them.
Mr.. and Mrs. Charles L. Gaylord
and daughter Margaret, have just re
turn eds,from the recent pilgrimage tc
Denver,$ and in describing the trip tc
a Farmer reporter yesterday Mr.. Gay
lord said:
words absolutely fail to describe
the enjoyment of the party who made
this trip. We had II persons when
we left Bridgeport and we were gone
an entire month. We all returned
safe and sound and outside of little
a pain or an ache.
"Our first stop from Bridgeport,
which we left Friday morning. Aug.
s, was Chicago. We arrived there
Saturday afternoon and found auto
mobiles which took US for a drive
about the beautiful lake front and
throgh the principal streets Of the
city. Sunday morning at daylight we
arrived at Kansas City and crossed the
Missouri river into Kansas The heat
was intense. The temperature rang
ed between 108 and 11s degrees. We
rode for miles through the corn belt
there gazing at ruined crops. The
corn fairly burned to the ground.
'-On Monday, Aug. II, we arrived in
Denver and our special train was
parked in the South Yards. Our
track was close to the street and
handy to two street car lines which
carried US to the center of the city.
=
in Denver and I tell you, it beat the
hotels.
AT Denver of course we went sight
seeing but the big day was Tuesday,
Aug. IL, when the parade took place.
1t was the finest parade I ever saw.
One Conmandery from California was
mounted on black horses and every
horse had white feet. Hamilton Com
mandery and the Connecticut Knights
Templar had an important place in
the formation of the line.
1.-THE ladies of the party we're Civ
en- numbered seats in the reviewing
stand. In Denver we had the free
dom of the Elks' beautiful home. 1t
is free from debt cost. 81. 900, 900; and
is one of the handsomest in the coun-
try. Wednesday morning, Aug. Is,
we left Denver for Colorado Springs.
Here we8 had two days: of sight see
ing visiting Pixies Peak, the Garden
of the Geds,C the Cave gofr the Winds.
and Manitou.
I'VE also made a side trip to Grip
pie Creek winding over trestles 1000
feet high on tracks around the noun
tain like a snake. 1t cost 100000
a mile to build this railroad. At
Cripple Creek we did not have time
to visit a gold mine but we did visit
the Elks' beautiful home The roof
and three walls of the kitchen in this
home are formed of solid rock.
'F'rom Colorado Springs we went to
New Mexico, arriving
there on Friday, Aug. Is. On the
trip to Albuquerque we rode close to
the old sante Fe trail and miles from
any habitation. looked from the car
window and saw a big Locomobile
bowling along as if it were on the
bolevard at Seaside park.
''At Albuquerque we stopped to buy
curios from the Indians. They are
laying Warrenite pavement in the
streets of that town. From AIbu-
where we climbed into big
wagons and drove to the petrified for
est. Some of the drivers that took US
over had come forty miles that morn
ing and the conveyances were col
lected from all the surrounding coun-
try to accomm odate our party.
Before we started we saw the
guides taking the horses from the
corral and they gave us a little exhibit
ton of riding bucking horses. We
all carried away souvenirs from the
petrifed forest.
From there our next stop was the
Ell Tovar hotel at the Grand Canon
where we arrived Sunday, August IT.
1t would be useless to attempt a de-
scription of this natural wonder Mon
day at o'clock we reached RedIands,
California, and after a trip through
the orange and magnolia groves we
gHmpsed Riverside and left for Los
Angeles late in the afternoon.
'tAt Los Angeles we took an auto
m obile trip with Mr.. and Mrs. "A. S.
We11ss We went 20 miles through old
Spanish towns. We spent three days
in Los Angeles from Tuesday, August
10 to Thursday, FL. From Los An
geles we made many side trips visit
ing Redondo, Santa Monica, Long
Beach; Ocean Park and the famous
Catalina Islands. We also visited
San Diego and Moonstone beach |
where we gathered some moonstones
in the rough. At Redondo beach we
saw many fishermen their poles looked
like a forest and the fish were biting |
so well that they were being landed
at the rate of about 100 a second.
early on the morning of Satur-
day, August %, we arrived at Del |
Monte, Cal, and then we passed |
through the great redwoods forest of
big trees over the Santa, Cruz route |
to San. Francisco which we reached
the same day. At San Francisco we |
we're quartered in the Palace Hotel. |
We spent Sunday and Monday sight |
seeing and left San Francisco at mid |
night Monday. Our next stop was on
Tuesday, Aug. &c for a climb of Mount |
Shasta and a visit to Shasta Springs.
Next we visited Portland, Ore, on |
W Wednesday, Aug. 81. Portland is call /
I'd the Rose City and for miles on
some streets between the curb and
he sidewalks are hundreds of rose
pushes. They were in full bloom when
We were there and presented a pref I