Alice Ramsey's Cross Country Drive

1999 Trip > Travel Log

The day before we kicked off our trip was spent visiting Willard Elementary School, where the three teachers who created our curriculum work. We had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with the three fourth grade classes who have been studying our trip, as well as many of the other students. The day began with a large assembly where we talked about Alice and had some of our sponsors talk about the most interesting aspects of our trip. For us, the highlight of the assembly was when the children sang a wonderful song about Alice. We spent the rest of the morning outside visiting with the students and answering questions as they looked at the Mercedes-Benz S500, the 1908 Maxwell and the demo models of the Shell SmartPump and the Michelin Zero Pressure tires. Tara, who stood by the Mercedes, saw firsthand just how many students could fit in the S500 at once. Sue had a blast watching the students test out all the seats of the Maxwell and play with the "aaah-ooga-horn." For lunch we enjoyed pizza and cake, and afterwards, we signed more autographs than ever before. We signed erasers, tee-shirts and even hands! The students presented us with Coast to Coast shirts with all their signatures, saying that they wanted to be sure we would remember them. We both knew that, t-shirts or not, we would never forget this day.

After nearly a year of preparation, it's hard to believe that we are actually on the road. We kicked off our trip at the Mercedes dealership designed by Frank Lloyd Wright on Park Ave. in Manhattan. It was so wonderful to have the Ramsey family, including Alice's son, John, who was two years old when she left in 1909 there to see us off. With a hundred or so people on the sidewalk, we climbed into the S500 and were on our way at 11:05 a.m. As soon as we were out of New York City, we were on secondary roads heading north toward Poughkeepsie, NY. The drive was beautiful, but we got a glimpse of what Alice must have felt like, when it took us about four hours to get to Albany, about two hours more than if we were on the interstate. So far, the most unusual thing that we've seen is a man sitting in the passenger seat of an Oldsmobile Cutlass with his leg (from the knee down!) hanging out the window while driving on I-87.

Although we've been on the road for two days now, we are just amazed at how busy things have been. For two people who are driving cross country, we are sure doing a lot more than just driving. Our day began with a 5:30 a.m. radio phone interview and, after breakfast, we headed out on the road. Much of our drive today has been on interstate, although we traveled on some secondary roads through Western New York and Ohio. One pretty stop was at the marina at Lake Erie just outside of Cleveland, Ohio. It was a nice place to take a break and stretch our legs. With the decals on the car, we are certainly getting a lot of attention from other drivers. There have been lots of people honking their horns and waving. Today alone, we have done five radio phone interviews from the cellular phone in the car. At our night stop at the Stagecoach Inn in Goshen, Indiana we will talk to several members of the local television and print media. By contrast, Alice's excitement for this part of the trip was getting a new horn that played "My Dog Has Fleas." It took Alice 9 days to get to Goshen, Indiana whereas we have spent just two days, with about 20 hours of driving time. During much of the time on the road in this stretch, Alice described the conditions as rainy and muddy--"feet deep"---she even said, "The car ceased to be a car and became a motorboat." We hear rain is coming, but should fair much better.

Our day got off to a great start at 7:00 a.m. Once we were west of Chicago, much of our drive was on secondary roads, including a portion on the Lincoln Highway. We stopped off at the Lincoln Highway headquarters, where we got a kick out of the sign with the mileage from there to several cities including New York and San Francisco. In between radio interviews, we stopped to take pictures of barns and farms. Lunch brought us to Morrison, Illinois, where we stopped to visit with Barb and Mike Winandy, who own the Hillendale B&B and are active in the Lincoln Highway Association. Our visit with them was short, but fun, and a bit of a break from driving. We arrived at the Belmont Hill B&B in Cedar Rapids, IA in the late afternoon. Ken & Shelley Sullens have converted the 1880 Carriage House on the property to guest quarters. Katie Sullen and her friend Amy offered to wash the Mercedes-Benz S500 and we were grateful to have it clean and sparkling since it attracts attention wherever we go. Chris Sullen was kind enough to e-mail some digital photos for us, but severe thunderstorms postponed using that bit of technology. The thunderstorms came up pretty quickly while we were downtown having dinner. Although the "take cover" sirens went off several times that evening, we weren't worried. The Belmont Hill was a solid brick building that even had brick interior walls and inside you could hardly hear the storm.

It's clear why this part of the country is often called the Bread Basket of America. Every available space is used to grow something. The pictures that Alice took during this portion of her journey show the corn taller than the Maxwell. Yet, because we are traveling so much faster than Alice, the corn is only as high as the top of our Michelins. Alice stopped for a night in Grand Island as well, but it was the 31st day of her trip, whereas with us it is just our fourth night. We stopped for lunch in Allen, Nebraska, a tiny town that was having its annual Animal Swap Meet this weekend. This was just like it sounded--a place where people come to buy and sell animals. We were surprised to see not just farm animals, such as goats, rabbits and ducks, but also a camel, emus, ostriches and a peacock. We had "taverns," what are known as Sloppy Joes in other parts of the country. It was a pleasant surprise to discover later that Alice stopped in Allen for lunch as well. Dennis and Diane Gebers at the Kirschke House B&B were kind enough to accommodate us at  the last minute, when we decided to drive past Columbus and on to Grand Island. We are staying in another Carriage House, although this one was built in 1902. The earth is much flatter now and it really looks like the great plains. We have enjoyed the grain silos and watching the Union Pacific ride the rails alongside the road.

Just as Alice's journey became easier in this stretch, ours did as well. It was relaxing driving on Rte. 30 for much of the day and avoiding the Interstate. Because both roads led through the towns that Alice went through we had our choice of routes. After looking through Alice's dairy and photos, we discovered that she had taken a picture on the bridge crossing the Platte River in Brady, Nebraska. We drove the Mercedes across several times to get a similar shot. We stopped for lunch in Ogallala, Nebraska, the town where Alice spent some time performing car repairs including cleaning the clutch. Sue enjoyed a Buffalo Burger while Tara had the famous Ogallala Steak Sandwich. In Pine Bluffs, Wyoming, we again paused to try to recreate a picture from Alice's collection. While the bluffs have stayed the same, the trees are far taller than when Alice traveled this route. he view from the top of the bluffs was beautiful and you could almost see clear to Cheyenne, Wyoming. We arrived in Cheyenne in the mid-afternoon and were able to take a quick walk around town. The folks at Wyoming Home knew of Alice and pointed out the Inter- Ocean Hotel, which was right next door. The building is closed and in severe disrepair, but it still gave us a thrill to stand on the same sidewalk that Alice walked down 90 years ago. She was on the 36th day of her journey and we are now more than halfway through our nine day adventure. Jim Osterfoss at the Nagle Warren Mansion is putting us up for the night. The home is beautiful and was built in 1888. We will enjoy high tea this evening with the other guests and talk to some members of the local press. We are told that genuine gunslingers will be joining us.

What a great day today! We traveled across picturesque Wyoming, known as “The Cowboy State” and “The Equality State” with ever-changing scenery that included wide open vistas of green rangeland, pastel-colored sandstone buttes, snow-capped mountains and red-rock canyonlands. Antelope grazed along the roadside in the backcountry and hawks and eagles sat on fence posts. One of our favorite moments of the day was coming across Roger and Donna Newkirk, owners of the Newkirk Ranch, who were herding cows together. Roger was in the lead driving slowly along the side of the road in his pickup truck while Donna was behind using a sit-down lawnmower and lots of yelling to drive the cows home. The best part was seeing their herd dog who sat on the back seat of the lawnmower clearly enjoying the ride. We were very excited to find the exact spot that Alice photographed in Medicine Bow at a railroad crossing and to find the Hotel Opal where Alice and her companions stayed in the town of Opal that today boasts a population of 62 residents. We read in Alice’s diary that while she stayed there she woke up in the night itching and discovered that there were bed bugs. She then slept on the hotel office’s table. This made us very happy that we had chosen to stay in the Inn on Capital Hill in Salt Lake City, Utah for the night. The rooms at the inn were exquisite and Marla Oredson, the proprietor, allowed us to choose our suites for the night from the rooms that were available. Tara chose Trapper, with artifacts from the era when trapping was a lucrative occupation in this region, and Sue chose Ute, the name of a local tribe of Native Americans from which Utah gets its name.

After spending the night at the elegant The Inn on Capitol Hill in Salt Lake City, we headed out for our most rural driving yet on the original Pony Express Trail. Jere Krakow of the National Parks Service, who had helped us map out the Pony Express route for the day stopped by for coffee. He presented us with our "passports" for the day--authentic Pony Express Trail patches. Just outside of the city we stopped at Saltair, right at the edge of the Great Salt Lake. This was where Alice and her friends went for a swim on her trip. We headed south to Faust to pick up the Pony Express Trail, a dirt and gravel road that follows the original Pony Express Route from the 1880s. This is the one area that remains very much unchanged from 90 years ago. The road was in good condition, so there were no concerns about our Mercedes S500 fairing well despite the conditions. We were able to maintain a good speed, even through a swarm of locusts which covered the front of our grille. The views were incredible ranging from wide open plains, views of the salt basin toward Dugway, green canyons and several mountain passes. Our first stop was at Simpson Springs, where there is a reconstructed Pony Express Station and several photo opportunities. We stopped to visit with Jay Banta and the folks at Fish Spring Wildlife Refuge round noon. Jay took us down a side road where we saw the remains of Mr. Thomas' house. We were able to stand on the same spot where Alice took a photo where she spent the night and had a breakfast of coffee, canned tomatoes and cold cereal. Jay took us into his home for lunch, which was much better than the roadside stop of cheese and crackers we had planned. A bit farther down the road, we stopped at Bagley Ranch where David and Reveau Bagley showed us the Willow Springs Pony Express station, which is the only existing Pony Express station on private property. Our drive today was the shortest yet in distance, but took about as much time as the other days.

The Steptoe Valley Inn owners Jane and Norman Lindley welcomed us warmly and served us cold beverages out on their back deck, when we arrived in Ely. After a few moments of relaxing, we drove to the Jailhouse Restaurant where we ate in a cell. After a delicious breakfast in the morning, we headed out on Rte. 50, the Loneliest Road In America. Just a short distance outside Ely, we began climbing into the mountains. We were able to maintain a good enough cellular connection to complete all of our radio interviews for the morning. We stopped briefly in Austin, Nevada where we grabbed a quick cup of coffee and checked out the local rock store. There was a wide selection of turquoise, which is mined in the area. We opted to get off Rte. 50 and take another secondary road to Fallon, Nevada. The Lindleys had indicated that this was closer to the route that Alice took 90 years ago. This road was even more lonely than the Loneliest Road in America. While traveling through Carroll Summit, we encountered an area where there had been a small rock slide and there were a few rocks on the road. We hit a good size one with our passenger rear tire and a few moments later, the tire pressure monitoring system began beeping at us. Sure enough, we had a flat, yet the car was handling so well on the curvy roads that we couldn't even tell. At this point, the winding road had no shoulder as well as a drop-off on one side. Not only was it extremely dangerous for us to stop, but had we had a full blowout with a standard tire, our risk for an accident would have been high. Fortunately, we found a rest area several miles down the road and, while we were able to change the tire ourselves, Mike and Bob, two surveyors working in the area, did offer us a helping hand. Our stop for the night is the Amber House B&B in Sacramento, California. It's hard to believe that this is the last night of our trip.

Fifty days short of Alice's arrival in San Francisco, we arrived for our finale at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge. Although this was a short day of driving for us, the day was jam-packed with activities. The staff at the Amber House B&B in Sacramento were very accommodating, delivering a light breakfast to our door at 5:30 a.m.--much earlier than their normal hours. The house was beautiful and located conveniently near downtown, which made everything very easy to get to. We started off the day on Good Morning Sacramento, a local news show, who interviewed us and filmed us driving the Mercedes S500. From there, we headed to the Shell SmartPump, the robotic gas pump where we refueled the car. Using the system was easy and the refueling process was quicker than if we did it ourselves---less than three minutes. Shell will put more SmartPumps in Indianapolis, Indiana in the fall. Our day of showcasing future technologies concluded at The Presidio in San Francisco, where we drove away into the future, departing in a DaimlerChrysler hybrid, the Dodge Intrepid ESX2, a diesel electric prototype. The ESX2 was very different from our Mercedes S500 and it was exciting to glimpse what type of car we might drive ten years from now, should we make this cross country trip again. All in all it was an amazing and wonderful journey and, despite the fact that we are both tired and anxious to get back to our daily lives, we are a bit sad to see it end. We've learned that although the country looks very different than it did 90 years ago, seeing it by car on secondary roads offers a glimpse of small-town America that often isn't seen in other methods of travel.

Happy Trails to all of you who followed our trip. May you too take the time to enjoy the United States from the driver's seat.