Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1914-04-25

side of the road so near that we could
reach out from the car and touch the
limbs We picked ripe oranges and
ate our lunch under a spreading Eng
lish walnut tree, loaded down with the
growing toothies We bought melon
from a farmer who passed us with a
wagon load of them. We stopped and
aske dthe price. Ten cents. We Sc
lected one and then he said: "20
cents" Our answer was, we heard
you the first time" They are all foxy
fellows out there. They charge all
the traffic will pear from oranges to
real estate and then back again. Ev
cry man jack of them goes there to
get plucked and the sets right out
to pluck somebody else. They sue
coed, too, and don't mind practically
telling you so if you say anything
about prices being high. They frank
ly say that is the game. Get in and
play.
We passed through Whittier, La
! Harba, Fullerton, Santa Ana, Tustin,
Irvine, Capistrano, Oceanside, Encini
tas, Del Mar, La Jolla on our 1856
mile run from Los Angeles to San
! Diego. We were much amused at a
sign we saw as we entered one of the
towns. Most all towns have speed
| laws to govern tourists and usually
the rule requires automobiles to slow
down to 8, 10 or say II miles an hour.
| This particular town must have more
autoists than horsemen on its board
because they very frankly printed on
big sign: "Slow Down to 60 Miles
an Hour That was the best joke
along that line that we had seen on
the trip and we tried to obey the in
junction.
At Capristrano we inspected one of
the oldest of all American ruins" 1t
was the San Luis Capristrano mis-
sion building, which was destroyed by
earthquake more than hundred years
ago. Just think of that. We unso-
phisticated ginks think California was
only discovered in 40, but here is an
old Catholic church ruin that flour
ished with only the monks and Indians
to back them up over a hundred and
fifty or two hundred years ago. Sit
back, Kelly. Sit back; he's going to
throw the ball.
Just before reaching Oceanside,
which, Of course, is on the side-left
side, going down-of the ocean, we
had a pretty warm spell but of a sud-
den we felt the atmosphere cool off
and in the jerk Of a carburetor's time
in refusing to work, we found that 1t
was the ocean breeze dead ahead of
US that brought up the GOODNESS in
our party. Most Of the way from
there on we rode alongside of the
ocean on a pretty fair specimen of a
shore boulevard 1t was getting dark
and we didn't see any signs of San
Diego, yet we knew that we had COW
cred enough mileage to almost make
it. The miles seemed like hours, and
we almost gave up, thinking we had
lost our way or that Diego had drop
ped into the ocean. Soon we gained
the top of a slight rise in the road
and there below us laid the object Of
our long journey. Those flashing
lights sent out a CHEEKY welcome to as
and we returned salute Of real JOY.
We had read much about San Diego
and were very anxious to see just
what it looked like. Our qualification
was soon complete, as it did not take
us long to drive to the center of the
city. 1t was 7:45 in the evening and
a perfect summers night at that, with
just enough breeze from the ocean to
take off the sultry condition that is
found in most eastern towns. The
city was ablaZe with light and at first
we thought there was some special
gala occasion being celebrated, but
we found that it was only the usual
holiday appearance. On the main
business street is small park in
which an electric fountain surround
ed by palms, shoots its vari-colored
CLEANS out into the street from all
four corners. This sets directly in
front of the U. S. Grant hotel, which
is large and imposing structure and
similar in every way to the first-class
hotels of the larger eastern towns.
Office buildings covering whole
blocks of space are to be seen in the
heart of the city and altogether it
presents the appearance of town of
100000 population. AS a matter of
fact it has only about $4,000 and this
indicates the spirit of enterprise that
can be found here. The town is
booming and its growth seems to be
substantial and we'll founded They
having the first natural ocean harbor
on the coast for the entrance of ocean
liners from the south and naturally
expect great progress when the Pan
anna Canal is completed.
LOS AIlBtltS llcS dDOuJ 10 UllleS III
land from the ocean and she is build
ing a harbor, but it will always be a
made" one and it will cost a mint of
money to keep it up. San Diego has
natural harbor and other things be-
ing equal, she will outdistance the
City of Angels in a shipping way.
San Francisco lies over 600 miles
north of San Diego.
We put the little general of a car
in the agency garage, engaged rooms
at the modest, but modern little ho-
tel Detroit and after cleaning up and
, seeing the city lights twinkle some
went to bed tired, but happy and sat
isfied with an unusual automobile tour
that had carried us over rivers, plains,
mountains, deserts, cities and hills
and valleys for over 1927 miles. We
were at our journeys end.
The towns at which we stopped
over night and the mileage we made
for each day follows:
First Day-Chicago, ILL.,, (hotel) 207