Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1916-10-20
MoToRED ACROSS CONTINENT.
Fred Rogers Writes Interestingly of a
Trip from Springfield, Mass, to Sc
attic,

Tip from Spr1ngnelu, MasS', 10 &c
attic.
Springfield to Seattle, WASH, in "a
days, driving a Ford car. is the trip
recently completed by Fred G. Rogers,
formerly of Dummerston and Brattle-
boro. He started Aug. 20 at $50 n. m,
with his wife and brother of 81 Spring
street, Springfield, Mass. Mr.. Rogers,
who has lived in Washington the past
eight years, will make his home in the
West for the future. He had been en-
ragged in mining during his residence
in the state of Washington and, hav-
| ing been injured twice in explosions,
! the last time in November, 1918, when
he nearly lost his life, for this imme-
| diate reason he came East the first of
last May. However, he recovered
sufficiently to operate an automobile
and he bought of the Carson Auto corr
pany of Springfield Ford touring ear
and Immediately started in the jitney
business. Although his new business
was success, he was used to the ways
of western life and the prospect of a
cold stormy winter in the jitncy did
not in the least appeal to him, and he
ucclucu 10 N1Slb low IclutlNtS Ill
Manchester, n. H., Barre, and Dummer-
ston, and then equip his Ford with n
camping outfit and start over the north
crn transcontinental route for Seattle.
Mr.. Rogers is a blacksmith by trade
and during his visit he took up his
forging hammer and made attachments
for carrying the luggage and sleeping
and cooking equipment for the party of
three.
He returned to Springfield on the
evening of Aug. %, and at $50 the
following morning made the start. The
Ford registered 10,S16 miles since May
is. the dav of its purchase. 1t was
his first automobile, but being a me-
chanic and having had no trouble to
speak of during his jitney work with
it, decided there was no need of over
hauling it save as the occasion required
from time to time on the route.
Thirty addressed envelopes all
stamped ready to mail to his father,
Fisk G. Rogers of Al High street,
Springfield, and a writing pad served
to keep his friends in the East posted
as to the whereabouts of the party
and to note the incidents of the trip.
His wife was not used to long auto
mobile rides, and it was perhaps for
that reason that the trip took them Il
trihe longer. However, it was made
without special incident and without
any accident; the entire trip taking
"a days and covering 1868 miles.
Mr.. Rogers says the highways of
New York state are the best on the
route, and those of Montana next,
while those of Wisconsin are the poor
est. Gasoline ranged in price from
171a cents to 80 cents a gallon. Dur
ing the entire trip he had but two tack
punctures and slow leak from poor
ly repaired inner tube patch. These
repairs were made by the roadside
with gasoline patches. Tie Bought two
Fisk tires after discarding two that
had run over 900 miles. Every
morning he blew up his tires to the
= required pressure, custom he hae
, followed since he bought the car
, twice he took off the top head of the
engine and scraped the carbon off thu
head and off the pistons. 81 foun,
some terrible grades in the Cascade
t Mountains" said Mr.. Rogers, g Fourtl
of July canyon being the worst, but
negotiated this nicely, opening up thu
throttle while the car stood still unit
= the water boiled, then starting ahead
The roads are very narrow here, and IL
t some places are covered with deep vol
= canic ash which is about the consis
+ tency of -four. In the Rocky noun
S tains we came to the place where
+ man and his wife and child were il
$ a car that the driver lost control o
T and it went over the bank, falling 20
feet and then sliding $50 feet more
;, The engine of the car was not lam
3 aged but the rest was crushed to atoms
t. The child they could not find an
l. trace Of; the man and woman wer
l. crushed and probably killed instant
ly. We caught nice string of trou
N in the Rocky mountains and had
e fine fish fry on the running board c
u the car.
EThe gasoline expense for the tri
was 1880 The entire expense fC
r. gasoline, oil, two spark plugs and tw
- tires, which was the entire autom
bile expense, plus food and supplies ft
v. our party of three, was $l43.93.
"When ] got to Seattle | tuned u
the car and / consider it able to
III 10000 miles more of work just lii
n this. The only unpleasant feature {
in the trip was the excessive rain al
e. wind when passing through South d
I'd kOta and the south end OF North ID
r. kota. One hundred and fourteen mil
IN was the shortest days drive and q
he the longest, and the average from sta
eli to finish, figuring each day from Il
time we left Springfield, was l52
of miles. Taking into consideration Il
an extreme hard usage this car had befo
ne starting on this trip, carrying son
he times up to ID persons in the jitn'
service, | can recommend it as I
lid liable transcontinental vehicle, al
to where time is no object, cheap WI
ILL., to cross the continent. The experien
,es is well worth the while. Our car wi
a Massachusetts, license and bann
was tagged for Seattle and strange
. en- route extended every possible cOl
tesy, furnishing us with route ma
N from state to state the entire rou
u Our luggage and camping equipmel
together with ourselves, weighed flu
M as much as five adult persons,
IN passed several larger cars with IL
~ 90. ,uly