Horatio Nelson Jackson the first man to drive across the country

== The Beginning ==
Horatio was born in 1872 and attended the University of Vermont where he got his medical license in 1893 and married Bertha Richardson Wells in 1899, in 1903 he was in the San Francisco University club and was involved in a debate over automobiles, the club members believed that the car was impractical and would eventually fall out off style, Horatio on the other hand believed that it would become popular and the next big thing and so made a 50$ bet to drive across the country in 90 days which the club members agreed to and Horatio set out and got the assistant of bicycle racer turned mechanic Sewall K. Crocker (1883-1913), Sewall suggested to Horatio that he should get a 1903 Winton touring car which Horatio got from a Wells Fargo executive which Horatio called The Vermont, Horatio planned on going through the Sacramento Valley and Oregon Trail as to avoid the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky's.
== Journey ==
On May 23, 1903 their journey began in Oakland, California and 15 miles in a tire popped and they replaced it with the only spare tire, the next day they stopped in Sacramento to replace their dim lights with large spotlights. When they left Sacramento their cooking supplies fell off and they where misdirected by a woman wanting her family to see the car, after this they made the journey up to Oregon where they had to push the car through streams and had to pay 10$ to drive through someone's property, on June 6 their car broke but luckily they were towed by a cowboy on a horse but they ran out of fuel and Crocker had to ride a bike to Burns, Oregon and got 4 gallons of fuel, on June 9 they got supplies form Vale, Oregon and they arrived in Ontario, Oregon. 
=== Bud the dog ===
In Caldwell, Idaho Jackson left a jacket in a hotel and when he returned a man gave him a American Bulldog named Bud and the dog became the unofficial mascot and after the adventure he lived with the Jackson family for the rest of his life. 
== Journey turned Race ==
On June 20 1903 another car set out to also cross the country sponsored by the Packard car Co. along with the Oldsmobile Co. but on June 26 they arrived in New York and were praised as celebrities, the Oldsmobile Co. claimed that they made had it across the country by saying that they went from the Atlantic to the Pacific but it was false.
== Afterwards ==
Horatio would later drive back to Vermont and fight in WW1 in the 79th division and was wounded during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive and was praised as an American hero and died in 1955, the Vermont was later donated to the Smithsonian Institute.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Nelson_Jackson#