Charlevoix county herald., 1918-07-19
VanPelt Goes
A Touring
Uncle George Travels 1926 Miles
In 26 Days By Auto.
July IL, 1918.

| ~ AhC
Touring isn't quite what it FUSED to
was" before the war Then the hotels
had good cooks and everything to cook.
Now it is quite different, with imitation
cooks experimenting with food substi-
tutes. Some succeed and some don't,
but even ii it is not 'like mother used
to make" it's all right--we're at war.
told you in my hast letter about max
ing 1882 miles in IL days from Chicago
to Boston. Well, came back. made
all told 1926 miles in 26 days.
Our start off was fine. Some six
years ago convicts of the state of ILL
nois built five miles of concrete road
between Joliet and New Lenox, which is
now part of Lincoln Highway. If con-
victs can make such a good concrete
road that it is as good after six years as
when made, why the devil can't free
people bnild them? Earl, my chauffeur
said 'just to show you, Van Pelt, what
we could do if all the roads to Boston
were concrete, let me pat 'Caddy' (thats
what he calls my Cadillac) on the back
and tell her to CO." "Caddy" responded
up to so mile rate and Immediately
came to the end of the concrete and
had to slow down to Is or 20 miles. On
the average we found the roads fairly
good in Indiana and Ohio, and when
we reached New York State they were
really quite good. I'll have more to
say regarding this latter on.
can't tell about my trip in the breezy
style of magizine writer but in plain
homely way II tell you that with my
two daughters | left Joliet June 4, in a
new Cadillac, Goodrich cord tires, was
away &c days and didn't have pune
ture or blowout.
! called on so newspaper editors to
find out what they thot about roads and
concrete roads and found, with very
few exceptions, they were alive to the
question, willing to publish letters from
me of which this is one, and to help
the good cause along.
| fully recognize the power of the
press and am sure that we couldn't
have done in my Charlevoix County,
Mich, what we did do with our old
roads if il hadn't been for the news
bapers, which got the facts about the
folly of bad roads before all the people.
Maybe my readers think I'm crazy
about concrete roads. am thoroly i'm
bued with the necessity of building
good, thick, heavy concrete roads,
strong enough and thick enough and
wide enough to carry 25-ton truck loads
at 25 miles an hour with no stops for
switching, no standing on side tracks,
but ever going right along, night or day
thru snowdrifts in the winter-time,
with no mud, chuckholes or turkey
nests" to hinder speed in the summer,
for know that this truck business ism I
going to interfere with the railroads.
They have already got more to carry
than they can possibly get thru.
Just stop moment, Mr.. Readerman,
and think what it would mean if we
had concrete road all the way to-.
J Why, what's the use of limiting the
roads or the length of the roads? The
fact is, every road ought to be con.
crete road, for economy's sake. One
of the things that impressed me most
on the trip was the immense and very
beautiful concrete bridge at Cleveland
the largest in the world. To build that
bridge the contractors used motor
trucks with tight bodies to carry wei
) concrete from the mixer to the bridge
: the distance of about a quarter of 9
! mile. The cost was said to be one-thirt
less than when the materials were mix
ed al the bridge. There first step wa.
to build concrete road to haul the con
crete over
New York State has good system o
roads and up to recently have all beer
built on the Mac-A-Dam plan. People
are waking up to the fact OF the i'm
4 mense cost of these roads to the STATE
: and just as surely to the fact tina
e concrete is the stuff to use. They hav,
Z already built about 600 miles in New
: York State and have another hundred
|, contracted for.
i In the Catskill Mountains in Ulste
j.. County, New York City has built tn
r Ashokan Dam, where they get waite
r. to supply the wants Of that great city
II This was stupendous work and sal
s to be one Of the mostmagnificentp piece
d of engineering the world has seen.
e is well worth trip from Chicago I
J. Kingston, on the Hudson, to ride owe
r the beautiful roads in the southern tie
o Of counties of New York or to see tn