The Butler weekly times and the Bates County record. (Butler, Mo.) 1918-1950, 1919-09-04

drawback see to that part of the
state is it is hot in summer and foggy
and rainy in winter. Taking it all
around. for q comfortable place in
which to live / did not see any place
that thought would beat San Diego
and the Escondido Valley. We trav-
eled 1887 miles on our trip and large
portion of it was over concrete paved
roads. The roads Of California are
wonderful. They have good dirt
roads but they are not good enough
tor Californians. The state has voted
a forty million dollar bond issue to
build more concrete roads, and the
counties are also voting bond issues
to build roads. 1t will soon be pos
sible to travel practically all over the
state on paved roads. We went over
one stretch of concrete road south Of
bakersfield across desert nearly
level and as straight as the surveyors
can sight their instruments thirty
two miles and only one township jog
in it. Imagine if you can how road
like that would look stretching away
for miles and miles and perfectly
smooth. The speed limit on these
roads is the state law which is thirty
five miles per hour. A good many
drivers forget the law when they
strike stretch like that and they
think there is no danger of meeting
a traffic officer. There are lots of
beautiful paved road on the coast
route. Some places it is built right
down close to the ocean and the big
waves roll up near the road. South,
of Santa Barbara there is quite a
long stretch that is built on trestle
work and at high tide the waves roll
up under the road. At this place the
mountains come right up to the sea
and there is barely room for the rail-
road and the automobile road be-
tween the mountains and the ocean.
The people and their outfits that one
meets on trip of this kind are inter-
esting. We saw, literally thousands
of automobiles in the twelve days
that we were out and large portion
OF them were on vacation trips and
camping out and they were from
good many different states. We saw
two cars from near Lamar, Mo. They
had been travelling for nearly two
They went through Yellow
stone National Park and west
Washington and then south
down the coast. They were headed
for Hollywood, a suburb OF Los
Angeles. A great many towns have
swell camp grounds fitted up for att
travellers. One place had a
bath house and free shower baths for
the use of the campers. | remember
one place where we stayed all night
they had row OF hydrants about
fifty feet apart along the edge of a
grove of shade trees and they had a
long row of little brick furnaces built
for people to build their fire in and
cook on. They had toilets connect
cd up with the sewer system and ev-
erything was first class. There were
sixteen automobiles camped there
that night. 1t was like adding that
many families to the town-we all
bought something. Travellers like to
get to towns where there are good
accommodations. They tell each
other about them. / heard woman
telling about a place where she had
been where they had wire clothes
AA~ wan NlothNo pms oAi ~ ~ thS
campers could hang out a washing ii
they wanted to. The clothes line had
to her. 1t would be we'll for
Butler and other towns on the JEFF
ferson Highway to take a hint about
this camp ground idea. 1t would be
we'll for anyone intending to visit arr !,
Of the national parks to write to the
secretary of the national park ser
vice, Department of the Interior,
D. c., and get informa-
ton about the particular park they |
are interested in and familiarize
themselves with the rules governing
The entrance to the park and conduct
Turing their stay in the park. There
S some red tape connected with it.
You must have written permit from
/ forest ranger to enter the paris.
You must carry at least one spare
ire on your car, you must have your
brakes in first class working order.
You cannot take a gun or a dog in
o any national reservation. You
must have a permit to build a camp
ire, etc.
Well, this letter is getting lengthy,
nd must close wishing the best of
uccess for all Bates County people. |,
John Speer.