Courtesy of Denver Tourist Bureau 
The noon-time meal at one of the many auto-camping grounds in Colorado 
In any strange mud, however, the tour¬ 
ist must assume that chains are neces- 
; sary. Where dirt roads are noted ahead 
in the logs, it is best to put the chains 
on when reaching the poor road, or on 
starting out in the morning, or when it 
begins to rain. 
i! Concrete, asphalt, gravel, shell, sandy, 
rocky and all types of stone roads can 
be traveled without chains in wet 
weather. But “improved” roads are by 
no means safe unless they are stone 
; surfaced. Thus the “levee” roads, filled 
in across Arkansas, the graded roads in 
' Tennessee, the dragged (“drug”) abom¬ 
inations of Kansas, and all roads which 
are clay, loam or “soil” must be entered 
: upon with chains when wet. 
! During 1922 enormous efforts to im¬ 
prove highways were apparent through- 
1 out the country. The painted blaze 
trails are being filled in with wonderful 
! stretches of highest type highways. 
Main thoroughfares everywhere are un- 
, der construction—with consequent tem- 
; porary detours, or “travel at your own 
| risk” conditions. 
In the greater states, the highway 
j contractors as a matter of law or habit 
! put up signs along the detours. Detours 
! arc selected with some regard for the 
local and “foreign” traffic. But, as in 
I'- some parts of Arkansas, Tennessee and 
{ some other states, contractors or public 
authorities pay little or no attention to 
the strangers’ needs, while local auto- 
| mobile clubs and blatant boosters let 
things go. Thus a traveler runs into a 
“Road Closed” sign, and an arrow 
i pointing to right or left along some 
muddy lane. A contractor building a 
! stretch of highway, for example, involv- 
! ing tens of thousands of dollars expendi- 
[ ture to coax in tourist and emigrant 
traffic, did not even bother to put up a 
board on two boxes where a concrete 
culvert was under construction, with 
the result that a native son tore up a 
$2,500 automobile in that grade. We 
spent two hours and $4.50 being hauled 
out of this same culvert, after it had 
been covered over from the adjacent 
ditch muck. 
Owing to the thieving propensities 
along some of the new highway con¬ 
struction, contractors could not put up 
lanterns warning of danger. The tour¬ 
ist, of course, must have his headlights 
in best condition and should have his 
spotlight in good order, even though he 
does not intend to travel at night over 
rough or strange highways. Fast driv¬ 
ing at night over any kind of highway 
one doesn’t know is criminal folly. 
DO not know how many hundred 
* automobile wrecks we have seen beside 
the highways; cars so badly smashed up 
it wasn’t worth while hauling them in. 
Many times more cars had been wrecked 
along our route but had been salvaged 
and we did not see them unless the acci¬ 
dent had occurred within an hour or 
two of our passing. But eyes familiar¬ 
ized with the marks of trouble often 
noted where cars had been stalled, 
ditched and dragged out, wheels broken, 
spring leaves snaped out, tires repaired, 
etc. And all such sights to the prac¬ 
ticed tourist are warning signs, as im¬ 
portant as the huge painted danger sig¬ 
nals which, as in New York, spread a 
blatant “STOP” where only fool drivers 
need them, or where railroads camou¬ 
flage their varied “Stop, Look, Listen” 
weatherworn crossing signs with dia¬ 
monds, bars, X’s, etc. 
In narrow two-rut highways, every 
hill one goes over, every turn one makes 
around a shoulder of land, every high¬ 
way intersection, every farm house or 
field gateway means possible trouble 
from collision. So many accidents hap¬ 
pened at schools in every State that I 
believe every State now specifically 
marks with warnings the school-house 
sites. The tourist must observe these 
places of possible trouble, for neither 
local authorities nor his own conscience 
excuse an accident that could have been 
avoided by not taking a chance. 
Eastern cattle are the stupidest ani¬ 
mals in the country. I do not believe I 
ever saw a New York or New England 
cow that wasn’t a potential trouble 
maker. A cow beside the road may 
mean a crash anywhere in the northeast¬ 
ern states. But cattle in the Tennessee, 
Arkansas and Texas country, and in 
western states generally, clear the way 
before a traveler, but of course where 
one must drive through a herd of a 
thousand head in a three-rod-wide high¬ 
way lane, he must observe the amenities. 
He should stop, for example, if any of 
the crowded animals show sign of panic, 
or if any of the cowboys signal for him 
to halt. 
A mule, too, may take a passing 
thrust with his heels, and a team of 
horses may be inexperienced and run 
away should the automobile happen to 
make a noise strange to them, or even 
make its customary motions. A tourist 
must always bear in mind the necessity 
of looking out for the other fellow, 
whether a child, a man on horseback, 
or even chickens in the highway. A 
dog is probably one of the easiest ani¬ 
mals to kill there is. No matter how 
exasperating a yapping dog is, it isn’t 
worth while to endanger a fellow tour¬ 
ist coming after by making him suffer 
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