Evening star., 1923-12-02
Rains Hit Reads to Florida,
Tourist Writes ". NJ. n. Here
TraUel HeaUy, Says Letter to Fred
Galley Describing Conditions After
TaUO-Week Drive.

Road conditions from Washington
to sunny Florida are graphically de-
scribed by a motorist in a letter to
Fred Galley, secretary Of the National
Motorists Association. Autoists about
to attempt a trip to Florida in the
near future will do we'll to study this
interesting account.
The letter to Mr.. Galley follows:
II returned in November from a
two-week motor drive in the south,
going to Washington and then to CO.
lumbia. S. C. 1 went by the sand-hill
| route and came back by the so-called
pavement route
THE roads south Of Washington
are in such a state of rebuilding and
detours that I think it might be we'll
for the N. NJ. A. to issue statement
in regard to them, additional to the
pamphlet which your office furnished
me before I started and which the n.
NJ. A. representative in Washington
very kindly corroborated. The roads
to the south this fall and winter are
Iately after rains. All persons making
the trip down to Florida should be
advised to lay up during rain storms
or not to start out Immediately after
storms. When dry the roads are not
dangerous or difficult. but at this sea-
son of the year tourists should be
careful not to try to travel in rain or
Immediately after.
Tourists Crowd Roads.
Il found the roads filled with tour
lists. Every description of motor car;
every kind Of luggage. from the road
side camper and the house-built auto
mobile to high-powered machines.
OF OF M he ct
hotels. All were in trouble in wet
weather. / saw many serious Situa-
tions. and this Is early in the season.
AS the rainy season develops, with a
hundred thousand machines and more
to follow to Florida this winter the
travelling situation Is going to be
serious.
The route south Of Richmond. via
Raleigh, Southern Pines and Colum- !
bia, is a sand-clay route. The roads
are being laid out in broad fashion,
but the surface for a considerable
portion Of this mileage-539 miles
through Richmond and Raleigh-is so
new that during and after rains 1t is
dangerous. All motorists should be
advised to drive with double chains,
and not to wait until they get In the
ditch. When the road hardens from
Richmond to Raleigh. Columbia and
Augusta, as shown on the n. NJ. a.
maps, this will be an excellent gravel.
Sand-clay road. but much of it iS too
new to be classed high this season.
This road passes over the sand-hlll
formation almost continuously. The
other route from Richmond. through
South Hill, Graham Greensboro and
Charlotte, is what is known as the
paved route. There are a number OF
stretches of road enqualing the best
between Cleveland and Buffalo. but
the road is SO far from being finish
ed, the detourS are so numerous ana
so dangerous in several cases, that
motorists will do better in rainy sea-
son to take the sand road through
Raleigh and Columbia. rather than
to try what will ultimately be the
pavement through Greensboro and
Charlotte.
II went one way and came back the
other and had a worse time on the
upper route because 1t is essentially
a clay country and the pavement is
go far from finished, the detours are
SO long and, after storms. danger
Gus that the y. NJ. A. is doing right
to direct traffic over the Raleigh
route rather than over the Green's
caravans and columns OF cars daily
travelling south on both routes.
Local Directions Needed.
Local directions are necessary
everywhere, due to the conditions of
the surface, the detours and the con-
dition in which the work gangs have
put the roads at any particular time.
No one should start out with maps
and route directions from Washing
ton and go straight through. He must
| inquire at the best hotels and garages
daily and sometimes oftener than
that.
"The detour at the bridge over the
Haw river. y. c., at Graham, which
had such a steep descent to the river
level and climb up the soft clay, is
now a thing of the past. BY careful
work traffic is allowed to proceed over
this new, unfinished concrete bridge
Traffic cannot proceed on the pave
ment route south between South Hill
and Oxford. 1t must go to Henderson
and then across to Durham. Between
Thomasville and Lexington there Is a
bad detour. Garage men will direct
the motorists how to take circuitous
country routes that are better than
the detour in the rain and avoid hard
ship. There is long secondary
route from South Hill through Rox-
boro to the upper pavement at Bur
lington of seventy miles or more
which in dry weather the motorists
can take instead of going from South
Hill to Henderson, Oxford, Durham
and Graham. This Roxboro cutoff
saves considerable mileage and is a
we'll -ballasted, sand-clay road in dry
weather, but motorists should not