(The following is from a handwritten diary of Myrtle Anderson. Her daughter, Margrette Utech, typed the story to save it as a historical piece of literature. Margrette's cousin, Bill Murray, has now typed it on a diskette and inserted it in his records. Bill's References are at the conclusion.)
Chapter 1
"Myrtle and Jesse leave Cambridge Ill."
On Saturday evening August 16, 1919, we left home at 9:30 PM and had gone only one quarter of a mile when the cord connecting the spot light dropped out, and in trying to connect it, Jess touched the two points to the side and burnt out every light on the car. We had to return home for two more bulbes, which we happened to have. Before we arrived at Osco, Ill. one of them went out, so we stopped at the garage and it took until 11:15 PM to fix it. We started for Davenport at that time and it was 12:45 when we arrived there. Jess was thirsty so we drove down town to see if anything was open and found the new "Piazza," to be the only one, so we stopped and had a chocolate malted milk. On returning to the car after 1:00 we discovered a flat tire. On examining it, we fout it to be a slow leak; so Jess pumped it up and drove up to the house, arriving there at 1:30 AM, Sunday August, 17. Giff had just gotten home from his date, and Uncle Rolla was sitting in the dining room with his head on the table fast asleep. I can assure you it didn't take long to get to bed as we were anticipating our trip and wanted a few hours sleep first.
Chapter II
"Our trip begins"
Mama, Papa, Jess and I left 1313 Care Ave. Davenport at 11AM Sunday August 17, 1919 with fifteen gallons of gasoline in the car and our mileage system reading 7310 miles. Papa's new car is a seven passenger "Paige," and with the four of us and our baggage we had plenty of room to sit in any position we desired and be comforatable.
Papa had bought the automobile Blue Book which explained our route fully. We set our odometer at nothing at Second and Main St. The book told us to follow trolley out to second and cross railroads when our odometer read 1.5 and 2.0 miles and then at 3.5 miles a fork with an iron bridge on the left, but bear right. On arrivin gthere, we found our odometer tallied exactly with the book. With these directions our trip was a complete pleasure, as we knew when to look for railroad crossings by watching our odometer and the book. It told what towns came enxt and just how far they were. They gave me the job of watching the book and I was so determined to follow it exactly that we had some funny experiences which I will relate as we come to them.
Just seven miles out of Davenport, IA, I saw a big wild animal and in describing it to the rest, it proved to be a ground hog. I guess I didn't recognize him as I thought they only came out on February 2nd.
The rest of the trip to Muscatine was without adventure, but we found by that time that our book and odometer were tallying perfectly and knew that we could proceed on strange roads and be right. Although there were many places where we didn't even see a trail, we never once got off; so we had to turn around. It even cautioned us of bad corners and embankments.
We arrived in Muscatine at 12:30 PM and ate our dinner at Bond's Cafe. Our mileage was then 73.42 miles. We left at 1:15PM I was telling them which way to go by the book. It said to turn left at the can factory, which we did. Then to go straight across the railroad and eight miles straight on, but papa turns left the first block after we turned at the can factory and of course, I yelled out that it was wrong and he said "We are to turn left, aren't we?" I got rattled and said yes and Papa said "well I thought this was right. You want to watch closer?" By that time I had my senses agains and said we had turned left at the can factory, but he had it in his mind so strong that we should go that way that I couldn't make him see it; so after a rather heated discussion, we got him to go straight on but he didn't believe it was right until we got to the eight mile corner and turned just as our odometer read eight miles. We had just such experiences getting out of every big town, as you will learn later.
Just as we were coming into Wapello, Iowa on a big bridge, a soldier stepped out and stopped us. We couldn't imagine what he wanted. We wondered if it was toll or if were being held up, but he just asked us where we were from where we were going and wrote it in a huge book and let us pass on.
On leaving Wapello we saw the remains of a big fire. We new it had burned within the last 24 hours as it was still smoking and we could smell it for a long way. It was on a farm and they had just threshed as we could see part of a new straw stack left. The barn, straw stack and bulding where they had the oats had all burned clear down. A little further on we stopped at a little school for my special benefit and after crawling undear a fence and through weeds, I found the door of the little house locked and there I got into some bushes which had thorns, which wrapped themselves aroudn me and I could hardly get away from them. When I did I had three big scratches on my hand that were bleeding. We were afraid that they might be poison and as I had nothing to put on them, I had to suck the blood out the best I could.
We arrived in Burlington, Iowa at 3:45, our mileage there being 73.94. We stopped and had ice cream and then left there at 4:10. The book told us to cross the track and turn to the right following the trolley up hill. We did that but didn't notice the number our odometer was supposed to be at and discovered afterwards that we had turned the wrong street and followed the wrong trolley, but we circled around and asked a couple of fellows and they directed us to the right road. They were so drunk they could hardly stand on their feet. Of course, we had our row before we got out of there as to whose fault it was and so on; always ending up with a good laugh.
We were about 7 miles out and were figuring about when we would arrive in Keokuk when we heard air escaping from one of the tires; so we had to stop and change wheels. They decided they had better fix it as we might hav emore trouble: so itw as 5:35 when they got it fixed so we were delayed just an hour. While the men were fixing the tire I took a picture. A freight train was jsut going by and mama was so busy waving at the engineer that she missed the picture.
We arrived at Fort Madison at 6:05, bought some lubricating oil and left again at 6:20. We had another scrap leaving town bu tht ebook and I stuck to our own and we got out alright, as usual. We struck some very bad roads at first and papa thought we were wrong but it wasn't long until we found oiled roads along the river and it was simply beautiful all the way to Keokuk.
We arrived there at 7:40 with our mileage at 7439; so we had traveled 129 miles from Davenport. We viewed the dam and locks from a high hill, then we descended to the business center and secured rooms for the night at the new Iowa Hotel. Just as we stepped into our room the telephone rang and I answere dit. They asked if we wanted our dinner as they closed at 8:00. I told them we would be down, so we had to hurry and dress. When we got to the dining room door a colored waiter stood waiting to show us our table. We had a delicious fried chicken dinner served in the best of style. It was 9:00 when we finished and we then walked down to the bridge and saw the dam lit up. We walked back up the main business street and after lookin in the windows awhile we returned to the hotel ice cream parlor; then wrote some cards and returned to our rooms to retire as we were tired from our long ride and wanted to make St. Louis by the next night, and we would have to get an early start as it was 230 miles from there.
Chapter III
"From Iowa to Missouri"
I awoke from a sound sleep with the telephone ringing at my head. It was papa telling me it was 6:15 AM Monday August 18. He said he was up and had shaved and wanted us to hurry, so I jumped out and washed my face in cold water which woke me up enough so I could get dressed. I got Jess up and in half an hour we were ready. We had breakfast in the hotel dining room after which we left.
It was 8:15 when we started and we had ten more gallons of gasoline put in. After having our usual row, we crossed the Des Moines river which put us in Missouri. We discovered that we had to take the bitter with the sweet. We were in MIsery (Missouri,) alright. The roads were simply awful. Down in low places and timbers until we thought we were surely on a cow path instead of a well traveled thoroughfare.
We saw lots of buckwheat fields and in lots of places they were threshing wheat. We always yelled something at them and I guess we were a curiosity to them with our Davenport, Iowa pennant on the car and a lot of Iowa dust. There was no dust on this cowpath. That is one thing I can say for it. Once when we were crossing a lovely bridge in a low place we heard a rattlesnake. I was glad to hear how it sounded as I had never heard one before. We saw so many saddle horses and buggies and a very few cars aside from tourists. What there were, all seemed to be Fords. I guess no toher car could stand those roads all of the time. If papa has a car when we get back it will be funny. It will surely be a rattle trap. They are rather behind times in certain parts of Missouri. They even have log houses in some places and we see lots of old rail fences.
We had some excitement before we reached Taylor, MO. Our book had warned us of a dike, which is a narrow road with sudden drops on both sides, but it couldn't tell us we would meet a car right there. But, such was the case! There were two cars facing each other with just barely enough room to pass, but couldn't on account of a big mud hole in the middle of the road which seemed to be bottomless. They wouldn't take the chance of driving into it and we wouldn't; so we just sat there. The men saw they had to do something so they got our and looked around. There was a pile of rocks behind our car right on the edge; so we thought we could back just enough to give them room. Mama and I were so nervous we got out and papa was already out (Jess was drving,) so we watched while he backed up. Well, that heavy car just made those rocks crack. I just screamed for him to stop and the man from the other car said, "you can't back any further man. Your car is too heavy, you'll go over for sure." He saw that it was up to him to do whatever was to be done. And all the time I expected to see the rocks give way under our back wheels. My heart is in my mouth when I write it. So the man in the other car finally drove up far enough so his front wheel went into the edge of the hole and gave us a chance to get by. By that time another car had come up behind us; so we didn't get to see how he got out, but I looked back just in time to see one of the men that was walking stumble and fall over the edge, however I looked back just in time to see one of the men that was walking stumble anf fall over the edge but he came scrambling up again. At another narrow place we had to pass a wagon and we got so close to the edge I could feel our back wheels slide off, but I wasn't frightened because we supposed it was just a slope but Jess was sitting on that side in the back and he said it was a straight drop and he couldn't see the bottom. He said it was 15ft anyway and if our front weels had gone over it would have been, "goodbye." A little further on we came around a short curve and met a horse and buggy with a man and woman in it. There was a jumping off place and the horse went right up in the air. The woman jumped out and the man finally got the horse calmed down and drove by us, then the woman walked by and got in again.
We arrived in Hannibal at 12:15 Monday and had dinner at the American Cafe. Our mileage there was 7510, just exactly 200 miles from 1313 Carey Ave., Davenport, Iowa. We bought some pears and left there at 1:40. Just outside we went through an old fashioned wooden tunnel bridge. It looked like a shed with both ends out. Papa said they used to build all bridges like that.
We now began to wind up and down big hills or little mountains, I call them. The scenery was beautiful. We would see a big peak ahead and pretty soon we would be winding up and around it and when we got to the top we could see for miles around. Just one ridge after another and we would look back and see the road we had come from, way below us. It was positively the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen and the roads were pretty good there, too. At the top of one peak I got out to take a picture and the place just didn't suit me so I started up the road and when I was quite a ways from the car, I know I heard a rattlesnake. Well, I ran on a ways and then hollered for them to come. I was ready to go on then. We have passed through a number of toll gates. We have paid 97 cents, so far.
We arrived in Louisiana, MO at 3:55, our mileage read 7546. We bought drinks (nothing very strong,) and I got some films for my camera and we got lubricating oil and were ready to leave at 4:15. I took two pictures going out of Louisiana. One of a bridge and one of a high peak.
We passed an old woman driving a mule and smoking a clay pipe. It looked so strange to us it seemed that she might have been doing it for our special benefit, but it seemed natural enough to her. We crossed Rocky Ford and paid a toll, then to Auburn, another toll.
We are staying at the European Hotel at St. Charles tonight. The balance of our trip thus far was without adventure. Toward the last we didn't have any big places to scrap over getting out of; so we stirred up a row and how many miles we had to St. Louis and whether we would make it tonight. We could have done it as it was 8 PM when we got here and it's just 20 miles further on but we wanted to drive in by daylight. But I must say, we struck a bum town. We simply couldn't get what we wanted to eat and had to pay as much as we did for our swell dinner at the "Iowa" in Keokuk. We have a clean room but no bath or water. It's just an old house made into a hotel and it's the best there is here, and a place of 11,000 people. We are going to get out of here int he morning. Breakfast in St. Louis for us!
It is now ten minutes after 1:00. Jess and Mama and Papa have been asleep for hours. Our mileage on reaching St. Charles was 7624, making our trip 185 miles on Monday. We ate breakfast at the "Busy Bee" restaurant. I think they should have named it the "Busy Fly." They were simply thick! We were ready to leave at 8:45.
We crossed the Missouri river and had to pay 50 cents toll on the bridge. We met an old green ford just packed full of children, with a man and woman. They had a trailer behind and their number had California on it. One of the children's nose was all cut and bloody. They must have hit a bump. And they were all so dirty. So was the car and the tires were so worn out there were pieces flying from them.
The twenty mile stretch of road from St. Charles to St. Louis was grand.
Chapter IV
We reached the business district in St. Louis at 10:00 o'clock Tuesday morning with our mileage at 7654. Mama and I looked around a little inthe Famous-Barr store, the Bust Bee candy store and a 10 cent store, and there ate our dinner at the Wohlers Cafe while Papa and Jess watched the car. Then we sat in the car and wrote cards while they ate. We bought some candy and peach coffee cake at the Busy Bee to take to DeSoto.
We left at 12:30 and followed the directions in the book. After we got out about six blocks, I noticed the book said there would be a jog right at.01, so we had to turn and go back down the busy streets arguing the whole time, but when we got there we fount it to be a jog in the same street and no turn, so we would have been alright if we had gone on in the first place. But it wouldn't have seemed natural if we didn't have our little scrap getting out of town.
We crossed the Merrimac river and I took a picture from the bridge. We passed so many United States tire ads. They represented a large book laying open with the tire ad on one page and some history of the part of the country we were in on the other page. At one place it told that in the year 1779 the farmers all farmed together in one big field to protect themselves from attacks by the Indians. At another place it was the battle line of the Civil War and many skirmishes took place there.
At Paluryia, about 60 miles south of Keokuk there was a monument in the courthouse yard which had been erected to the memory of ten Confederate prisoners who were made to sit at the end of their coffins and then shot. This was in retaliation of an alleged murder of a northern spy. The act was condemned by President Lincoln and was siad to be the most atrocious incident of the Civil War.
Ten miles east of Plamyra was a town known as Marion City which was washed away by the Mississippi river, years ago. It was made famous by Charles Dickens in his book, "Martin Chuzzleurt," as "Eden," and also by Mark Twain in the "Gilded Age," as "Stone's Landing."
Coming south from St. Louis we stopped at Antonio and had a drink. Over a little frame building was a sign that read, "A Heiligtag, Wagonmaker and Undertaker." The hills had been so steep and long that we thought an undertaker might be needed. We actually dreaded the rest of the trip.
We passed peach and pear orchards all the way through Missouri. The peach trees were just loaded. It's been so long sinces we have seen peach trees growing. Coming down a big hill in Hillsboro we came to a peach orchard and there were market baskets full sitting by the road for sale; so we stopped to buy some. The hill was so steep Jess had to find a big stone to put under the wheel as the brakes wouldn't hold us. Jess got a basket of rosy luscious peaches for 85 cents and while the man was getting his change, he picked some off of a tree. It seemed good to him to be able to pick a peach.
We arrived safely at DeSoto at 4:00 o'clock Tuesday afternoon. Our mileage was 7694, making our trip 384 miles from Davenport.
Chapter V
We stopped at Grandma's first, and she was surprised as they weren't expecting us for a week. They misunderstood papa's card. She had tore her beds up and sent the bedding to the wash and was expecting a woman the next day to clean up for her; so she was real upset. She said, "I make my bed every morning and now when you come it isn't made."
We took her with us and went to Aunt Annie's. Uncle Mason was home by that time so we got to see them all at once. They were all glad to see us even if we were a week ahead according to their understanding. We had supper and spent the evening visiting.
We slept late Wednesday morning. Ate breakfast at 9:00 o'clock. Then Mama and I pressed some clothes for ourselves and the men. Aunt Annie won't hear of us doing anything in the kitchen. She says we have to bein the kitchen enough.
Papa and Jess took Edith, Ethel and Jim Mason, for a ride and came back at noon with Uncle Ike Mason, for dinner. We had planned to drive out to Papa's old home place and the cemetery where Grandpa is buried but we got a good refreshing rain after a three month dry spell here, so we spent the afternoon visiting.
After supper it had cleared up so we all went to the show. It was awfully good. Elsie Ferguson in "Eyes of the Soul." We went to bed around ten and it just poured throughout the night.
Thursday we had fried chicken dinner with Aunt Edith. Uncle Theodore is in Monroe, LA. for his health and Aunt Edith and the children are running the farm.
After dinner, Papa took the children all for a ride out of Bonne Terre road and then brought them back and took Aunt Annie, Grandma, Mama and me out to Papa's old home place. The house is gone but there were two big pine trees by the gate that Papa said they had planted.
Then we stopped at Ben Henscher's, a boyhood playmate of Papa's, and they gave us the loveliest peaches and grapes. Their daughter was telling of a time when her father and mine and the other boys were playing circus and John Walther was to pretend that he had cut Joe's head off and they had a rabbit that they were to cut instead so the blood would come and look as though the cut was from Joe's head. Well, Joe made a wrong move and John hit him in the head with the knife and injured him pretty badly. We enjoyed our visit with them and returned to Aunt Annie's for supper at 7:00 o'clock.
After supper Edith and Ethel read for us, the Jess and I took the two girls and went to the show. It was Bryant Washburn in "Venus of the East," and Mutt and Jeff. We then returned hom and ate watermelon, wrote some cards and retired.
There is a young lade across the street from Aunt Annie's who sings and we've heard her warbling ever since we came. Last evening Uncle Mason was walking down the street and he heard someone running behind him, and it was this girl. She said, "Mr. Mason, who is that young man (meaning Jess,) at your house?" Uncle Mason responded, "He is a young man from Chicago." Well! I think it is about time we are leaving!
HOMEWARD BOUND!
We left DeSoto, Friday at 11:00 AM Before leaving we went down to Grandma's to bid her goodbye, and she had almost everything she owned wrapped up for us to take hom. She gave Mama and me each a large can of coffe, a box of soap and a 1 qt. jar of jelly. She also gave me an old beer mug that she had given Grandpa for a birthday present years ago. She gave Papa a purple glass cup with white flowers on it, which she said Papa had given his father for a birthday present when he was only 6 years old. There were some pictures of her standing on her front step. She has a little brick house just packed full of old fashioned things, and you just can't persuade her to give it up and live with anybody.
When we left DeSoto, our mileage was 7744. When we were almost to Hillsboro, Papa scared us all by turning out too far to meet a team and the car dropped on one side. Jess said he though we would go on over but we got out alright. There are certainly some terrible places. The roads are real narrow and right down on the sides.
I took several pictures of scenes between St. Louis and DeSoto. One of the little town of Seckman from a distance.
We arrived at St. Louis at 2:00 PM and secured rooms at the American Hotel, then went to Wohler's for dinner. It was 4 o'clock when we left the restaurant, we visited the 10 cent store, then returned to our rooms to fix up for the evening. Jess took a little nap as he wasn't feeling very well. We went to the Grand Theater at 7:00, thinking we would have supper afterwards and then go to another show, but we didn't get out until 10 o'clock. We saw a little bit of everything. They had a trained monkey and two dogs. They surely were good. One fellow came out and told us his life history and it was one joke right after another. He said, "my father was born in St. Louis and I was born in St. Louis, and my father ran a bakery, and I was bred in the bakery." After the show we had lunch at Thompson's Dairy lunch room and returned to our rooms where we cleaned up and retired.
Saturday morning we had breakfast at "Childs," at 9:00 and then went to Famous-Barr store, also Kresge's and Woolworth's ten cent stores, and the Grand Leader. It is now noon and we are waiting for Papa at the hotel. The stores close at noon so I think we will see the parks this afternoon.
Papa didn't show up until 1:20, and when he did there was a young man, Mr. Kadera, from N.O. Nelson's office with him. He took dinner with us and then accompanied us in the car all over the city showing us the places of interest. We drove through Tower Grove Park where we stopped and Jess snapped two pictures of interest. We drove through Tower Grove Park where we stopped and Jess snapped two pictures of Mama and I standing by the flower beds and the water lily ponds. We then drove to Missouri Botanical Garden where they have plants from all over the world. It was certainly a beautiful place. We took four pictures in there. We saw the smallest fist there, too, that I ever knew existed. Some of them were about three quarters of an inch long and all colors. They were called peacock fish. There were many kinds. Some green ones not longer than 1/4 of an inch.
We drove by the Barness Hospital, which is one of the finest hospitals in the U.S. They specialize in impossibilites as they say; such as curing cance, etc. We saw some of the patients lying in bed on screened proches.
We drove through Forest Park and saw many remains of the World's Fair. Many lagoons, a few buildings and the bird cage. The bird cage is an immense cage where there are all kinds of birds. We walked through the center of it. They have animals such as lions, tigers, bears, elephants, etc. in wonderfull big buildings and sea lions, alligators, etc. in the lagoons. I snapped a picture of a sea lion jsut as it was jumping from a rock.
At Forest Park Highlands we went on the "Mountain Ride," and viewed the city. We saw a minature railway with people riding in it. They had little ponies and buggies to hire. The kids drove them around a circle that was fenced in. I told Jess if Ben was along we would let him drive one alone.
As Jess had never seen the Union Station we drove down there. It is surely worth seeing. There is a train out of there ever thirty seconds. It is an immensely large place.
We then drove back to the garage and left the car, after which we returned to the hotel to clean up for supper. After supper we went to the Lyric and saw Irene Castle in the "Firing Line." The theater is cooled by iced air. And right there I want to say that the sun is much hotter here than at home and everybody is tanned so that their skin is much darker htan ours, altough we consider ourselves bad enough.
We left St. Louis Sunday at 9:45 AM; our mileage at 7814. We set our speedometer at 12th an Washington St. and went east on Washington, crossing the Mississippi river on the Ede's Bridge where we had to pay 50 cents toll.
On the way out of East St. Louis we struck the worst roads that we had ever seen on our whole trip. We didnt' have time to take a breath between bumps and had to hold on until our hands were blistered. We found practically no hills at all between St. Louis and Springfield. It seemed strange to travel through a flat country after being in such large hills in Missouri.
We arrived in Mt. Olive at 1:00 PM where we ate dinner at a small restaurant, the only one in a town of 4,000, and it was so small it only had room for two tables and we could hardly get in to get around one. The man said that he was a saloon keeper before July 1st and there wasn't a place in town to get anything to eat, so when the saloons had to close he started up this little restaurant. He said that he was in the sallon business for 15 years and never touched a drink. Our mileage at that place was 7867, and we left here at 1:40.
When we were about half way to Springfield it began to cloud up so we sped like everything, we didn't care to be laid up at some farm house or small town over night. But when we got about fourteen miles from Springfield we struck mud and started to slide around.
There was a new green Paige just ahead of us and it went down the side of the road and got stuck there but we were lucky enough to keep the middle of the road. About a half mile further on an old man was clear down in a ditch and he yelled for us to pull him out. Poor fellow, he was so excited. But, we couldn't pull him out as we had all we could do to keep ourselves on the road, as it was. We stopped though and Jess put a chain on one of his back wheels for him. By that time there were about six cars lined up behind us, so they all pushed and got the old man out. Jess and Papa put our chains on and just then one fellow got in a hurry and tried to pass us and his car slid into the ditch; so Papa, Jess and the old fellow pushed him out.
We finally got started the whole procession of cars, not a Ford in the bunch, and hadn't gone but a few road when we met a car that was stuck right in the middle of the road and we couldn't turn out of the track. Jess was drving so Papa tried to pull the front wheels out but he couldn't. As the car we were facing was a smaller one than ours, Jess jumped out and took hold of his front wheels and got him out of the track. Then he was sore because Jess got him on the side of the road and he didn't have chains on and was afraid he couldn't get back in the center of the road. He said, "why don't you fellows with chains on get out of our way?" That wasn't the idea with us, it was to get the one out that would get out as there were five cars behind waiting to get by.
We saw a couple of cars stuck and then turned the corner and the road was dusty. We stopped and took off our chains and sped the rest of the way into Springfield. The old man that they helped was so tickled he gave Jess 50 cents.
We arrived at 5:00 at got rooms at the Illinois Hotel. We cleaned up and went to the dining room for dinner and there sat our friend, the old man we had pulled out of the mud. He shook hands with the men and called the propretor and told him we were friends of his and to give us the best service while we were there. He seemed to be some wealthy old gent.
After eating we walked down and viewed the Capito and Arsenal, then back through the store district and looked in the windows. We were tired from riding all day, so returned to our rooms for a much needed rest.
After a good night' sleep, we were woken by the telephone. I jumped up and answered it and it was Papa. He said it was 6:30 and we had better get up. It was hard to stay up as I couldn't keep my eyes open but I knew I had to so I washed my face incold water which helped me wake up. We got dressed as quickly as possible and were eating our breakfast a little after 7:00AM. Mama and I went back to our rooms while Jess and Papa went for the car.
We left at 8:00 but couldn't take the trail or follow our book as they were working on the roads putting in asphalt. The garage man directed us east of Springfield so we went out about ten miles and found ourselves at the Sangamon river and no road to go on; so we had to tunr around and go back to the city, a farmer told us to go west. After 17 miles out of our way and losing 1 and a quarter hours, we finally go on the right road. We left for Springfield at 9:15. Our mileage was 7926 when we left the first time and 7940 the second. When we arrived at Middletown we found the trail and could now follow the book.
At 11:30 we stopped at Delavan and bough some sandwiches and cream puffs as we were hungry and still 25 miles from Peoria.
We arrived in Peoria at 1 PM, our mileage 8018. We had dinner at the Illinois Restaurant and did a little shopping at Block & Kuhl's and the ten cent stores. When leaving we went up Main St. and stopped at the Packard garage and Jess went in and talked to Ed a minute, then we went on up the hill and I stopped and talked to Edna a minute while Papa went to a filling station and got gas.
We left there at 2:45 and the rest of our journey was without event. We stopped at Galva and bought bread and meat for our supper and arrived home at 6:30, giving them all a big surprise as they didn't think we would come till the middle of the week.
We surely had a lovely trip and hate to think of it being over, but are mighty glad to be home again. Ben and I are alone today as Jess had to go to Davenport after the car, but is seems nice to be with Ben. He comes in and says, "I'm glad youa re here," and kisses me.
1. Myrtle's grandmother, Theresia Walther lived in DeSoto. Also her Aunt Anna (Walther) and her husband Isaac Mason and cousins Edith, Ethel and James Isaac Mason. Also her Uncle Theodore Walther and his wife Edith, along with cousins Helen and Hobart.
2. Myrtle's Uncle Rolla was her mother's brother Rolla Ruckman, not Albert's son Roll Rupert.
3. Myrtle's son Ben was 4 years old at the time of the trip but there is no record of where he stayed while Myrtle and Jess were away.
4. There is no record of the make of the car that Myrtle and Jesse drove from Cambridge to Davenport.
5. The Paige automobile that was used for the trip was build by the Paige-Detroit Motor Car Co., Detroit, MI from 1908 to 1927. Their large model, the Six-46 was made as a seven seater touring car and in three closed types. The engin was the 6-cylinder Continental with 4.9 litres capacity.
