Letter to her mother while on a trip driving through the west in 1915.

 
A ‘TYRED TALE’
By Dorothy N. Chalmers
Long Beach, California.
April 24, 1915.

Mother darling;
We ‘ve just got back from our two weeks camping in Imperial Valley and are leaving tonight to drive to San Francisco. We have given ourselves a week and we must be there next Wednesday, as the boat sails at noon for Seattle. We must have the car on board at ten o’ clock. When we got home yesterday we found the children all well and Minnie had the clothes washed and ironed, ready to pack. She is the best maid I’ve ever had — so dependable.
Packing was rather complicated. There were clothes to pack in suitcases for our week of camping. Then knowing the mess everything gets into on a motor trip, I packed a complete set of clothes for each person in a box and mailed them to San Mateo. We will get them there then put everything we have worn with our camping equipment and ship it home. Thus we will go into San Francisco as though we had just come from outside the city. I should hate to go into the city looking like tramps. Then of course there were all the clothes, etc., we are going to need for three days on the boat. They were packed in suitcases and the rest of the clothes, pictures and everything we have used all winter went in the trunks. Suitcases and trunks will be put on board the boat at San Pedro. The suitcases in our rooms. Bert has gone to take them to the dock now, and I am writing this last letter before we leave. I think it is such a good idea to send clean clothes to San Mateo. I have a lovely new white suit, shoes, and hat to wear in San Francisco, and the children have pretty smart things. Bert’s clothes too, must be fresh. They wouldn’t stand a trip such as ours will be. Everything will be dusty and mussed.
We have the camping things we used on our Imperial Valley trip. Bert’s brother Estyn, and his wife Merce, were with us then and we had a big tent with a curtain and a bed on each side. This time Minnie will have one side and the children will sleep in the car. Tammy sleeps on the back seat and Jean, because she’s shorter, has the front, while Estyn sleeps in safety on the floor. Then Bert made a big box and screwed it to the right running board. It is by the driver’s door but far enough forward so the door can open. The front is hinged at the bottom and opens down into a table. It has shelves and drawers. Our food, dishes and pots go in it. We have a stove that is the handiest thing I have ever seen. It is a thin sheet of iron with hinged sides on which it stands. They fold flat when not in use. There is a triangular chimney which fits in one end, and it folds up too. It all slips into a canvas case so we don’t get soot all over everything. It needs very little wood and heats very quickly. Even in California we can always pick up enough wood to cook a meal! The tent and other things make a long roll that fastens to the left running board. Of course that means those doors won’t open but one generally gets out the other side anyhow, so it doesn’t matter. Bert made such a nice camp light. He got a car headlight and mounted it on a long pole with a wire and a connection that goes in one of the car’s headlights. We can stick a pole in the ground anywhere and have a grand light.
The children will have to have a hot meal at noon so most of the time Minnie will make Stew or soup and a pudding in the morning and put the former in the Thermos jar. It will go on cooking and be hot at noon. With hot porridge and milk in the morning and bread, milk and fruit at night the babes will be well fed. It won’t matter what the rest of us eat.
I should like to drive all the way to Seattle but Bert is not so sure of the car. Even a Chalmers 36 after three years is apt to need repairs and after our last trip she should be overhauled. We have driven so far this winter and never taken time to have anything done. Getting back from a two week trip one day and startingthe next for San Francisco doesn’t leave much time to do all the things one would like. Our tyres are rather worn but we think they last a little longer. It costs us forty dollars for one tyre and there aren’t many places where they can be bought. If we had a Ford we could buy tyres almost anywhere but these are rather large.
Bert and Estyn have a habit, two in fact that may lead to two divorces in the family. One is always driving with the top down. That is not so bad while we are driving, though rather blowy in the back seat, but when we stop and the two men go for a beer, the two poor women fry. I have trained Bert to always look for a shady spot to park but Estyn hasn’t time to bother. If you had sat in the California sun for an hour or so (they always find so much to talk about) you might understand why a divorce has a hopeful sound.
Then both men are sure their cars can never pull up a slope unless the motor has the relief of an open cutout. It is a queer thing for neither Bert nor Estyn are lovers of noise, as such, yet they will sit with a foot on the muffler cutout, making noise like thousands of giant firecrackers, and really purr. Mercy, being meek, says little but I say a great deal, and I expect to break Bert of the habit on this trip, once I get him away from the support Estyn gives him. Anyway I do hope and trust the Chalmers goes well to San Francisco. After we get her to Seattle we can have her cleaned and anything renewed that needs it. She is so comfortable and we were so proud of her when we got her. She is one of the first cars with electric lights. She has kerosene ones too, so if anything goes wrong there is still light. We drove from Los Angeles once with Estyn in his old car, and the Prestolite tank had leaked so there were no lights. There was a moon, and whenever a car came along we lit matches! Estyn and Mercy will drive with us to our first camp, in a lovely canyon near Los Angeles. They will eat dinner with us before they drive home to Santa Ana. We will go to bed at the camp. I will try to write you of each day’s trip when we are camped for the night, and the babes are in bed. Here are Estyn and Bert back from seeing our suitcases and trunks in the steamship company’s hands. They will see to putting them aboard and our suitcases in our staterooms, so we need not worry about them. Now to shut up our cottage, say goodbye to our kind landlord, and start on our trip!
Your loving and excited daughter.
Thursday night.
Such a nice camp as we have. You know Bert always makes fun of me because I won’t camp in sight of anyone, but I hate to be mixed up with strangers. We found this lovely place under big oak trees, with a nice creek running thru green grass. Bert made camp while Minnie and I bathed the infants in the stream and fed them. Now they are all in bed and I am writing by the light of the camp light Bert made. When we got to our camp last night it was dark which always makes things difficult. After cooking grand steaks, fried potatoes, etc., we found we had forgotten to bring knives, forks and spoons. It was a good thing Mercy and Estyn were with us and had their camp kit. We used their silver and they left a knife and four spoons so we could manage breakfast. I wonder what else we have left behind. We had a fine sleep last night. We might be been thousands of miles from anywhere instead of just outside Los Angeles. The only thing that made us remember we were near a city was the trucks rolling down the grade toward the city. They seemed to come several at a time and most of them were going into Los Angeles. I suppose they come back in the daytime. We ate, packed and were away from camp by 8:30 A.M. It was a wonderful day, wonderful road and, for a time, a wonderful car. We felt we must go the way to Washington. A broad paved road with street lights and a rose hedge for seventeen miles, most of the time thru walnut groves. There is always such a lovely effect of shade and sunshine though walnut trees and open space below. Then our magneto ceased to work. Bert got out and after poking about found a broken wire. Off again thru lovely green hills, yellow grain fields and oak trees. Up hills and downs we were able to take them all in high gear but always with our cutout open. Why do like to make such a noise and claim it helps the engine? At 12:30 we went through Newbury Park, just a grocery, post office and a garage. There must be people living near but there were very few houses in sight. Then we came to Conejo Grade. We seemed to have come up somehow without knowing it as the grade was all downhill. There was a beautiful view from the summit, acres and acres of absolutely flat ploughed fields and then hills. The road was very winding but paved and wee palm trees planted on both sides. Someday I suppose they will make shade but I don’t care for palms. One has to be just under them to find the shade. The pepper trees are so lovely here I wonder they don’t plant them instead.
There was a nice church in Camarillo but not much else. We lost our fine road there, and met such dust And such bumps. The Chalmers is so lightly sprung she nearly jumps off the road when she gets started, and we are all tossed up like popcorn. We passed a big Cadillac, very heavily loaded. She didn’t seem to like the bumps any better than we did. Everywhere farmers were planting beans. One wonders what they can do with them all. At Montavio we found a good road. Not paved but fairly smooth. We reached Ventura at 11:25 A.M., and the children were all asleep. Tammy has pillows on the floor in the back, Jean sleeps on a pillow on the seat with Minnie squeezed into one corner. I hold Estyn in my arms and he sleeps very well. We stopped in Ventura While Bert went to buy all the things we needed. It got hotter and, hotter, and one by one the children wakened. At 12:00 we were still waiting and cooked to a turn. There wasn’t so much to buy but it is a small town and Bert always has to find out all about a place, why it is there and what the people hope it will become. At I2:I5 we went on over a nice road, near the beach. We found a pretty place where a stream, called the Ventura river, came down to the ocean, so we stopped and cooked fish and potatoes and a funny little squash they call summer squash. It is about the size of a baseball and looks like our scalloped squash. At Rincon we left the ocean and climbed into the hills. We passed a ”Hudson 40” but, alas, she passed us on the hill. We passed her on the level, and she us again on the next grade. At Montecito she turned off. We had begun to feel well acquainted.
Santa Barbara at 3:40 and we stopped for gas. Nine gallons at $.2I, such a price: You know Santa Barbara so well I won’t try to tell you about it. Isn’t there a lovely view of the ocean? After Santa Barbara we turned inland on a fine road thru beautiful rolling country with lovely trees. There were very few cars. Our road went thru a creek and then detoured. Such a place. Just dust and holes and ruts. Even to get back on the highway wasn’t much help. It was a very poor dirt road. At five o’clock we were on the ocean near Naples, and still the road was fearful. Nothing on our Imperial Valley trip prepared us for the bumps, grades, fords and general roughness of this. We passed a”King 8” sealed in high gear. She was on a tryout from Los Angeles to San Francisco and back. Fancy making that trip in high gear. She was resting on a hill when we passed her but later she overtook us. After 37 miles of unbelievable roads we found a lovely one. There were wonderful grades and real hairpin turns that were banked so they were easy to take.
At 6:30 we made camp under these lovely oak trees. Everyone else being asleep I think I had better follow suit. After nightfall Bert, Minnie and I had baths in the very cold stream and feel grand after it.
Friday Night.
In camp, 3 miles from San Luis Obispo. Not quite such a nice camp as last night, but we have had a hard day and are glad to be settled. There is a stream but it is below the camp, still it does for bathing and cooking. We started yesterday in a howling gale, at 8:30. Bert does so hate wind and I am beginning to dislike it myself. After all my praise of the Chalmers, the engine ran like a bucking bronco. We lost Bert’s coverails yesterday. He puts them over his decent clothes when he does any work on the car and I suppose he left them on the running board after working on the magneto. We couldn’t even pull up a hill in second gear and we had such a hill to climb. Up to the summit of Gaviota Pass, 950 feet. Such a view from the top. Right below on the left lay a ranch with newly ploughed fields, as level as a table. Then on to hills and more hills, green, brown, and yellow with little round oak trees. On the right were mountains, or at least larger hills covered thick with oaks. Our Sunny California weather seemed to have a grudge against us or perhaps it was merely preparing us for Washington. At any rate it was cloudy and blowing and we seemed to be losing our enthusiasm or driving straight through. All we need is rain to settle us.
The children are as good as gold but they do complicate camping. One has to make so many stops for them, and do so much cooking and bathing. At 10:00 we reached Los Olivos, after much indecision on the part of the car. Bert decided to have the valves ground, but couldn’t find a place where they could do it, so we limped on. Had a good road just long enough to make us object to the deep sand, bumps and dust we met next. We saw a rattlesnake in the road, but someone had run over it before we got there. We had the joy of a paved road through Los Alamos. Passed oil wells and oil wells. All the children were asleep when we passed our first stretch of California poppies and lupine. Lovely patches of gold and blue, or would it be purple and gold for Washington. Everything reeked of oil, yet gas was $.25, we didn’t need it, thank you. Then at II o’clock a tyre burst with a loud bang. Out we got, Bert and I changed it in 25 minutes. We made Santa Maria at 11:45 and Bert took the car to have the valves ground, and we had a poor lunch at a cafe. Bert was having a good one in a saloon. Virtue seems to be its own and own rewards. Anyway the children were fed so we hadn’t a real meal to get at camp. The valve grinding didn’t seem to help much. Bert now says the car needs new rings. She has only one good cylinder. It was 3:15 when we got away.
We passed a village of three churches called Arroyo Grande, and in a few minutes were back on the ocean shore again. On our right were acres of sweet peas, poppies, and some yellow flowers I couldn’t see very well, all grown for seed by the big Eastern Seed Houses. There was a big steamer loading oil at the dock. Inland again and we found we had another flat tyre 25 minutes to change, and we were off on our last good tyres. It is nice for the children when we change tyres it gives them a chance to run about, so they at least, enjoy it. We reached San Luis Obispo at 5:20 and took our tyres to be mended. We are to get them in the morning. It is a good thing we have demountable rims and can carry 2 tyres ready to put on. We do have patches and cement but that takes so long. At the rate we are having punctures we may yet have to do some mending by the road. We stopped at a farm house and waited for the cows to be milked, to the children’s delight. We are camped near the road in a grove, but in sight of two men in a Reo. It is still blowing and looks like rain but we are all settled for the night and everyone but me sleeping soundly. Think I’ll join them.
Saturday.
Well here we are camped in the center of a place pronounced “Holon”, but spelled Jalon. Needless to say it is not much of a place or we should not be in the center of it. We are camped under a huge oak tree and there is grass all around but it is still too public for me. The children love it and I must say there are not many people about and we are really too tired to look farther. Such a day. It rained all last night but didn’t really get started till we started to break camp. We just folded our beds in the tent, put it in the bottom of the car and Minnie and the children sat on top of it. We decided to eat breakfast in San Luis Obispo. Then the car wouldn’t start. You know we have an air starter. There is a pump on the engine that fills a tank under the seat with air and when one
steps on a button the air comes from the tank to each cylinder in turn and pushes it down and that pulls the gas in and away it goes. Only sometimes it doesn’t. 0f course we have a crank but we don’t use it unless we have to. I have thought I’d like one of those new electric starters and now I’m sure of it. Still I suppose they don’t always work. Bert cranked till he was worn out, then borrowed a priming can from the man in the Reo. They also were trying to start, they have come from San Diego. We started to go at 8 o’clock and succeeded at 8:27, but we are not going to drive all the way home. We had a good breakfast at a cafe which helped our dampened spirits, not that the children’s needed it but ours were rather wet. Ten gallons of gas and $I.25 for fixing a tyre. Only one could be fixed so we had to go to another garage to get that done. At least to get it pumped up. We were sorry we hadn’t seen that garage first as it was much better, At II o’clock we were off. Still raining and all our bedding in the bottom of the car. It made a nice soft place for the children to roll on. Up Cuesta Pass, stiff grades but a good road. We climbed in low. We found we had left our chains in Estyn’s car. Hope we don’t need them too badly. It has stopped raining, so we felt more hopeful. Santa Margarita, and young almond orchards as far as one could see. They say it was a huge ranch and someone bought it, planted it and sold it in lots, mostly to Easterners. At noon we passed Atacasadero Civic Center, a fine house and public buildings and miles and miles of almond trees. A beautiful country.
Templeton at 12:15.
We took the wrong turning and had to come back. The highway is under construction so we had to make a big detour across the Salinas River. Near San Miguel we had to cross the river on a new plank bridge laid right on the water. There is a big concrete bridge under construction. Near Bradley we decided to eat as it was 2 o’clock It was blowing a gale so we backed up to get in the shelter of a building, and. bang went a front tyrei We changed it, ate and took the top down as it blowing so we could hardly hold the car on the road.
At 4:12, somewhere near Jalon, on a dirt road (most of which was in the air) the other front tyre went. We are getting used to loud explosions but begin to doubt ever reaching San Francisco. We had no extra so took the flat apart and patched it, put it on and pumped it up. The air ran out as fast as the engine could pump it in. No one passed, the sand blew, the sun was hot, no water, no shade. We took the tyre off and tried again with the last of the cement. We put it on and it seemed to hold. Along came two traveling salesmen who stopped to see what they could do to help. That is one nice thing about motoring - everyone is always willing to lend a helping hand. It is like yachting in that way. These men turned their car inside out to find us some patches and cement, in case our last effort wasn’t successful. They had come from Salinas by way of King City and warned us not, to go that way as the road is very bad with much mud. So here we are in the heart of Jalon, and very glad to get the tent up and our beds made. They didn’t get wet and the hot wind dried the tent, so we cooked a good supper and got the weans to bed. It is getting very cold now that the sun’ is down. Thank goodness the stars are out. It looks as though we should have good weather. It’s nice to start out in the morning all fresh from a good night’s sleep, but I could wish we did more going and less stopping. We are getting very good at changing tyres, and our rims seem to know just how to come off but San Francisco looks rather far away, and the boat is due there on Wednesday.
Sunday:
A wonderful camp by the Santa Clara River. A big open glade, trees all around and the river down a bank about 15 feet. It’s a grand place with plenty of place for the children to play. We have it all to ourselves too. The railroad is nearby anti the children have had a grand time watching the trains. Every time one goes past they all run to where they can see it and wave as long as a car is in sight. This has been an awful day. It was so cold last night that our wash cloths froze to the branches of the trees where we had hung them. It did warm up when the sun got up. We ate and were away by 9 o’clock. At 9:20 we stopped to blow up a soft tyre. At 9:30 we stopped to pick up our water pail and blow up another tyre, At 9:45 we again picked up the water pail but the tyres still seemed firm. At 11:00 we went through Greenfield, a post office, an empty store, two houses and a fifteen mile speed limit. The road, of course, being like a ploughed field. At 12:10 we reached Gonzales, a fair sized village with two garages. There we stopped to get our tyre fixed and eat lunch. Five gallons of gas at $.23 and the tyre and some oil cost us $I.5O. On the road again at 2:12. A paved road, and how we love them. At 2:30 we stopped to help a man who had an old 1909 E.M.F. He has had four blowouts and his hand pump didn’t pump very well. He had a wife and two children and had come from San Jose. Bert helped put on a patch and then pumped up his tyre. Are we glad of our engine pump. Salinas City Limits at 3:15. Autos slow to 15 miles. Half a mile
of the worst kind of road, and then paved streets. We reached the summit of San Juan Grade at 4 o’clock. What a wonderful road A I5% grade but a grand road and the most beautiful view below. There was a sign,” Autos go slow and sound horn. Speed Cop.” He was there too, in a little grove by the side of the road, watching for speeders. We weren’t what he was watching for. We wouldn’t have been even if the sign hadn’t been there for we enjoy the drive too much to want to hurry, and Bert always wants to see all there is to see. We stopped in San Juan to see the old Mission. It’s very interesting. Not so much ruined as San Juan Capistrano, nor so much restored as Santa Barbara. There Bert found a tramp to talk to. He had a wagon, a buggy, two horses, two children and a wife and was on his way to Del Monte. Bert didn’t find out much more as we only, stopped an hour and part of the time he did look at the Missions. We left there at 5 o’clock and stopped to get strawberries
from some people who were picking them in a huge field. They were lovely berries and we got six boxes for $.35. Then we got bread. And milk from a farm house and found this camping place. We are about 83 miles from San Francisco, and have two days to get there but though the engine seems to keep going our tyres are about done. We wish we had brought money with us to buy new ones, though we haven’t seen many places where we could have bought them. After we had been in our camp a short time, a tramp came in on the far side of the grove. He put down the roll he had on his back and took out an old tin can. He made a tiny fire then climbed down the bank, filled his can with water and put it on the fire. Bert said “I believe that is all he has for his dinner. Do you mind, If I ask him to share ours?” Of course I did mind but what could I do? Even our strawberries wouldn’t have tasted very good with a hungry man in sight. So Bert went to talk to him and found all about him, and, I suppose told him a good deal about us. He, Bert, has the most amazing way of making friends with everyone he meets. It wouldn’t matter if it were the King of England or a beggar, Bert would have the same interest in what they were doing and why they were dolng”it. This tramp was a decent soul and very glad of a good meal. Bacon and eggs, potatoes, asparagus and strawberries.Not so bad for a road side meal, was it? The tramp was walking to Redwood City. He works where ever there are crops to be planted or harvested. Not such a bad life if he does sometimes dine on hot water. Bacon and eggs and strawberries turn up occasionally. He left soon after his meal. We, after baths in the river, are ready for sleep, and barring a few trains, it is quiet and peaceful. Bert is going to do what he can to the engine in the morning. He feels the valves do not seat, also the tyre that cost us $I.35 to repair was flat when we got here.
Monday:
We camped in a hay field of all places. The owner gave us permission. We did 52 miles today. It is a good thing we aren’t in a hurry. Still the boat does leave San Francisco Wednesday and we do have to get the car on board. We slept latish this morning, and after breakfast I helped Bert patch the tyre and my hot water bottle. I thought there was just a chance someone might be seasick it we ever get on the boat. Then Bert did the best he could with the valves while Minnie and I paced, she having cleaned up the camp while I was helping patch. It was 11:30 before we left camp. At I:3O we stopped in a village called Gilroy, for bread, butter and other food for lunch. The car was parked by the curb while Bert shopped. Of course the top is down again and of course the sun shone while we sat and stewed. The children began to fret, and Estyn climbed up on the side and tell out on his head on the sidewalk. Such a bump. The owner of a little grocery store nearby, saw him and was sure he was killed. He didn’t make much fuss, but the less fuss the greater the damage as a rule. The grocer put a kettle of water on a stove in the back of his store and we put hot cloths on the bump. It took some of the pain out but Estyn does look like a young unicorn. We drove to San Martin and stopped under two huge oaks for lunch, then went on hoping to reach San Mateo and our clean clothes.
How we were looking forward to bathing, dressing and then San Francisco, but our generator was doing queer things. It doesn’t generate and there is a plate under the dash that buzzes and I have to hold it up or it gets hot. How very queer. We stopped while Bert tried to do something to it but it didn’t seem to be anything that helped. He found that Estyn had lost the tool we unscrew the tyre bolts with. It was his good fortune to be asleep then, or even the bump might not have saved him. At 3:35, at Coyote, Bert took the brushes out of the generator. We hope the battery will carry the lights and starter till we get home.
At 4:15 we reached San Jose and just in front of a garage. Bang, our left rear tyre went all to bits. The garage men put on our spare and Bert bought an inner tube for $5.35 and a shoe for $.24. We got away at 6 o’1ock still hoping for San Mateo, but at 6:15 another bang. Our nerves are a bit shaken by the explosions I expect, and every time we feel a bump Bert says”Minnie, is that right back tyre gone?” At the next he has me look at the left one, etc. Minnie and I are getting to be experts at leaning over the side to see the rear tyres. With every loud noise we automatically look to see which tyre is flat this time. This time we didn’t need to crane. We got wearily out and looked to see what was left. At first we thought of taking off the remains and running on the rim to the nearest garage. After thinking of the garages we had met and our dwindling funds, we took off the tyre, put in the new tube and shoe and went on hoping for the best, but looking often. It was then seven o’clock and after an hour had found no nice place to stop. Finally we asked a farmer and he said we might use his field. The hay had been cut and raked.
We made camp near a little road so we could build our fire on it without danger. It didn’t take us long to get dinner, and all the rest are fast asleep on piles of hay. This is our last camp and somehow we are not sorry. We will all be glad to see San Francisco. The children have been perfect and enjoyed everything, especially changing tyres.
Wednesday:
San Francisco at last, and we are about to embarks Bert has gone to get the car on board and send off all our camping clothes, etc. Think of a day without changing a tyre. Not that we didn’t look for it. Every time the car wriggled someone looked to see if a tyre was flat. Thank heavens none were. We reached Palo Alto at 11:00, and I begged for a view of Leland Stanford University so Bert drove through. At 11:40 we reached San Mateo and our boxes. While we were waiting for Bert to get them, a woman and her daughter came to talk roads. They came from Spokane, and had been through Idaho, Nevada and Arizona. In the desert they had to put in oil. As everything was full of sand they had to strain the oil through the daughter’s silk stockings. There is a plank road across the sand dunes and sometimes it blows away. Such fun. We ate our last meal on the road near Burlingame, at 1 o’ clock. It was too thickly settled to find a nice place, but we drove up a road by some violet fields. There seems to be a colony of Italians there. A woman came out with a baby on her hip. Said baby called Lilly. I took their pictures with the last of my films. The woman was very pleased and tried to talk. As we don’t speak Italian nor she English, we didn’t get on so very well. Still we did make out that she had come there from Italy 3 years ago. She has six children and was wild over Jean’s blond curls. Bert tried to buy some wood, but she wouldn’t take the money. We got an armful of wood and some Italian bread. Going into San Francisco on Mission Street we ran out of gas. We had been so busy looking for flat tyres we had forgotten to think of gas, however there was a gas station very near where Bert got two gallons at $.18, and we were soon in a very nice hotel on Market Street. Baths for everyone and fresh clothes. At least some fresh clothes We found the blouse to Tammy’s frock had been packed somewhere else, and there were no stockings for me. However, it was cool enough for Tammy to wear a coat, and my suit skirt comes well below my boot tops so I could go to a shop this morning and buy stockings. We shall find our clothes in our staterooms on the boat. Darlings Woe is us Bert has just come back. He saw the purser, and could anything be worse? Our suitcases were left San Pedro

Your loving but distracted daughter,