Saturday news. (Watertown, S.D.) 19??-19??, 1914-01-29

I
e. n. Lester Writes ID Interesting
Letter 81 HIS Trip " Auto
mobile II Texas.
STRUCK SOME BAD ROADs
The Old Imperial il Slightly
Disfigured But Sill il tie
Her Fourth Trip.

Ring Her Fourth TIP.
lalPaso, Texas, Ian 2s, 22s A.
Editor Saturday News
Lest i forget, viii Immediately
write you, briefly, Of my midwinter
motor trip from NatertowIi III lEl-
Paso. s5
Through the hills mort Of Lake
Poinsett we had an ,,nbroken road
and snow 50 deen that IN places We
had to tramp Ii down To get the car
through. From poinsett scout a the
roads were heavy but gradually got
better until at Yankton they were
dusty Six miles north Of SVausa,
Neb., we suddenly struck the heay.
lest kind oil mud ana from there to
Window. Kan, d little town about
sixteen miles west Of Nj Pherson, ne
literally had to fight for many of the
miles we passed over five days Of
steady rain followed by one heavy and
one light snow had fixed the roads
proper.
On that part of the drive We ran at
least two hundred miles on low and
Intermediate gear The mud was Of
ten oil Just the right consistency to
4 pick up and the front wheels would
lift and carry over the mud from q
track 3 inches deep and 5 inches
wide. Whenever sNe could get into
fast intermediate oi' high. the air
around the car was simply raining
mud chunks and several times We had
ITO shovel out To ma ke room for our
feet and clear tl,e foot levers Dirty !
Yes, wes. were ssIre dir! 81 IS ONE days
the mud was frozen hard and 20
rough it seemed the car must shake to
pieces There WAS but little travel,
Except by baggies, and the largest
load We saw on wa geli between
near t.rofton, Sels and Hutchinson,
Kan, was one Syyeal casll hat y, y !
sure on peach road ]5aIld Ass
got through only BY the power of our
car, patience, sticlteit tiyefl less and
hard work, especially for the car. At
/ Window Kan, we left the old Santa
/ ne Trail and headed for the sand
district OF southwest Sailsas and the
going improved wonderfully We had
no further trouble Will muddy roads.
We logged along slowly however
until decided to come 70 El f'aso te
ssee. the motor show Leaving An1aril
10 Tuesday morning " 4 whipped npG
some and arrived at Plains, rex, that
I5evening, having ran two hundred and
forty-one miles In nine and one-haii
hours road time. or at al, average
speed of 25.3 miles an hour II seem;
ed good to- let the old car run again
and she sure flew through the Texas
Panhandle and far into the South
Plains country that day. Leaving
Plains Wednesday morning we hur'
Iried west over an exclusive but rather
rough auto road and reached Roswell
in time for lunch time, five hours,
distance, one hundred and twenty
miles, as we drove out Of our regular
way eight miles to see the wonderful
Roswell Bottomless Lakes. These are
situated at the edge of the cap rock
on the east side Of the Pacos Valley
and are perhaps .caverns' filed with
water from the artesian strata. One
5of these so-caled lakes or wells is a
number of rods across, nearly eircu( (ar
and I understand has been sounded
TO a depth Of sixteen hundred feet
without finding bottom.
Leaving Roswell after lunch, we
started for q hard drive through the
Sacramento mountains to reach Ala
mogardo for a night stop. After rum
ming about thirty miles tire trouble
developed and we got q whole latful
.of it. Had casing Off fiVe times and
yllcanized tubes seven times. Had
lost the tube to our pressure tank and
five times ninety pounds pressure with
a hand pump represents how many
strokes? 1t makes me tired vet toi
think about IT! Wei, we finally got
them to stand UP and reached PicachoI
after being on the road five and one
half hours, three and one,half of|
which was lost on tires, and We only
forty-two miles from Roswell. This
morning we left Picacho at s: 20 and