The Belding banner-news. (Belding, Mich.) 1918-1973, 1920-09-01
WESTERN TOURISTS
WERE GLAD WHEN
THEY MET FRIENDS
TRAVELLING EXPENSES WERE
ABOUT WHAT THEY HAD
FIGURED THEM

10 on their trip to Los Angeles, Cal,
when they reached there, concluding
their extraordinary trip, a journey
which will linger long in their mem
ory as one of the biggest trips they
ever had
Following are two letters from
Hub" and Mart" Engemann, two
OF the party, whose letters we know
our readers will relish.
Los Angeles, Cal, Aug. 21, 1920
Dear Ed. and ALL
Have arrived here all o. X. and as
i have had few days in which to
eaten my breath, l guess it is about
tlme to write you all another letter
You remember | told you that at
Salt Lake they predicted such bad
roads for US, well we sure had them.
Up as far as/Ogden we had a fine
pavement, but after that until Truck
ee, Just across the line from Reno,
we only had about 100 miles of good
road TO about 400 of fierce roads. One
place we crossed an alkili bottom
about 18 miles just. one rut after an
other and every rut filled with fine
dust so we couldn't see them half
the time.
We got caught in one sandstorm
on the desert and believe me. / don't
care to be in another. There were
times when / could not see the hood
of the car. We were near Lucin and
when we got there we waited. Lucin
is composed of one building, which is
a hotel. general store, garage, black
eral other institutions.
The first night after leaving Reno
we camped at Donner Lake and it
sure was a pretty place among the
mountains and big pine trees. Here
was where the Donner family, pio-
neer family, had perished in 1876, in
a fierce snowstorm. There was
frost on our tents in the morning. We
pulled out of there thru Pioneer pass
and up to the summit Of migrant
gap, thru some of the widest and
most beautiful scenery / have ever
seen. Also down this side of the
mountains, which are the Sierra-Ne-
vadas, it was great. It's beautiful
beyond description, the great rocks
and canyons with the mountain
streams leaping down thru them.
And down in the foothills orchards
of peaches, .plums, etc., the oragne
lemon. fig, olive and almond orchards
are further south, down around here
in southern California.
After we got to Auburn, California
we had pavement most all the way,
except for few mountain passes but
1T was so awful hot down thru the
Sacramento valley that we could not
hurry any. The Selma river valley
lis a great almond district but like
most all the rivers down thru here is
only dry river bed at this time of
the year. llG t
The last two days of our journey
lay along the ocean and was very
beautiful.
Mrs. Covert's brother and wife, Mr..
and Mrs. w. Lind and Mr.. and Mrs.
Charlie Howard, we'll known in Bel
ding, came out to meet us on the last
day. 1t is needless to say they look
ed good to us and we looked good to
them even though we bore the dust
Of five weeks travel.
The Lind's had house for Covert's
at Pasadena and the Towards one
for Wise's in Los Angeles at 822 f.
33rd street and Mart and I have a
room at 343 E. Jefferson street. Bill
Covert will have to vacate his house
soon though and is already hunting
another one and they are a very
scarce article.
OF course there are many funny
things happen on a trip like ours,
one of which was when Martin ran
down a jack rabbit. Mart had shot
and crippled him and had no more
ammunition, so he started to chase
him, he would almost get him and
the rabbit would squat in a heap and
Mart would go right on over him.
After repeating this several times
he managed to clip him on the side
of the head with the gun butt as he
trfr oxk
got a snapshot of the stunt and we
are all hoping it will be good
This is a great country. Up in the
mountains. 1t is cool and down in
the valleys it is HOT and when one
nears the ocean they want to put on
sweater and coats. Here in Los An
geles the days are warm but the
nights cool.
Tell Bob" Atkinson that we saw
a lot of the Beatrice Creamery Co.
stations scattered over the u. s. A.
We had to get an adjustment on
a Goodyear tire at Sacramento and
the Goodyear people sure used US
fine.
Well, SO long. From your brother
"Hub."
Martins letter stalls something
about the cost Of the trip and is as
follows.
Los Angeles, CAL. Aug. 21. 20
Dear Mother:-
/ am going to write you
good little letter telling you as much
about our trip as | can in this way.
We had but little trouble on the way
and struck only one storm, whereas
many whom we met were covered
with mud, we were covered instead,
with dust.
Of course YOU know we had much
the same kind of roads through Ind,
ILL.,, Iowa and Nebraska as we have
home. They are all good. But when
we struck into the red desert of
Wyoming we got lot Of poor roads.
We broke one spring at Wamsutter.
Wyoming and replaced it there and
put in an extra leaf at Green River
Wyoming, II was this stretch of