The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1922-04-11
AST T0C0AST
IN FIFTY DAYS
BY AUTOMOBILE
Season and Bogpte Must Be
Chosen With Care.
ROADS ARE PLAlNIY MARKED

Record for Trip Is Five Days, Bur
Anything Under Fifty Robs Tour
lists of Joy OF scenery-Eariy Sum
mer Is Best Time and Best Policy l,
to Stick Firmly to, One. Traii-B'
Sure Car is in Perfect Order Be
fore Starting Long Trip.
An automobile tourist can go from
the Atlantic to the Pacific coast
without using map and without
consulting a guide book. ALI thai
the driver has to do is follow a
blazed trail. Nothing is more signifi-
cant of the automobile than the road
ways which have been marked out
across the country for making 1t easy
for travellers to go from town to town,
at,rOss state after state. and INTO all
the places of the country.
A thousand towns claim to be the
gateways into various regions. and
many places have regional features
which justify them ia their. preten-
sjops. A glance at any roadway map
OF the United States reveals many
curious and influential features
Thus, between the Canadian nd
Mexican borders there are only seven,
crossings feasible under present con-
ditioDs, from the Rockies to the Sier-
ras, a distance Of about 1.2O0 miles ;
md from the Missouri river to the
Pacific coast there are only nine or
ten practicable routes from the north
to the south, and of these hardly more
than five are connected with Canadian
routes, says the New York World.
These are main, marked and FEAST
BILE routes. Yet at times some of
these highways are apt to be subject
to delays and difficulties which battle
or greatly deter the passerby. When
the. great cloudburst assaiIs the
eastern slopes of Colorado's Rockies
tourists caught in the canOns In the
mountains and out. on the, .prairles
were subjected to experiences none
of them will forget.
Premier Trip in World.
Thousands of people have in mind
the transcontinental automobile trip.
This is the premier automobile jour
ney Of the world. ID Not only is the
journey entirely feasible but it Is
coming to be a regular jaunt of
countless tourists WIG have the time
to spare. People Of Iowa. Missouri.
Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma are
only IL OF Is days ieisurely auto
mobile run from the Pacific coast,
but New York and eastern states are
twice as far, and IL the journey from
coast to coast is reckoned in terms
Of ANTIQUITIES. it is more than three
times as hard to go from. say, Col
orado Springs to Los Angeles as from
New York City to Colorado Springs.
The conditions which tourist used
to New England and eastern state
roads confronts when he has crossed
the Mississippi are astonishing. The
work which states in the West have
put upon their roads is enormous
when one considers the population.
There are about FIVE miles of narrow
paved roadway east from Reno. New,
and then hundreds of miles OF almost
unworked desert and mountain trails
across Nevada, where. at ely. in the
eastern part, are about 19 miles OF
pavement as far as AIcGilI. and then
more hundreds of miles to Salt Lake /
City, where good roads appear from
Springville, oyy of Spanish Fork
canon up to Ogden
And this Is on the route Of the Lin
coin highway. probably the best all
around roadway from coast to coast,
although in spring and autumn the
Santa Fe route is perhaps better on |
the ayera &c under the tires-but the |
desert suns are merciIcss In July and
August and partaef June and Septem-
Der, at least
Ignorance.
The astonishing thing about the
United States is the ignorance of peO-
pie about the actual conditions which
confront the tourist, no matter In
what direction he goes away from
home.
The average automobile tourist
8 ctuallv has no idea whatever of the
distance he must. traverse to go from
one place to another. no least notion
Of what he undertakes when}he starts
for Denver or Los Angeles or San
Francisco. JnfortunatSly. wonder
lands Of the country are shaded by the
efforts of some people to beiittie what,
for example, Utah or Idaho or New
Mexico I've to display. The war of
trails bids fair to hide the
gories OF the vast national
domain.
The automobile speed record from
coast to coast is approximately five
days Judging from this enormously
lin1cult accomplishment tourists figure
1n q jaunt from New York to San
Francisco in 20 days or SO. This
lime demands nearly 200 miles day
II travel. The fact Of the matter =,