TRIPS ACROSS THE CONTINENT: 1929 AND 1978
In 1929, Jacob W. McKinney and his friend Elmer Caldwell, both about 21 years old, packed Jake's 1926 Model T Ford touring car in Delaware County in southeastern Pennsylvania and began a motor tour across the United States. Their destination: California.
Mr. McKinney, known as "Jake" by his family, was my wife's grandfather. A quiet and dignified man rarely seen even at informal family gatherings without a necktie and suit jacket, Jake spent most of his working years as a carpenter and cabinet maker, once launching a business that manufactured wooden gliders and hobby horses designed for children. One of his buyers in those years was Macy's department store. In another phase, Jake crafted precision wooden rotors made for one of the early manufacturers of helicopters. Today, book cases, a desk and some of Jake's other pieces that grace our home are reminders of this pleasant fellow and his stories.
In the years I knew him, Jake made many references to his western journey, talking of the dusty roads, numerous flat tires and other small adventures and misadventures that marked his trip. Unfortunately, I wasn't taking notes, so many of his memories have been lost.
Nearly a half century after Jake and Elmer made their way west, my wife
and I did the same thing, only our 1978 trip was a little different. Instead
of riding in a car, we made our two-month trip on 1973 BMW motorcycle. And
rather than head due west across the country's belly, as Jake had done, we
started in a northeasterly direction from the same starting point,
southeastern Pennsylvania.
Rather than follow lateral lines across the country's middle, Betty and I decided to ride across the northern tier on the westward portion and return on a southern route. Connecting the lines obviously required coastal runs south and north, so in effect we rode "around" the country, roughly following its periphery with a few notable inland forays.
Betty and I took pictures and kept a journal along our 12,000-mile tour, which I will try to translate into a cogent story of the crossing of a continent that was in many ways different in 1978 than it is today.
In doing so, I cannot forget Jake and Elmer, who saw a country in a much younger, more rustic phase, a land with more dirt roads than paved highways, where strip malls and interstate highways were unknown, and California wasn't a red-eye jet flight away, but rather a faraway destination of dreams. While Jake's route differs markedly from the one we followed on the motorcycle, we tried to keep one latter-20th Century amenity off our itinerary: the interstate highway. This gave us a few more red lights and made for a little more guessing as to whether we were on the right road, but that added to the adventure. Plus, it gave us the feel of the countless little burgs and villages we passed through while traversing 29 states, two Canadian provinces and touching down briefly in three Mexican cities.
The people you will meet in the following pages are all real, and although I've taken some liberty with their quotes, the dialogue is a true representation of what was said.
In an attempt to intertwine the story of Jake's trip into my own, I have sought the help of his daughter, Betty Ann Holman, who collected her own memories of her father's stories, along with post cards, notes and letters from the 1929 adventure that remain. Thus, I've had to build somewhat fictionalized accounts of their activities into the story of the 1929 trip. I have tried to stay as closely as possible to their route, based on written records and stories than have been told and retold my members of Jake's family.
In some places, we will take in the same vistas, meet at the same crossroads or cross the same bridges. Mostly, we will be just two sets of travelers, in different times, passing over roadways headed to something new and different and unknown. We will see. So, if you please, you may start your engines.
