Page:Motoring Magazine and Motor Life October 1913.djvu/11

, 1913 with the care-takers, he had best provide himself with adequate luncheon.

We allowed ourselves just time enough to make the round trip of the Geysers with which the canyon abounds. The trip is a frightfully hot one, and the climb a bit onerous, despite the stout alpine staffs which the loquacious guide makes it his duty to provide. Yet, withal, the sight of a hill boiling away in steam and sulphur is sufficiently out of the ordinary to repay one for the time and effort spent seeing it.

At exactly 3:45 we left the Geysers, heading for Cloverdale. The route this way is easily the most beautiful, and is all down grade. For 15 miles we wound and twisted through picturesque mountains, primeval forests and rocky, precipitous canyons, ever downward to the creek bottom where Cloverdale has its limited being. But the going is most painfully slow and tedious. Danger lurks at every turn or curve, and the bridges that span yawning chasms are but frail things at best. One in particular lurched and gave to the weight of the car in the most alarming fashion. Owing to the curving approach, the car must necessarily strike it with a side swing, to which condition one may attribute its shaky state. But the automobile stage crosses it each day successfully, so we could not bring ourselves to worry much. We were two tiresome hours making the descent. Gasoline was taken on at Cloverdale, whereupon we sped southward for Healdsburg.

Nocturnal touring is ever pleasant, but the writer would like to have some one explain to him whence come those icy blasts of air that penetrate the warmest habiliment, and which are to be met with in almost every depression in that part of the country. The sea breeze is a heat-soaked trade wind compared with them.

Just outside of Healdsburg we slowed up for the notorious "Death Curve," and found an overturned car in the ditch. A crowd was gathered, and the conversation was hushed and the general atmosphere solemn. A pool of blood told a grim story. One man killed and another injured was the result of attempting to take that right angle turn at high speed. Drivers of automobiles are a long time learning caution. Accounts of so many accidents cause us to wonder, however, if they are actually learning.

Barring the incident of losing the road, due to careless contractors, as already chronicled, nothing of an exciting nature happened between here and the Sausalito ferry, which was reached at 12:10 a. m. Once home in San Francisco, we were immensely proud of the trip and the miles covered, but we feel constrained to

advise that the trip, for the best to be had from it, be made in at least two days.

The party included A. Weiland, who designed the first S. G. V. car, and who is visiting the Coast for the first time; Mrs. A. Weiland; W. H. Carey, manager of the De Luxe Oil Company of San Francisco, and the writer. The car was equipped with the electric gear shift, and was really the introduction of the electric gear shift to mountain work. The result was a revelation. Being able to shift gears without removing the hand from the steering wheel is an important feature in mountain work, for the danger on curves and turns is thereby greatly reduced.

All things said, there remains nothing more delightful than a tour through the mountains. The gentle purr of the motor, comfortable and swift progress whither so ever one wills, the splendor of the passing view, are privileges not to be eschewed. We owe much to the motor car commercially, but in our heart of hearts alone, and there only, can we feel what it means to us as a means of pleasure. More cars and better roads, and we may enter the future holding hands with Happiness and Prosperity.

It wasn't a tour exactly, being wholly unpremeditated; and we paid little or no attention to the passing of time, direction of travel, or the names of towns through which we passed. The idea was simply to ride in the country at night, and during sunrise in the morning. No more interesting time could have been selected.