Louise Boyd, ever the intrepid traveler, took the train back to Buffalo, New York in the summer of 1919 to make a cross-country motor tour at a time when most of the roads outside of cities were dirt or gravel. She brought along her chauffeur and purchased a new Pierce-Arrow Limousine just like that of President Wilson (Louise was never going to travel in anything but first-class conveyances!). Her diary of that trip describes the roads, the towns, the landscape, her interactions with others, and what she ate and where she stayed. Still relatively young, 31 years old, her journaling is that of an experienced traveler who has yet to find her true calling, but the curious, hardy, humorous woman comes alive in the pages of her journal. I don't know if she was the first woman to drive across the United States, but she was surely one of the first!
US Motor Trip 1919 – Aug. 4-6
US Motor Trip 1919 – Aug. 4-6
Left Fallon, Nevada 9:45AM. It reminded me of Egypt with its
alfalfa and irrigating canals. Mud flats and quick sand getting into Fallon,
lost lights. Off the road you were a goner! You had to crawl and stay in ruts,
no passing for miles. Reached the Brighthuas at Lake Tahoe at 6:30PM. Left the
Brighthuas at 11AM, lunched by road below Strawberry. Reached Placerville 4PM
and Sacramento 6:10. Tried for boat but no accommodations. Arrived 10PM in
Stockton. Left Stockton at 10AM, took the Creek Route boat to Oakland, 71 miles
from Stockton. Lincoln Highway signs we had followed all the way from Salt Lake
/city to the Oakland Ferry, Reached San Francisco by 1:20PM.Took 2:30 Sausalito
Ferry auto boat and reached San Rafael at 4:05. Total of 3, 365 miles from
Hotel Savoy, Buffalo, N.Y. to Maple Lawn, San Rafael, 21 actual running days
not including stay-overs in cities and the Park. A grand and most interesting
Trip! Am very glad to be home. Mother looks terribly ill although she and her
nurse came down to greet us. But, am very sad and fear the approaching claim of
those she loves in the great beyond!
Louisa's mother, Louise Arner Cook would die less than 2 months after this was written at the Adler Sanitarium in San Francisco.
Louisa's mother, Louise Arner Cook would die less than 2 months after this was written at the Adler Sanitarium in San Francisco.
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