Tours and Touring Equipment

Some Practical Hints on Where to Go in Your Motor Car and What to Take

VANITY FAIR'S OBSERVER

THERE is no doubt the war is over as far as the motor tourist is concerned. From early indications it appears certain that this will be the greatest touring season in our history. It may be an expression of motoring freedom on the part of motorists now that the war time restrictions are at an end, but it is far more likely that the increased number of automobile parties now touring in various parts of the country is due primarily to the fact that more motorists than ever have come to realize the benefits of this delightful form of vacationing. It is stated that fifteen cars a day are leaving New York City on the trip across the continent. It appears that, in the minds of a great many motorists, New York and San Francisco have become next door neighbors.

It is utterly impossible within the bounds of an article such as this to more than touch on the subject of motor touring. Granting that you have your favorite car, the question of touring resolves itself into two sections: one, where to go; two, what to take. With the Federal Government and the states cooperating in the spending of many millions of dollars for highway improvement, the problem of where to go is dependent entirely upon your taste in the matter of scenery, upon the location of the city in which you live and the amount of time you have to spend in this way.

Nobody but yourself can tell you what equipment to take on your trip. And, to our way of thinking, there is only one way to find out. That is, actually to take a trip. Of the thousands of motor parties touring our highways no two are equipped alike. So much depends on the personal ideas of what constitutes necessary comfort, on whether you are going to camp by the roadside or stop at hotels, or a combination of the two systems, and on ever so manyother things, that words of advice on this subject are almost futile.

A practice followed by many people with great success is to lay out no particular plan of route beforehand. These people simply jump into the car and speed away into the country, stop when they feel like it, or find a good place to stop, and go on when the spirit moves them. For those who wish to have a pre-arranged idea of where they are going, routes, advance descriptions of scenery and hotel accommodations along the way, there are any number of sources of information. A letter addressed to the Automobile Blue Book, 910 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, to Motor Life Magazine, 243 West 39th Street, New York, or to the American Automobile Association, either 501 Fifth Avenue, New York City, or Riggs Building, Washington, will bring complete information on routes and road conditions in any part of the country, in addition to advice on touring equipment, mileage and cost of the trip. This service costs nothing, and no motorist who wishes to plan his trip in advance should start out without securing the advice of these excellent touring bureaus.

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In attempting to suggest eight or nine tours in various parts of the country, I have sought the most expert advice obtainable, and I am assured that the roads over which the following routes go are all in good condition, so that the motorist will experience little trouble in negotiating them. You can do any of these trips in ten days, if you have to.

New England is lovely in summer, and is well prepared to give the motor tourist a hospitality which he will find in no other part of the country. A delightful motor journey through this land of our forefathers leads from New York to New Haven, New London and Newport. Fall River is the next stop, then comes New Bedford, after which a course is set for Cape Cod. You traverse this peculiar neck of land on the southern side up to Provincetown, and return over the same road as far as Orleans, where you branch off and follow the north shore of the Cape up to Plymouth, where Thanksgiving Day originated. At Kingston, a little beyond Plymouth, you leave the shore and go over the inland trail to Boston, thence by way of Salem, where they burned witches in the olden days, up to the formerly famous fishing village of Gloucester. Then, following a route a little way back of the shore line you arrive at Portsmouth. Crossing the state line here into New Hampshire you skirt a number of beautiful and famous lakes up to Franconia, through the foothills of the White Mountains. This is the most northerly point on your trip through New England. You begin to go south again at Franconia, and proceed by way of Gloucester, White River Junction, Claremont, Bellows Falls and Brattleboro. Presently you are in Greenfield, Mass., where you branch off to Williamstown, and go south again to Pittsfield, Stockbridge, Great Barrington and Salisbury, Connecticut, where you take a turn to the right and cross the line into New York at Millerton. Amenia, Dover Plains, Dover, Pawling, Carmel, Lake Mahopac, Croton Lake, and Briarcliff Manor are passed in succession. You strike the Hudson River at Scarborough, and follow the old Albany Post Road back to your starting point. The distance is approximately 1,056 miles.

One of the most delightful tours in the whole country starts at New .York and runs down to the Cumberland and Allegheny Mountains. After you leave Manhattan you proceed to Philadelphia, passing through Newark, Elizabeth, Metuchen, New Brunswick, Hightstown, Trenton and Bryn Mawr. From the Quaker City your route lies through Chadds Ford, then Oxford, Pa., then crossing the line into Maryland, to Belle Air to Baltimore. The next stop is Washington.

Proceed south to Richmond, the best route lying through Alexandria, Occoquan, where the suffragettes who picketed the White House were imprisoned, Garrisonville, Fredericksburg, and Spottsylvania, of Civil War fame, Childsburg and Ashland. Leaving Richmond behind, you arrive successively at Petersburg, Dinwoodie, Mechlenburg, Boydton, and Clarkesville, where you cross the line into North Carolina, starting at Oxford, and bearing southwest to Durham. Here your route takes a sharp turn to the westward, and you arrive at Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Statesville, Hickory, Morgantown and Asheville, which is the most southern point you touch on this particular trip. You are now in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and you go northwest to Newport, Tennessee. You head northeast from here, arriving at Bristol by way of Limestone, Johnson City and Bluff City. At Bristol you will find a direct road to Roanoke, Virginia, where you proceed by way of Buchanan and Natural Bridge to Staunton. Passing through Mount Crawford, Newmark, Woodstock, Middletown, Winchester, Bunker Hill, Martinsburg, Hagerstown and Waynesboro, you will arrive at the most historic spot in the United States, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where you will surely want to stop long enough to explore the famous battlefield and to visit the little museum in the town itself. An almost perfect state road carries you from here to York, Lancaster, and directly into Philadelphia, where you will probably want to go over your original route back to New York.

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The distance covered in this trip is approximately 1,650 miles and it is our most earnest advice not to try to do it within ten days, because if you race through this beautiful section of the country you will miss many sights and experiences which are distinctly worth while.

There are quite a number of delightful tours in the Middle West. It is well, however, to look carefully before you leap, because not all of the Middle Western roads are in good condition. The trip from Chicago up the eastern shore of Lake Michigan to Mackinaw is extremely pleasant, and when you get to Traverse City, you can drop down to Cadillac, Big Rapids, Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo through country which is rich in scenic interest. In Kalamazoo you have a choice of a number of objectives, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Columbus, Toledo and Detroit, or you can start at Detroit and strike north and east through a most picturesque country to Saginaw and Bay City, and from there proceed north to Mackinaw City, go down Lake Michigan's shore to St. Joseph, in the middle of Michigan's world-renowned fruit belt, continuing on to Chicago, if you elect. This journey of 800 miles can be made with comparative ease, and is worth trying.

If you are in the neighborhood of Chicago, there is one very beautiful trip which should not be overlooked. This is along the western shore of Lake Michigan, through Milwaukee, Manitowoc, up to Ephraim, over to Menominee, then north to Marquette and across to Humbold. Proceeding south from here you will come to Channing, where you strike west for Watersmeet, where you will drop south into the interesting section known as the "Eight Thousand Lakes." Your route back to Chicago lies through Steven's Point, Berlin, Waupun, Lake Geneva, and McHenry.

A little further west there is a particularly interesting tour. It starts at Kansas, City or Des Moines and goes up through Minneapolis to the region of Minnesota styled the "Ten Thousand Lakes." Your return route lies through Alexandria, Redwood Falls, then to Spencer, Iowa, Fort Dodge and Boone.

A little later in the season you may wish to try something unusual. This opportunity will present itself if you determine to visit Texas. Some of the Texas roads are not worthy of the name, but there is a long tour along the Gulf Coast which is easily done and includes a number of cities which you will find worth a visit.

California is the natural home of automobile tours. Its hundreds of miles of beautiful highways issue a call to the motorist which cannot be denied.

If your interest takes you further north into Oregon and Washington you will have presented to you a chance to tour through some of the most rugged scenery in the world. These states are rapidly extending their remarkable systems of concrete highways, and under almost ideal conditions you can visit Seattle, Olympia, Portland, Walla Walla, Spokane, and any number of other interesting spots.

An increasing number of motorists are finding it much to their mental and physical advantage to motor through the long trails of British Columbia.

During the war the motor tourist was forced to confine his touring activities to the United States, because other countries were closed to him. The result of this was that a great number of people realized for the first time that right here in America there is some of the finest scenery in the world. This discovery is expressing itself in the vastly increased number of people exploring in their motor cars the many interesting and beautiful spots which have for so long been unknown to the vast majority of our people.

Your tour will be successful only insofar as you prepare for it properly. If you or some one in your party does not know your car thoroughly you are bound to meet with mechanical difficulties all along the line, and there is nothing that will give you a disgust for all motor touring more quickly than to have to stop every few miles to tinker with the mechanism. You must know how to treat your car and not ask it to accomplish impossible things. In the thickly populated centers it is only a few miles between repair stations, but when you get out into the West a breakdown between towns sometimes becomes a serious matter. You can avoid these only by studying out beforehand the mechanical exigencies which may arise and try to avoid them before they happen. This can only be done by actual knowledge of your car's requirements.

The matter of motor clothes is an important one, and depends entirely upon what part of the country you are going to visit and the season of the year. The tendency on the part of most tourists is to load their cars down with an impossible quantity of clothing and supplies so that the car looks like a modem example of the old prairie schooner. This can be avoided by a process of eliminating the things which you know will not be absolutely necessary to your comfort and convenience en route.