The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-05-14
Vagabond
from
Indiana
ERNIE PYLE

EDITORS NoTE-This rowing reporter
for The Times goes where he pieaseS.
when he pleases. in search of odd stories
sSeut this and that.
TAMAzUNCHALE Mexico. Nav
Il 1.-THE first topic among
American motorists who meet in
Mexico is: How was the highway"
Iney mean: How was the noun
tain stretch of the Pan-American
highway between Jacala and Tama-
zunchale? Everybody likes to talk
about it, and tell about his trip
over it.
The road seems to affect no two
people alike. Some think the drive
over it is wonderful. Others come
out shaking and raving.
Here in Tamazunchale. a man
drove up in front of the DE- Tour
list Camp. leaned out of his car, and
yelled:
Are there any other crazy peo-
pie here?"
What do you mean, crazy peo-
PAC' l14O PROPRIETOR asked.
rs any one else crazy enough to
drive over that road? Anybody who
crosses that stretch ought to be put
in padded CELL"
And not 10 minutes later. while
the man was still there, another car
pulled in. 1t was from Oregon. In
1t was a woman 80 years old.
oh, it's wonderful" she said.
~ 1T is the most beautiful
mountain drive I have ever seen.
The California and Oregon noun
tains can't compare with it. And it
is perfectly safe"
have now driven over the bad
stretch twice.
Furthermore, the surface had
improved 100 per cent during the
month. Instead of five hours for
the so miles between Jacala and
Tamazunchale, we came through
in three hours and half.
There have been some bad acct
dents on the road lately. One car
went over the side, and killed two
people.
The same day another car went
of the cliff south of Jacala where
it is paved, and a woman was
killed. And the day this is written,
word has just come that a bunch
of DRINKS did the loop the-loop into
thin air not far from Tamazun-
chale.
MERE was one little incident
II on our trip across, and I still
see red whenever I think of it. 1t
was coming into Jacala from Mex
leo City, over graveled stretch.
1t was about 5 p. m. There were
many trucks and workmen on the
highway.
drove around a bend, and there,
filling the road, came three trucks
abreast. They were coming IS or
40 miles an hour, a tornado of dust
rose around them, the drivers were
sitting erect at the wheels, excited,
like jockeys close to the finish line.
The trucks we're empty, it was
quitting time, and the boys were
simply having little race.
There was no stopping. We had
had only a couple of seconds. 1
swung to the edge of the cliff, with
in a few inches of the brink. The
trucks crowded hub to hub, and as
they roared past it seemed to me
you couldn't have put sheet of
paper between their hubs and mine.
And the other incident-it hap
pened only a hundred miles or Sc
out of Mexico City, up on tn.
plateau, where the road is paved
and straight, and you make high
speed.
was rambling along at so miles
an hour, with at least mile of
good road in sight in front of me.
Suddenly I saw the hole ahead. 1t
was a rectangular hole, about the
size of a library table, and about
six inches deep. The paving had
simply been undermined and sunk
down. There was no warning sign.
= r
4 HOLE like that at so can kill
I n a person. There was no stop
ping or swinging around it. My
thinker worked fast, for once in
its life. There was just one thought
in my mind, and that was-hit- it
square, hit it square and break
both front wheels at once. That's
your only chance.
So hit it square. I have never
heard such crash in my life. The
whole car shook and swayed, and
it seemed as though all four tires
had burst.
But they hadn't. I stopped and
looked. The tires still had air in
them.
I just stood there and looked at
it, out there on the Mexican desert,
and if you could have been there
you would have seen, rising up all
around me like a holy light, my
admiration for the way automobiles
are put together.