Charlevoix county herald., 1914-03-28

AUTOMOBILING 8
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GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN :
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SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA :
& BY WARD NORTON & :
BY WARD MORTON

comparison TO our restricted and mar
row life of the civilized east. The
west" gets i'm the blood and it is easy
to understand that if one makes M
his mind to rough it he will fall in love
with the call of the Wild
The roads IN Nebraska are good, but
not as good as in Iowa, though fully
as good time can be made because q
great part of the state is barn-tlOol
level There are fewer hills than in
Iowa, fewer curves, fewer towns, few
er road travellers to pass. This part
of our trip was over the Omaha Den
yer Transcontinental Route, which is
marked by black and white bands on
the telephone poles
We passed through or near Minden
Axtell, HOldredge, Atlanta and Oxford
before striking camp for the night.
! days run, 1913 miles). We found a
grove near so-called lake, not far
from the muddy Republican river, on
the farm lands of Charles l.. Clary.
The lake" was mighty poor spec
linen TO men who know the beauties
of the hundreds of pure lakes in Mich
J igan, New York and other eastern
{ states. Ii was little more than a mud
J
! battle in it, yet it was such God send
TO people in that lake-less, water-less,
/ tree-less section that farmers came
from miles around to enjoy it's beau
! ties. CD Old scOws were the row
boats and the water was muddy look
/ ing and covered with dirty scum
Sunday morning dawned sunny and
warm and we decided not TO continue
our trip until Monday. We had passed
our first 900 miles during the pre-
viOus day, having made an average
/ daily run during our first week out of
about I44 miles. We needed recuper-
alton, hut we were not tagged out.
! We were, however, sunhurnt, bearded
dirty and worn. We cleaned up,
! loafed, wrote letters home, explored
/ the immediate vicinity-and tried hard
| to rest, but all in all it was the most
uncomfortable day we had put in II
was extremely warm, with very little
/ breeze, and there we're more than
enough mosquitoes and sand flies
odOrs and conditions too peStiferous
for comfort For our piece de resist
ance we had for dinner turtle doves
each man bringing down his own bird
with the trusty shotgun We had
brought along with us.
Late i'm the day after the heat Of
the sun had spent itself, we decided to
! walk over TO the river" and take a
swim. it appeared TO he about a half
4 mile TO the river, hut il was a big
two miles and we had our first lessons
in deceptive distances. The atmos-
phere is clear and Instructions to
sight SO few that il is very difficult
for newcomers To form proper iudg-
ment in regard to distances.
After a trying tramp through
swamp land, bog and underbrush, We
arrived only to find the river fully as
uninviting as the lake. The banks were
rather high and there were no Swim
ming holes" in sight The river was
part water and three parts mud and it
looked treacherOus, as if it had quick
sand bottoms One member OF our
party was bound TO test it and was
soon sans clothing and wading in the
| treacherous sands. A little of il went
a good ways with him, however, and
we were soon on our way back to
camp. We had a parrot monkey
time trying To find it and succeeded
only after a long round about detQur
! through boys, corn fields and barbed
wire fences. Ii was dark before We
arrived full Of stick-tight buTs. an
ger, mud, crouch, and bad words.
The last day of our first weeks run
was somewhat trying. Our ignition
/ system gave us more or less trouble,
slight leak IN tire valve troubled
US, we threw that same old shoe again
and before night fall we had tire
! trouble. Sunday the experts tuned up
/ the car again.
/ Monday, August Doth, we got under
way at z "A. m. and during the day
saw our first prairie dogs and prairie
owls. The dogs are not quite as large
as the eastern wOodchucks, but there
are literally thousands of them all
through the west. They are pests and
/ not good to eat. They burrow down
into the ground like wOodchucks and
as one approaches them they can be
seen scampering for their holes at a
/ two-forty gait. At times they will
sit up on their launches and nibble
grass held in their front paws ex-
actly like squirrel handles food. We
shot enough OF them to fill a small
cart, but they became so numerous
that we did not consider them fair
game. The owls are about as big as
a good-sized robin and thew are SO
quiet and dignified that they look com
zeal. They seldom move and they sit
on the ground all hunched up in a
heap, occasionally blinking their
staring eyes as if they knew what
they were doing. No wonder sedate
judges get the reputation of being as
wise as owls. Wisdom seems to con
sist in saying nothing and doing less
and looking important and "chesty.'
We were told that the prairie dog
rattlesnake and prairie owl all live in
the same hole in the ground. Scent
lists say this is not true. Rabbits are
very numerous in this section and
there are also prairie hens 'and some
grouse.
The sage brush country begins on
the prairie land and rattlesnakes
abound. We shot several on our trip
from the car, the largest one having
but six rattlers. The ranchmen told
us that the snakes were gradually be-
ing exterminated and few wild ami
. - n Al