The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1918-07-06
PELLEY EXPEDITION
STRIKES KANSAS MUD
Former Renningtonian and His Fami-
ly Have Some Experiences" on
Transcontinel Trip.
Continued from Page One)

CONTINUED from rage OneJ
poor horse get off and his feet went
out from under him as though it we're
a glare of ice and he was SMOOTH
shod
Il had rained terrifcally all the
week proceeding our arrival in this
sea of mud and the mud was simply
malicious. Ii knew We wanted to get
to San Francisco on the 9th and just
set itself out to make itself just as
disagreeable as possible Up to the
time we struck it we had averaged a
fair two hundred miles day.
Abruptly we slowed down to fifty
fifty miles in a day for Hudson
rotten!
To make it worse, the further We
went the worse ii grew. Patiently
we plowed along day after day turn
ing corners west and south and some
how always staying on top-then
came the climax to this sad tale. We
went down one hill and tried to get up
the next. But there was no getting
up the next The mud was plugged
under the front wheels so hard that
the wheels simply wouldn't turn. You
don't believe it but don't care
whether you believe ii or not-I was
there and tried to turn 'em and II
know. Dank, black, clay mud it was,
-balled up all through the steering
gear and wheels until from the front
the car looked like tractor. The
folks had to get out in the midst of a
drizZling rain fifteen miles from the
nearest habitation and walk a half
mile through that awful stuff some
how while dug the goo out and
plowed ahead with a lighter load.
And believe me ! barely made 1.-THE
next hilltop and back on to the level
prairie again ! began to have visions
of staying out there mired on that
black prairie all night and believe me
they weren't visions half so much as
nightmares-especially with a thun-
derstorm as black as the ace of spades
racing and rolling too darned close
to us on the west for comfort. Be.
lieve me. ! broke all speed limits
getting to the nearest town after that
experience-broke them in going
slow, ! mean. Along about ten-thirty
We pulled into the little town of
Barry, Ill.,, with all chains broken. one
tire ruined and not much showing of
the original automobile but the head
lights. And there we met the pleas
ing information that the black thun-
der that we had been heading into
since six o'clock and arrived Just too
late to enjoy was nothing more nor
less than cyclone which had passed
a few miles north OF Barry and killed
six people. But no cyclone would
ever have monkeyed with this Hud-
son car of ours as ii came in off tn
prairie covered with that mud. nj
would have added that cyclone so
that it thereafter couldn't have killed
anything Of more consequence than
false rumors,--left It weak and wob
bling and sort of cross-eyed simply
from striking the coating of clay mud
on the machine long before 1t had
any strength left to injure the ma
chine or the inhabitants therein
Wen. we bought some new chains
in Barry took a fresh grip on the
steering wheel and our courage and
passed over the state line into Miss
ouri. The sun came up awhile the
next day and things looked better
Then we struck the wheat belt Up
in lllinois-in fact ever since leaving
Ohio--we had been in the corn belt
acres and acres Of il as far as the eye
could see. Turning into Missouri we
struck wheat-the bumper wheat-crop
for the west in years. Take il from
me that has been there and seen
there is no sight in nature more beau.
tiful than these fields of wheat We
have been rolling endlessly through
them for a week now and camping in
them by night and it's sight to give
Kaiser Bill sickness in the depths of
his differential Mile after mile after
mile of golden grain-then a little
further along a reaper and crew at
work making it into shocks and still
further along would be threshing ma
chimes clicking tirelessly and throw
ing the clouds of straw far out over
the roads On this hilltop where |
am writing this letter now, can look
off over the valley floor for ten miles
and there are blocked off the fields Of
wheat and the fields of corn. perfect
squares that look like cuhist paint
ing. first a green one and then a
yellow one-far, far away to the sky.
And right here | want to say word
about Uncle Sans call for laborers to
bring in this harvest. ! saw a joke in
a paper the other day where in a
supposedly American declared that
he'd rather 80 over and fight the Hun