Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1920-12-06
DICK WRITES
MORE Of TRIP
c. A. Dick Continues Story
of Overland Trip to
Calif0rnia.-Is
Finished.
CROSSING DESERTS
Peculiarly of Cities and
Roads.-Party "Alm0st"
CROSSING DESERTS

III. B. Hummel is in receipt of a sec
Ond letter from C. A. Dick, written
from Olinda, California, where the
Dick family are visiting at the home
OF Mr.. DIS brother. The letter covers
the latter part of their overland trip
In part it follows:
Dear Bridge: Well, 1 will tell you
about the rest Of our trip. l left you
III the desert among the tree cactus
Well, we came out at Lous VICES still
in the desert. Lous VICES is surely a
Spanish town. 1t is an old town. The
buildings are all one story high and
each has porch over the front clear
out to the street. The front of the
stores are all out and they sell goods
right in the street and they just have
a big gate to close at night. There
are no doors or windows in front. One
sees only Spaniards, Mexicans and In
dams. can't see what keeps the town
up for the desert goes clear up to the
town.
When we left next morning we did
not 60 fifteen miles before we ran
right into the desert again. There
were mountains on the west. ALI fore
noon we kept going up grade and then
I'll at once we started down, running
fifteen miles, letting the car coast with
the gas turned off. Sometimes we
would have to put on the brakes to
keep from going too fast. When we
got to the bottom it looked just like
o big lake but when we ran up to it
il was sand desert. A sign said,
Take the left hand road, if wet" bu.
as it was dry and hard as a bone We
went straight across it. The road was
just as smooth as ice and was as level
as pavement. 1t was the first good
road we had had for long time and
Harold let the car out to sixty miles
an hour. 1t surely rode fine and sound.
eG fine. We kept on going south until
we came within fifteen miles of the
Needles. Then our road turned west
and here we struck sand and it was
sand for about fifty miles. They had
paved it some time but the pavement
had worn out and it was very rough.
In Valley Of Fire.
Here we began to leave the Rockies
and started to 60 into the Sierra
Nevada mountains, still in the desert.
Here we began to see rocks over the
desert. They were as black as the
ace of spades. Now we came to the
valley Of fire and it surely looked like
fire. This valley was about five miles
wide We got there about 4 o'clock III
the afternoon and the sun shining in
the valley made one think of fire.
Some of these hills are not over two
or three hundred feet through and, say,
they would reach up in the air for
three or four thousand feet. 1t was
surely a grand sight. Here we went
through some awful canOns just wide
enough for the car to 90 through. If
we had met anyone we would have had
to back the car until we had come to
a place where we might pass. This
canon was about twenty or thirty
miles long. From the canon we came
out into the desert again. We ran out
Of Utah into Arizona and then on into
Nevada. Here we crossed into Calf
fOrnia and then we struck pavement.
This pavement extended for about fifty
miles through sand. don't think any
one could have gone through the sand
il there had been no paving.
This was the south end Of Death
Valley There was nothing growing in
this valley and it was awfully hot.
We could not keep water in our car as
1t would boil right out. So we raised
the hood Of the car to give the engine
air but the water would boil just the
same. Finally we had to stop to let
the car cool of for we did not have
much water. / tell you a man does
not want to travel through here with
out having plenty water. We did not
have any trouble getting water and gas
all the way.
In California.
We are now In California hitting for
San BernardinO. Now we are going
up the mountains again, just crawling
up grade for about seventy-five miles
10 the summit of the Sierra Nevada
mountains. When we reached the sum.
init want to tell you that it was a
grand sight. We were so high that
We could look down over the foothills
and the canons for miles. Here the
railroads run down the canOns and also
the wagon roads. Here we struck
pavement again. 1t wound down the
side of the hills to the canon seven
thousand feet below and ran along
with the railroad track for miles. We
were not off pavement again for seven
hundred miles. This took us to San