READY TO GO . . .

July 27, 1926 (Tuesday), 5:10 p.m.
Gouge Eye [Riggins] on the Salmon River

Dear Girls,
Shall write my first to you while Irl and the boys mend a flat tire. We stopped to gaze at some wonderful bluffs and Irl discovered a flat and a nail hole.

To begin you must imagine our keen delight in being really off for the Yellowstone at 7:45 at June’s. The breeze was coldly keen and Vance soon put on a sweater and Bernice pulled up her collar. We noted that at least half of the fall grain was in the shock and/or being shocked. We saw a threshing machine this side of Russell and several combines farther out about Nezperce. The grain looks wonderful and we saw several pieces badly fallen. Just at the Catholic church Irl stopped because the engine began to sputter but only for a minute. Then we proceeded on to Nezperce. We put in 35 minutes there. Bernice got a dandy pair of tweed knickers in brown mixture ($3.00). Dad got two new shirts and a pair of regular pants ($2.00), but he had to take blue in shirts. We couldn’t get lettuce there so got bananas. I got this tablet there and 10-cents worth of gum.

The engine “bogged” to Craigmont, then Irl got it looked after and we were there nearly an hour. Bernice found one of the Tweedy girls there in the garage office. She is married, of course. Dad and Lynn went on to Cottonwood and waited there. We saw Charles Strick there and he told us Mrs. Hill is cooking in the hospital in Ferdinand and Abe is baching at home. Charles is running a combine and looked thin. Bernice had time to look up an old friend she hadn’t seen for 11 years and Irl tinkered with the car while Vance and Shirley got a hair cut, for I had forgotten about Irl’s outfit being in. We were all starving by that time and drove out this side for a way and stopped where some big locust trees hung out over the road. We set the box on a bank and proceeded to fill up. Everybody enjoyed the creamed cheese and voted the salad dressing fine. We got two big heads of lettuce in Cottonwood. We also ate the corned beef hash and thought it good, but oh! the flies were terrible. We were near a barnyard and some nice young “dominicks” came out to eat our crumbs. [“Dominique” is a breed of chicken – black and white speckled.]

We got to Grangeville in due time and left there at 2:00 p.m. We got paper towels there and some postcard views and Dad told us where the corner was where he and June ran sorghum. He says it looks to him like it [Grangeville] is twice as big as 20 years ago.

To be continued . . .

[The above photo is not clear but still gives a picture of their travel conditions better than words. The car to the left belongs to Lynn Dryden. Lynn drove, of course, and it seems that Jack was his passenger -- at least most of the time. The back appears packed with camping supplies. The car on the right was Irl's and he appears to carry passengers more than provisions. Note the running boards.]