With every mile of the route from New York to the eastern line of California accurately compiled, and with notations of the general conditions, including road, temperature, altitude, location of the best hotels, garages, and supply stations, A. L. Westgard, Chairman of the Committee on Tours of the Touring Club of America, will arrive early this week in Los Angeles, the terminus of the 4,000-mile transcontinental tour, which left New York on Oct. 11 under the official start by Gov. Horace White.
During the 4,000-mile journey the Touring Club’s representative has been received by the Governors of every State through which he has passed. Besides this, he has met scores of Highway Commissioners and road engineers and has thereby obtained valuable material for his report on transcontinental touring and highway conditions for the Office of Public Roads in the Department of Agriculture. The United States Government was quick to see the importance of having the data of this trip at their disposal, and Mr. Westgard was appointed a special agent by Logan Waller Page, Director of the United States Office of Public Roads, who highly commended the enterprise of the Touring Club of America in laying out a feasible transcontinental tour.
Mr. Westgard writes that enthusiasm for good roads was particularly noticeable in the Far West. At Omaha, Neb., the Mayor and many city officials showed their interest in the Touring Club’s efforts to establish a satisfactory route that will appeal to zealous motor tourists by pledging themselves to establish the Touring Club of America’s route from Omaha to the Nebraska and Kansas lines as a State road. This will join the famous River to River Road from Omaha to Davenport, crossing the State of Iowa, leaving only short strips in Illinois and Kansas as gaps in a complete trunk line from Chicago to Kansas City. As a study in road conditions, the results of this transcontinental trip will be particularly valuable. Motorists who have been contemplating something new in touring will find a trip to some of the little traveled but most attractive sections of the great Southwest replete with strange sights and picturesque grandeur.